25Seven

Seven Cycles Collaborative

During the past couple months, 25Seven has been fairly quiet, to say the least.  I have lots of reasons—as always.  Fortunately, the primary reason for this radio silence is a positive one; recently I’ve been focused on another blog.  That blog just went live a couple days ago—although I’ve been posting there since September.  The blog is called the Seven Cycles Collaborative. 

 

A few people have already been checking out the CoLab; we’ve received a lot of interest and enthusiasm about the Collaborative project, and some confusion about what we’re hoping to accomplish.

 

Outcome:  Product or Process?

 

As with so many projects on which I participate, the product is rarely the only important focus.  Often times, as is the case with the Seven Collaborative, the process is the point.  The product’s primary purpose is to bring focus to the process, and to get our employees excited about the process; tactile items are often more fun and engaging than process charts and boring conversations with me.  And as a great storyteller once said:   

 

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”  - Ursula LeGuin

 

True that.

 

The Collaborative’s focus on the process as our primary measure of success has been confusing for some.  Spectator confusion is probably caused by a cursory glance at the CoLab blog, or from reading just one or two journal entries.  Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to get a complete picture of the Collaborative’s mission by a brief perusal because the project is large—probably too large, moving fast, and we’re making a couple posts a day recently—weekdays at least.  Because of all this, I think it’s easy to lose sight of the overall project purpose.  I’m here to try and explain:

 

Bikes. Wow.

This evening on my way home from work I saw a young girl riding her bike in the rain.  She wore a red rain coat and red rain boots.  I'm sure she didn't care about those items; it was her bike, and maybe the rain, that was making her smile.  She was having a blast.  It reminded me of how awesome bikes are and how lucky I am to work in the bike industry.

I learned this lesson long after I got into bike manufacturing.  I first got into cycling because of my brother, and then I was quickly drawn to the competitive aspects of cycling:  racing.  I certainly didn't have the connection that the girl in red seemed to have.  Don't get me wrong; it's not like I disliked bikes.  I just loved other facets of cycling more:  designing, engineering, manufacturing processes, racing, and making stuff with my hands. 

The Opposite of Anthropomorphism

A few weeks ago we had a ‘consultant’ guest at Seven Cycles.  It turned out that he was an expert in a skill I really dislike.  Interestingly, it is a behavior for which I cannot find a properly descriptive word.  The behavior is best described as when someone speaks in a way that de-anthropomorphizes people.  Examples are words that dehumanize, like:  ‘headcount’, ‘man-hours’, and ‘worker’.

When I hear these types of expressions—from some consultants, for example—it really bothers me.  Understandably, most people don’t think about this type of language and how it subtly affects behavior and relationships.  Most people just don’t care. 

Headcount?

Seriously?  “Headcount”?  Is that really a word that anyone would want to use?  Are we really counting heads?  The rest of the person isn’t relevant?  In fact, I believe the expression was originally used to talk about cattle—as in, ‘a head of cattle’.  Well, if people are like cattle, then let’s definitely do a head count.

The Good Old Days?

Do you ever hear that term?  I used to hear it, a lot, back in the good ol—wait a minute.  Anyway, I used to hear people say that term where I work, and worked.  I don’t hear that expression much anymore.  In fact, can’t remember the last time I heard it used.

The reason I don’t use it is because I don’t dwell much on the past—that’s probably an understatement.  People that know me know that, not only don’t I dwell on the past, I am barely present in the present; my head, and at least one foot, are definitely in the future—for better or worse.

In fact, the only time I recall ever using the expression was in jest; we would simply use the acronym, “the G-O-D”. 

[That photo is me in the G-O-D, about 20-years ago.  Oh the stories I could tell…]

This all came up recently because Matt O’Keefe and I were approached by a writer interested in interviewing us about the Boston bike scene from 20+ years ago.  

Tenure at Seven

There’s an old joke that Matt O’Keefe once told me:

A visitor, getting a tour of a factory, asks, “How many people work here?"
The manager responds, “About half.”

That joke still makes me laugh today.  I’m not sure why I find it so funny since I don’t feel that way about Seven Cycles at all.  Pretty much everyone at Seven works their rear ends off.  This past week was no exception.  We had an important request from one of our distributors that required we increase production output by over 30% from our average production steady state this season.  The production team rallied—and even folks in the office helped cover some extra bases.  A 30% change in throughput in a 5-day period is really difficult—in most production settings it would be pretty near impossible; regardless, the team pulled together and we actually exceeded the goal!

Brownies & Bicycles

We give factory tours at Seven Cycles quite often--at least a couple times each week.  Some visitors are difficult to forget.  Recently, one such unforgettable group was a troup of Brownies.  When they first contacted us I thought, "That'll be interesting..."  Well, it was a lot more than interesting.

In the early afternoon on the day they were to arrive, while working with my head buried in my laptop, I heard a youthful ruckus in the office; about twenty-five 10ish-year old girls, and a few Brownie leaders, came trundling into our showroom.  While we give tours to families with children--it's not uncommon--this was the first time we have so many kids with so much enthusiastic energy.

We gave a pair of safety glasses to each Brownie...