In this episode, I talk with Mr. Supply Chain, Daniel Stanton. He was all over national news during the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. If you recognize the term "the bullwhip effect" and you aren't in supply chain management, it's because you saw him speak with Tucker Carlson, or someone like that.

I’ll admit, while I knew there was a Supply Chain Management connection – the methods Daniel uses for recruiting was something that I completely missed in my recruiting experience prior to this conversation. Why? Because when I started taking up a seat at the table, the company was small. But when you are dealing with multi-state work, there is a new dynamic. These are strategies that, while designed for a large company, can be executed at any level.

In this episode, I talk with Mr. Supply Chain, Daniel Stanton. He was all over national news during the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. If you recognize the term "the bullwhip effect" and you aren't in supply chain management, it's because you saw him speak with Tucker Carlson, or someone like that.

Daniel Stanton and I had lunch together almost every single day during my senior year. Those days were filled with conversations about string theory and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, late nights in his basement playing Arlo Guthrie on his guitar and he has a child that was born one day before my daughter. In this interview, I really felt our old friendship show up. 

Our lives took entirely different turns. I thought I would graduate high school and go into mechanical and aeronautical engineering. I didn’t. I took a series of customer service jobs and fell into Recruiting.

Daniel went into the Navy, then through a series of colleges, degrees, certificates, a master’s from MIT, and became a very public expert in Supply Chain Management where he wound up recreating much of the recruiting process for an international industrial equipment company.

I love that Daniel has varied experience, and in a company that might be perceived as having a certain culture, he pivoted and brought in people with more varied skills. I spoke a while back about the career pyramid that Gen Y is capitalizing on. I have to say, Daniel was early to this pyramid game, did it before it was recognized as a thing. The base of his pyramid is broad and he has been able to relate his experience to other areas of business.

The two of us have experienced plenty of hard knocks, we've invested in lots of education, and our beliefs and careers have largely done the same thing. His on much larger scale than mine. But, as you hear in this episode, we still share similar philosophies on most things, especially when it come to recruiting. 

In this episode, I talk with Mr. Supply Chain, Daniel Stanton. He was all over national news during the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. If you recognize the term "the bullwhip effect" and you aren't in supply chain management, it's because you saw him speak with Tucker Carlson, or someone like that.

In Part 2 of our interview, Daniel brought some really cool clarity to the recruiting process that was new to me. I’ve seen too many times that recruiting isn’t brought into strategic planning or given strategic planning goals. And until recently, HR Managers didn’t have a recruiting background, they often came up the ranks through employee relations or compensation. Very few of them concentrated on large scale recruiting for a long period of time.

Daniel illustrates how to us Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) methods for recruiting.  Executives can look at the company's hiring needs without having to have a recruiter at the table by having hiring managers all write down their goals and recruiting methods for each department. When you bring them together you can create a forecast and see where potential gaps to your hiring strategy might be

What Daniel brings to the table is intentional recruiting, it’s bridging the gap between executive goals and district management and middle management. It’s consciously breaking down silos, it’s causing strategic communication between divisions.

GenTog is an intergenerational day care that stands for Generations Together, with kids on one side, and grandparents on the other. They bring them together during the day to do crafts or music together. When the kids go outside to play, the grandparents sit at tables and drink coffee outside with them. It was reported to me that my daughter would hang out at the fence and wave and smile them.

This is my conversation with Joan San Nicolas. This conversation is incredibly personal. It’s also what I love about businesses that break the norm. Where GenTog breaks the rules, and they come out so naturally. I remember how pumped I was after this interview. I cried a little even. I’m not normally a cryer.

But this is the magic that Joan brings to the world.

GenTog is an intergenerational day care that stands for Generations Together, with kids on one side, and grandparents on the other. They bring them together during the day to do crafts or music together. In this interview, I speak with Joan San Nicolas, "Miss Joanie", the Childcare Director.

What does managing an intergenerational day care have to do with recruiting? Well, it's setting up expectations differently. It's normalizing relationships and activities from day one. It's not selling one brand of expectations when something else is actually happening.

It's so simple, and yet so many companies miss the mark here. They don't recruit, onboard and train with next year in mind. I get that sometimes we don't feel like we have that luxury. But businesses do. That's what strategy is about.

And what stood out to me was Joan's up-front nature about learning that line as she grew into a management role. She did that side by side with the people who were her co-workers. She states it almost casually. I love that. Really though, that's a hard lesson for many people to learn. And most people don't want to admit that learning curve.

If you listen carefully, she touches on some very simple concepts. And yet, those concepts are just about setting expectations and treating each other as a human being, respectful and with care. She’s not giving trendy advice. There are no buzz words. She’s just setting expectations clearly, communicating regularly, and pitching in as needed.

GenTog is an intergenerational day care that stands for Generations Together, with kids on one side, and grandparents on the other. They bring them together during the day to do crafts or music together. When the kids go outside to play, the grandparents sit at tables and drink coffee outside with them. It was reported to me that my daughter would hang out at the fence and wave and smile them.

This is part 2 of my conversation with Joan San Nicolas, who, along with her mentor and GenTog founder Murt, focus on doing the right things at GenTog. 

Listening to Joan makes management seem simple. I know it's not. There were so many little golden nuggets, and they are almost hidden. Just her natural way of being with staff and clients, most of it centered around knowing what makes each person unique.

This is really what management is about and what excellent management looks like. It's setting expectations, pulling together as a team, and knowing what the strategy is.

Hey all! Daava here. I am back for Season 2 of The Rebellious Recruiter

Remember when I talked about The Wallow? After Season 1, That's where I found myself, and I needed to do my own wallow. Let me tell you why.

1. I went through a divorce, if you've been through one, you know. You just know…
2. I'm an HR Director for a start-up company in a startup industry. which requires weird hours and travel. 
3. COVID. Ya'll… people like me weren't cut out for lack of hugs. 
4. Distance learning. 
5. Writers block. OMG! Given the nature of #1, #3, and #4… it's no wonder my brain has short circuited.
6. And finally, all the shoulds of what I should have done when I launched this podcast. If you want a really good explanation of shoulds, check out Kim Ludeman's Captivatingly Confident podcast.

I hope you pardon my wallow. I needed it. And now it's on to Season 2!

So what are you going to hear?

Two opposite ends of the spectrum. Joan San Nicolas who runs the childhood development side of an intergenerational daycare called GenTog. And then, Daniel Stanton. He was all over national news during the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. If you recognize the term "the bullwhip effect" and you aren't in supply chain management, it's because you saw him speak with Tucker Carlson, or someone like that.

Massive virtual HUGS!! Seriously, HUGS all around. I'll see you on the flip side.

As a recruiter, have you ever had the experience where every candidate falls short because someone on the team was so amazing, that everyone else is just dull and lifeless compared to them?

If you've been in management for awhile, you'll inherently get what I am talking about in this episode. We're talking about the person who is so natural at their job, they "wow" every single person they come in contact with.

Who are these people? Once a blue moon, a person is hired that radically defines what "right" looks like and their job performance is so surreal and proficient, they are basically a savant. One problem that arises for a recruiter or manager is the Contrast Effect. In this episode of The Rebellious Recruiter with Daava Mills, I define the Contrast Effect, and the best way to avoid it when managing 2 very rare and special types of employees in order to get the most from the whole team. 

Daava's Rebellious Recruiting Notes:

• The Contrast Effect looks not at how employees do their job, but how we see them.
• The Contrast Effect is most likely to occur when we perceive the target as average, when the target is unfamiliar, when the perceiver has enough cognitive resources, the context is homogeneous, and the context is negative.
• The "Battle-Axe" and the "Plug and Play" types of employees go to work everyday because their job is where they are self actualized.
• Don't go looking for these people in interviews, but learn to recognize them once they are on board.
• The "Battle-Axe" is the person you call on when you need something expertly done; they know they are good at their job, they know why things work, and they know their limits. 
• When you hire a Battle-Axe, use them to help you create SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and to give tips to your team on daily tasks and objectives.
• Never compare your staff to the Battle-Axe.
• The "Plug and Play" is driven by an insatiable curiosity, they are problem solvers, have an ability to dial in on departmental issues, and they are managers that are great at deploying their team’s talent in a way that is shockingly brilliant. 
• If you ever stumble into a Plug-&-Play, tell them the end goal and let them do their thing.
• Plug-&-Plays have rippling effects that positively affect your business for years.

Episode Links:

The Rebellious Recruiter

Contrast Effect

Episode 018: Unwritten Rules

C.L.A.M.S.

Alan Mulally: Leaders Must Serve, with Courage