Lessons Learned from 100 Episodes of Mindfulness Manufacturing

Winning starts with small steps! If you want to climb a mountain or run a marathon, you can’t get there just by thinking about the peak or the finish line. You have to put in the time, establish a routine, and put one foot in front of the other in your path toward success.

This is a lesson I’ve learned with the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, which recently reached its 100th episode! When my team and I started Mindfulness Manufacturing in 2019, the goal was never to hit certain milestones, find sponsors, or earn money. For us, “winning” meant releasing an episode every two weeks. We also always wanted to put listeners first by giving them podcasts filled with valuable insights and stories about mindful leadership in the manufacturing industry.

While I’m proud of this 100-episode milestone, I’m even prouder of the journey the team and I took to get here. Along the way, here are three key lessons we learned for what it takes to win the day.

Lesson #1: Build Momentum

In the early days of the podcast, it was tempting to release episodes as quickly as we could. But by sticking to our every-two-weeks schedule, we were able to bring care, love, and value to each episode, and set a pace that allowed us to create quality episodes. It serves as a reminder that winning doesn’t always mean doing something fast.

Lesson #2: Set a Routine

To reach our goals with Mindfulness Manufacturing, we also had to develop a routine. This meant working to get guests scheduled and episodes recorded well ahead of their release date, which lead to some moments of stress and overwhelm. However, forming a consistent routine around scheduling, recording, and producing episodes allowed us to hit our goals.

Lesson #3: Pay Attention to Preparation

Another part of our routine was preparing for each podcast. We did this learning about each guest through their website, LinkedIn account, or reading their book or listening to their own podcast or another podcast they’ve appeared on. By making preparation part of the routine, we were able to come up with curious discussion questions and show up with confidence.

A Moment of Gratitude

Thanks to everyone who has supported the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast throughout the years! In particular, thank you to:

Jim Ray, who got the wheels turning
Mike Hillman, who helped get Mindfulness Manufacturing off the ground
Dave Baker for serving as an awesome co-host
Libby Kennedy and Jonathon McDermott, the podcast’s behind-the-scenes team/li>

A big thank-you also goes out to all the guests, who’ve been so generous with their time and helped us reach our goal of creating meaningful, insight-packed episodes. We’d like to especially thank Eric Berdan, the guest for our special 100th episode on the timely theme of “winning” the day.

Thanks to everyone for all the support, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more Mindfulness Manufacturing content!

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website