Recently Gavin was joined by Mr. Clive Burnage from Mainline Auto Body in California for the first of a three-part series on Mainlines Core Values and Respect model and the evolution of these things and how they came about. This is something that Gavin loves to work with, he loves to look at what drives people and what sets them up for living a purposeful life and how we can share that with others. How important is it is having a Value and Respect model within your Collision Repair shop?
Clive and Gavin formed a relationship when Clive joined Mainline Auto Body through Mr Joe Hinkens. Clive works closely with Joe, who is a huge visionary. Joe then passes these visions onto the team, and he employs Clive to make these visions a reality. Clive puts the wheels in motion, and they have become a powerful team at Mainline.
Three Legged Software Stool
Mainline Auto Body have developed a three-legged software stool, in circle one is CCC which the industry staple that they are mandated to use by the insurance companies. They then introduced Planning Plus about five or six years ago off the back of SEMA. Joe is always looking for things to make life easier and he saw the potential in Planning Plus with all the visual aids and bright colours to really add some sense to the madness that can be the production floor. Then tying it all together is Process Street. Planning Plus is king on the production floor and Process Street is king in the Admin World. Process Street isn’t industry specific; it is a scratch build from a blank template that walks their staff through every step of the traditional repair process from greeting guests, completing check in sheets, writing a blueprint to be compliant all the way through to ordering parts, correct dispatch process and procedures, final QC, closing jobs and accounting.
Gavin and Clive have spoken a lot about Process Street in the past, and the challenges they faced implementing it. They were true challenges and it really pulled on a commitment of building all the processes and the videos that go with it. It went from a Street to basically a suburb. It went from a sheet of paper called the 20 List that had 20 admin steps on it and they thought surely in this modern world they could digitize it. They found Process St and it soon became apparent that it was more than just checklists, it could be an amazing training tool because not only did they have what needs to get done, we can also have all the training materials to show them how to do what needs to get done.
As with all new projects, nothing comes easy and as Joe would say, “if it was easy, everyone would do it.” Clive tips his hat off to Joe, who somehow finds the stamina and the drive to see these projects through to the end and put it into action. So that is where they are at with their software, and they could not live without either one of them.
The benefit of Process Street was repetition standardization. Everyone knows how to do it, whether they have done it a thousand times or for the first time, it will walk you through it, holding your hand. There are some things that you need industry insight to, but it is just the consistency in the training. There is nothing more consistent than watching Joe present a video on how we do a certain process. He does not have to repeat those 400 times, he does the video once and the video does the rest of the work. Another element is the function called the Inbox, as the checklists unfold it sends a message to who’s up next, who’s on base and who needs to take care of what. While it was initially a checklist developed into a training tool, it became much more than that. Process Street drives the actions day to day. They have several departments across Mainline who look to their Inbox daily to see what they have on today and what they have got to hand off to the next guy. It took many months of fine tuning but once it was rolled out and the team came onboard it quickly became a part of everyday culture and everyday life.
Three Legged Cultural Stool
They also have a three-legged cultural stool, the concept being, if one of them is missing it will just fall over. There are a lot of companies that have core values saying this is what represents us, honesty, integrity etc. They put them in big letters on the wall and that is where they stay, do they really drive any behavior? Mainline made sure that when they created their core values, that they were meaningful. Alongside that is the Respect model and then finally Process and Procedure, the standardization, making sure it is being done the same way every time. The more they follow Process and Procedure, the more chance of success.
The Mainline Library
They also have the Mainline Library which is something that is huge in the world of Joe Hinkens. One of their favorite phrases is every day is a school day, and always being open to learn something new. Joe is the first person to say he is a lifelong student. There are 10 books that are the staple of the library, they are what have got them to where they are today. There are some classics there, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr Stephen Covey, The Game of Work, about the power of Measurement, The Toyota Way, where Toyota turned the world on its head in automotive manufacturing. The Two Second Lean, is about the principles of Lean, broken down into a way that you can save two seconds in anything you are doing. John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership, Predictable Success by Les McKeown and Lean Office Demystified are all great books. Extreme Ownership, written by former navy seals is all about balance. Who is about finding and hiring the right people right out of the gate, with some really good tips on the right kind of questions to ask and when they follow that model it has worked.
Traction and Get a Grip is based around the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) by Gino Wickman and that really changed the Mainline world. Prior to these books, and with all due respect, it was the world according to Joe, because Joe was the guy who set the vision. He was the guy who puts things into action, he followed through, he kept score, he did everything essentially. During Clive and Joe’s transatlantic friendship before Clive moved full time, Joe would share with Clive that it was tiring being the guy who must do everything. He would often say to Clive, if it not me leading the charge, building the systems, and compiling the reports then it is nobody.
Along came the entrepreneurial operating system in the form of the book Traction and it gave them the framework where could really share the workload and speak a common language, not only at leadership level but across the whole company. They are now two and a half years into that process, and it is no longer the world according to Joe, it is now the world according to everyone at Mainline and that is bringing Joe relief. It is winning back some of his time and everyone is pulling the rope in the same direction. That has really Wormed who Mainline are today and it is fed into their core values.
Another book, Carrots and Sticks do not work, is about building a culture of employee engagement within the principles of respect. The concept of dangling a carrot is not necessarily a great incentive and hitting people with sticks is the other end of the extreme, it is not a good way to get things done. You must win the hearts and minds of people to really get them to buy into what you are doing so they can help carry the load too.
It takes stamina
When you get the momentum, you must keep it going, reinventing yourself and building on that framework. That is what contributes and creates the culture and the values. There are a lot of books that come across their path, but the key point is that it takes leadership to bring these things to the table. It takes leadership to see them through. It is constant work. The work is never done just because you have read the book and you have discussed it. It needs constant attention and nurturing. You must learn a theory, apply it and not just once, it is day after day. It takes stamina and Clive takes his hat off to Joe. He is the guy who says this is where we are going and we are going to stick to it, and that is a huge element.