Your Workshop MVP & Why That Matters - part 1

Anthony Perl: Andrew, I wanted to ask you I guess a leading question in that if you're a workshop owner and you have the first issue of trying to define the problem, but then you have the secondary issue of trying to find the solution.

Anthony Perl: So, so talk me through as an as a workshop owner, what is the first steps that they need to go through?

Andrew Uglow: This is effectively, effectively the very, very first question that we always ask when we do diagnosis is what's actually the problem.

Andrew Uglow: So many times customers come in and they complain about a problem on their car.

Andrew Uglow: And with respect, I don't generally care so much about what the customer says about their car.

Andrew Uglow: You know it won't start, it won't stop, it won't unlock, it won't this, it won't that.

Andrew Uglow: You know it should be blue.

Andrew Uglow: My radio doesn't work.

Andrew Uglow: But the list of possibilities is endless.

Andrew Uglow: I'm really interested in is the car actually doing that and is that really a fault?

Andrew Uglow: Is that really something wrong?

Andrew Uglow: Because sometimes customers and, and can I say given the complexity of technology on cars, it's it's arguable that you need a a training class to be able to work your own car when you get it, when it's new.

Andrew Uglow: And so sometimes customers complain about things that are perfectly normal simply because they don't have good information to to work with.

Andrew Uglow: And I would argue that we see a similar sort of thing with business owners.

Andrew Uglow: Business owners are usually very close to the problems in their workshop and that's a good thing.

Andrew Uglow: And at the same time, it can blinker their perspective on what's really going on.

Andrew Uglow: And so we go back to the first question, well, what's actually going on?

Andrew Uglow: We, we, we see the tip of the iceberg.

Andrew Uglow: But what is that really?

Andrew Uglow: What is that really and is is that a problem And so we start to go with the with the the skill shortage.

Andrew Uglow: What's the skill shortage.

Andrew Uglow: Well to to to quote Yoder again named must your problem be before solve it you can or as Charles Kettering who was the the head of GM research for over 30 years an absolute genius in the industry.

Andrew Uglow: He said a problem well stated is a problem half solved and so if you can state what your problem is explicitly, you're a long way towards solving the problem.

Andrew Uglow: Noise in car is is very vague in general.

Andrew Uglow: You know, loose, you know loose Suspension bolt for the at the left hand rear of the front suspension cradle, Well, that's much more easier to resolve because you actually know what you're dealing with now instead of a noise or whatever that is and and and a noise is simply a sound a customer doesn't like, right?

Andrew Uglow: So a noise could be something that's perfectly normal, it doesn't mean there's a fault.

Andrew Uglow: So going in and and and diving deeper into the skills shortage, you have to go and ask things like do you actually have enough qualified people in your workshop?

Andrew Uglow: Because if you don't that is not a skills shortage, that is a labour shortage.

Andrew Uglow: Do your technicians have the required skills and ability to consistently perform successfully right now?

Andrew Uglow: If the answer to that is no, then yes, you actually have a skills problem which is underlying that problem is a development problem not a training problem and we we'll talk about that in in in later episodes if you've got if your techs, you know don't take responsibility and don't really give a damn about their work, we call it professional attendance right.

Andrew Uglow: They rock up get paid and and that's really about as much as they contribute and and and maybe you have the odd person like that or had the odd person like that in your business.

Andrew Uglow: If they're consistently doing poor quality work then you've got an engagement issue that is very different to a skills issue.

Andrew Uglow: I can give you a dozen different examples of people who are truly gifted in their ability and just don't give a damn.

Andrew Uglow: And so the issue isn't they don't have the ability.

Andrew Uglow: The issue is actually engagement and and fixing that is completely different to training someone technically to give them the skills and knowledge that they need digging further and and this is where it starts to get a little bit uncomfortable.

Andrew Uglow: If you feel that you have to constantly watch your technicians and constantly double check and and and hover over them and make sure they're doing the the right thing and and check their diagnosis because you feel they're constantly getting it wrong or they are actually constantly getting it wrong.

Andrew Uglow: You're actually dealing with a management issue there you're not necessarily dealing with a skills issue.

Andrew Uglow: Now it could also be a skills issue but the issue underlying this is a management issue.

Andrew Uglow: And I often when we talk to workshop owners and workshop management and they go, yeah, but my my technicians are peanuts.

Andrew Uglow: You know they wouldn't know up if I drew it on their forehead.

Andrew Uglow: And you go, well, yeah, that's also a management issue because you haven't managed their development well and that's back on you.

Andrew Uglow: That's not necessarily back on them.

Andrew Uglow: Now sure they they hold a stake to that.

Andrew Uglow: You know you you can't make chicken salad from chicken feathers.

Andrew Uglow: I I get that.

Andrew Uglow: But at the same time your management like this is this is your responsibility to to solve this and we can dig deeper those people that do the, the MVP minimum viable product and they have an attitude of can I do this much work and still stay in, still stay employed, you know?

Andrew Uglow: Or what about if I did this much less work, can I still stay employed?

Andrew Uglow: Maybe you've come across those sorts of people.

Andrew Uglow: That's an attitude issue, we know this.

Andrew Uglow: But that attitude issue was actually driven by a a mindset and it's problematic because the correct development hasn't been done, not necessarily a training issue if you're having problems because you've got a whole bunch of young people and they don't have quote, UN quote enough experience, which is another complaint that we hear, well, experience.

Andrew Uglow: Yeah, absolutely, that's an issue.

Andrew Uglow: But again, I go back to behind that lack of experience is an issue with development.

Andrew Uglow: That's the underlying cause and we'll explain development perhaps a little bit later.

Andrew Uglow: If you're constantly training technicians and after a period of time they leave, well, that's a retention issue.

Andrew Uglow: You really want to be looking at why are they leaving.

Andrew Uglow: And and it's very easy to blame the technician.

Andrew Uglow: But let me give you an uncomfortable truth.

Andrew Uglow: People leave managers more than they leave jobs and we've got all the narrative and we'll talk about this in, in, in future episodes, you know, oh, that's all they want is money.

Andrew Uglow: Well, maybe How would you know?

Andrew Uglow: How would you test for that?

Andrew Uglow: And and so this is, This is why we're saying that until you can explicitly describe what's happening instead of just labeling it as a generic skill shortage, you're going to keep coming across the same problems and the same issues and the same headaches and the same grief and the same stress.

Andrew Uglow: Rinse and repeat.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, I I think it's the that first step really is getting clear on what the actual problem is, isn't it?

Anthony Perl: Because, as you say, it's easy to summarise things in a particular or brush off a individual leaving and and not address it as potentially being a problem.

Anthony Perl: But more often than not, the reason people leave a particular workplace or bring a problem to your attention is not because they've got something that's completely isolated and personal to them.

Anthony Perl: That has nothing to do with you.

Andrew Uglow: Yeah, and also too, there's patterns.

Andrew Uglow: And if you didn't know that you were supposed to be looking for patterns, you you never go looking for patterns.

Andrew Uglow: And sometimes those patterns require you to look back years.

Andrew Uglow: And if you don't have that data available to you, maybe you're new in the role, new in the business, Well, you're a bit of a disadvantage.

Andrew Uglow: You can certainly do some research, but often, certainly with the sort of diagnosis that I'm involved in and involved in teaching technicians, we we often talk about the service history of the car, you know, and it's a really key piece of information.

Andrew Uglow: If the car was in for service six months ago for exactly the same problem, that's a red flag.

Andrew Uglow: Like what's really going on if you've lost, for example, 4 technicians in the last two years?

Andrew Uglow: Yeah, that's a red flag.

Andrew Uglow: Now they might be perfectly rational, reasonable explanations for those.

Andrew Uglow: You know, their partner might have got a promotion and they had to move into state or you know, they they had a kid or something like that and decided to to become a a, a carer for the child while their, their their partner does the, the, the, the financial generation function in the home.

Andrew Uglow: Perfectly understandable.

Andrew Uglow: But is every one of them those could be or not?

Andrew Uglow: How would you know until you test?

Andrew Uglow: Yeah.

Anthony Perl: And I think that's an important, important point, isn't it?

Anthony Perl: That's the first part of trying to and asking the right questions is it's.

Anthony Perl: Firstly you've got to do some testing on the situation itself.

Andrew Uglow: Yeah, absolutely.

Andrew Uglow: And and this is the and we'll talk perhaps about this in a bit more detail in some later episodes, but we did some research into some fairly deep research into what the automotive technical gurus in the industry do, how do they work?

Andrew Uglow: And one of the key skills was the ability to conceive or create tests to identify what was really going on.

Andrew Uglow: And a test starts with a question.

Andrew Uglow: It always starts with a question.

Andrew Uglow: But if you aren't curious if you've already got, if you believe you've already got an answer, you're not going to go and ask a question, right?

Andrew Uglow: And I think this perhaps also is is is some of the some of the issues around why this skill shortage is, is still here after 35 years.

Andrew Uglow: People believe they have an answer and I go, well yeah, maybe yes, that's that's possible.

Andrew Uglow: But if it's if the issue isn't solved, then do we?

Andrew Uglow: Do we really have an answer?

Anthony Perl: It's it's interesting, isn't it?

Anthony Perl: Because there's the asking the right question, and there's being prepared to listen and to deal with, I guess what can be an uncomfortable truth as well, isn't there?

Anthony Perl: Because that's a difficult thing for any boss to confront themselves with the fact that there may be some level of discomfort once you start asking the right questions.

Andrew Uglow: Yeah and and and this is this is the how would I say this, this is the, this is the second step really in in working through what specifically the skill shortage is in your individual workshop, right.

Andrew Uglow: If you're a workshop owner or in workshop management whether that's dealer, franchise, independent business, whichever level that is that you're you're operating at step one is actually getting really clear on what exactly are the problems and and like specifically clear.

Andrew Uglow: Now you might just have an issue where we just simply people just don't know enough that they're struggling with technology.

Andrew Uglow: And it is in fact actually a lack of skills that is is contributing to the difficulties or the friction in my workshop.

Andrew Uglow: But most workshops, I think you'll find that it's a compound issue.

Andrew Uglow: We we have a lack of people, we have a labor shortage and the people that we have don't yet have enough skill, and that's a problem.

Andrew Uglow: Or you've got some people that lack the skill and you've got some others whose attitude is just toxic and it's it's creating friction, it's dragging things down.

Andrew Uglow: It's costing you money.

Andrew Uglow: It's costing you stress and grief never mind the impact on them and the the the environment that your other people are working in.

Andrew Uglow: And and so with a with a compound or with any problem I guess the first step in in is identifying it.

Andrew Uglow: The second step then is, well, how do we, how do we go about now that we know what the problem is, what needs to be in place before we can solve it?

Andrew Uglow: And this essentially 3 things I think that you need to prepare yourself for to start solving the problem.

Andrew Uglow: So this necessarily won't solve the problem.

Andrew Uglow: But if you don't have these pieces, you're nowhere you're you're kind of going to keep cutting laps.

Andrew Uglow: And the first one of these things that you you need to have, that need to be settled for you personally is that you need to be open to testing the situation.

Andrew Uglow: Very often we get a response that says, Oh well, it's this, oh, it's a lack of skill.

Andrew Uglow: OK, well, how would you know that?

Andrew Uglow: What is the test?

Andrew Uglow: Just like these technician technical gurus were able to test things that weren't normally readily available to be tested.

Andrew Uglow: They actually created their own tests.

Andrew Uglow: Well, are you open to creating a test to check for that, to to see if it is in fact true?

Andrew Uglow: Like it can look true on the surface, but that doesn't make it so.

Andrew Uglow: And so being open to testing your situation is the first one, because some people just aren't.

Andrew Uglow: That requires effort.

Andrew Uglow: That requires work.

Andrew Uglow: It also puts up the risk that you might find something you don't like, that the issue might be a lot closer to home than you thought it was.

Andrew Uglow: Which leads to the second thing that we need to be prepared for, and that's being prepared for discomfort.

Andrew Uglow: The irony is that with a skill shortage in the workshop, that is hard, you know, everyone's got to work harder, everyone's got to do more.

Andrew Uglow: There's more stress.

Andrew Uglow: Customers, our customers, and some of them are awesome and some of them or a few of them are less awesome and that creates problems and stress and and so everyone's working at a higher rate to try and make up for the people that aren't there or make up for the skills that aren't there or make up for the attitudes that are are dragging things down.

Andrew Uglow: And that's uncomfortable.

Andrew Uglow: But so too is the result of your test sometimes.

Andrew Uglow: And if you're not prepared to be open to the fact that actually this problem isn't necessarily a people this problem is you.

Andrew Uglow: In some cases, well, you know don't be open to it but experience the discomfort of having all the friction.

Andrew Uglow: You know it's it's it's it's kind of one or the other isn't it.

Andrew Uglow: And the last thing that you need to be open to do at least be open towards is attempting something new.

Andrew Uglow: And humans are all of us are like the rest of us, right?

Andrew Uglow: We we we love comfort.

Andrew Uglow: We love the old, the the old things, the familiar things, the the stuff that you know, we we are know is we know that is tried and true.

Andrew Uglow: And sometimes new things are threatening, sometimes new things are scary.

Andrew Uglow: But if you're not at least open to the idea of trying something new, you never will.

Andrew Uglow: And so those three things, you know, being open to testing, being open to some probably uncomfortable results of your testing and then being open to try something new is is really important.

Anthony Perl: So Andrew, if workshop owners aren't ready for all of these things, are they going to be in a position to apply a solution or is that really the problem?

Andrew Uglow: It's a it's a it's a bit of a challenge, hey, because it it's actually a really big ask to expect people to to change and rather than just diving into change, which can be scary, threatening, costly, potentially damaging if if it's not done right, simply moving to the point of just being open to the idea.

Andrew Uglow: Are you open to the idea of testing?

Andrew Uglow: You know are you open to the idea that the the results might be uncomfortable?

Andrew Uglow: Are you open to that?

Andrew Uglow: You know, are you open to the idea that that if you had to try something new, it might be something you'd be open to do?

Andrew Uglow: And a lot of business owners are OK with being open.

Andrew Uglow: And if you're open, you're now in a far better position to being closed.

Andrew Uglow: If you're closed.

Andrew Uglow: Well, I'm I'm there's limits to what you can achieve, if any.

Andrew Uglow: And I I just just with that idea, you know, with the concept of being closed.

Andrew Uglow: Albert.

Andrew Uglow: Albert Einstein made a statement where he said you can't solve problems with the same thinking that you used when you caused the problem.

Andrew Uglow: And this is true, I think, of our skills shortage to use the generic term.

Andrew Uglow: We are still using the same thinking that we used when the problem was created, and so if the problem is a conventional problem, and it certainly seems to be using conventional thinking isn't going to solve it, You need to use.

Andrew Uglow: Assuming that Einstein is in fact correct, you need to use unconventional thinking here and and that requires that you're open to testing things that you thought were true that maybe aren't.

Andrew Uglow: It needs means that you need to be open to the discomfort of finding some answers that that really aren't so pleasant to find out.

Andrew Uglow: And it means that you need to be open to trying new things that are potentially scary or potentially risky, whether that's financially or or all the other ways that it could be risky.

Andrew Uglow: But until you start trying effectively unconventional things, you're never going to solve your conventional problem.