Week one in the books

We the first week is in the books down here in SC.  What a week it has been!  Never have I ever been exposed to soooooo much information in such a short period of time.  It is an amazing the level of training that Michelin provides to the new hires in the PLNA division.  I have been on boarded a few times in my career and have on boarded many reps that I have hired.  Nothing even comes close to Michelin and the program they are putting us through.  Sure there are lots of technical aspects to learn but the other important aspect of this training is to build strong, long lasting relationships with each other.  We are all going to be going into the field when we are done and we are all going to be doing the same things.  Solid relationships will be vital when we need to lean on each other for support.  Learning to build solid genuine relationships with our team will also help us to understand the importance of building good relationships with our customers.  

On a different subject, I am really sad that I am going to be missing the boot camp this weekend.  I went last year and it was a day to remember.  It was incredibly hard but at the same time it was so rewarding.  I hope all of the students that attend the boot camp this weekend take time to enjoy the experience and take some time to reflect upon the benefits of the boot camp.

Mr. Ian Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Teamates

There are 20 other people that are training with me down here in South Carolina.  They come from across the US and one other is from Canada.  We all have varied backgrounds and none of us have any experience in the trucking industry or tire industry.  Michelin wants it this way so that they can indoctrinate us in their culture and philosophy on how they want to got to market.  The training program is incredibly intense and I have never experienced anything like it before.

The instructors on day one stressed that we should and would need to come together as a team in order to succeed.  They talked about how we need to support each other and help the ones that are struggling.  We are responsible for each other and if one fails we all take a share in that responsibility.

Last night a bunch of got together after supper to study for todays upcoming test.  We all pulled together, asked each other questions, helped with the answers and had a few laughs along the way.  In three short days 20 complete strangers have come together and have started to create friendships.  We have come together with one goal in mind, to succeed and succeed not only as individuals but as a team.

Mr. Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta

Second Day...

Well my second day has come and gone here in South Carolina.  It was a much more intense day than the first and I was expecting that.  However, when I have done something in the same industry for 15 years you tend to learn a thing or two.  Here, this is completely new to me.  I have much more empathy now for the reps that I had hired in the past that didn't have bakery industry experience.

Day three here I come!

I completed the following training today.

300 situps
150 push ups
5 form reps

ran 4.5 km's

Mr. Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu.

Engagment

This is the word that was used over and over again during my first day down here in South Carolina.  “stay engaged, stay engaged, stay engaged” was talked about and how important it was if you wanted to be successful.  Sifu Brinker has talked about this from the start of the year and how important it was for our kung fu and the process if we wanted to see results.  I kind of got it but it is making more sense as I see it being applied in my professional life like today.  Other things we have trained in the Kwoon is to be mindful and having an eye for detail.  Again during my first day down here these EXACT same things were stressed to us and it was like a huge wake up call for me.  I have been working on attention to detail and an eye for detail in my kung fu and have been applying to my work life. I am again seeing what we are learning in our Kwoon being applied outside of the kwoon and it is really amazing to see how our kung fu training is being applied in my life outside of the Kwoon. 

I want to keep track of the training I am doing down here and will include it in my blogs.  So here is what I accomplish today.

130 sit ups

140 push ups

3 sets of 20 leg lifts with 80 pounds of resistance (weight machine training)

3 sets of 5 dips

3 sets of 20 chest presses with 100 pounds of resistance (weight machine training)

Ran 2.5 km’s in 8 min.

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Empathy

This is something that I have thought about for the past while.  Sifu Brinker talked about this at length during one of our I Ho Chuan meetings.  Empathy…what does that mean to me?  It means that I need to understand what any one person is feeling and experiencing.  It means in simplified terms to “walk a mile in their shoes” to fully understand as best I can understand what they are feeling.  When I think back on certain training days in the kwoon, I reflect back on our warm ups in particular.  Warm ups should be a WARM UP not a way for us to improve our push up numbers at the expense of the students we are working with and instructing.  I can tell you that there have been times that I have internally groaned when the person is called up to lead the warm up.  I just know that they will take advantage of the warm up to either improve their numbers or just want to make the class work extra hard for what ever reason. There are times for a really hard warm up, such as one time in the San Shou class.  At this particular class the point was to exhaust the students so that we understood what it was like to have to mentally adapt to an exhausted body.  Makes perfect sense and I totally understood when Sifu explained the rational after class was done.

Empathy…I don’t have enough…I have been one of those students that have lead a warm up to improve my numbers.  I have lead a warm up with the intention of seeing how hard I could push the students that I know are not as in as good a shape as I am. 

However, since that last meeting I have changed my perspective, I am gained some empathy.  I now lead a warm up with empathy in my mind for those that I am there to assist and work with.  When I bow in and bow out for class I ask my self these two questions, “where am I and what am I doing”, I now add to this “who am I here to help”.  These three questions that I ask myself ever time I bow in and bow out have helped me to be mindful of why I am here and who am I here to help.

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta

Change and no excuses!

I have been quite on the blogging front for far too long.  I can go into details as to why I feel I am justified in this but there is no justification for not blogging.  I dropped the ball and this is 100% my fault.  It only takes less than 20 minutes to write and post my blog and I can tell you that I have wasted many more minutes than this recently.  I have no excuses and I know I better, it’s all about routine and sticking to it.  I have struggled with this in my past and I recognize that it is a weakness that I need to improve upon going forward.

This takes me into the change portion of this blog.  I have made a monumental change in my working career.  I have been a professional baker my entire adult life and I have made a decision to move out of this area into a completely different field.  I am leaving my comfort zone and leaving everything I have ever known.  However I am going to adapt to this new industry and work really hard to apply the things that have made me successful in my baking career into this new venture.  I am extremely excited to be joining one of the best companies in the world and I get started this Monday.  I am going to take everything I have learned from my kung fu and apply it to my training in my new role.  Things like “eye for detail” will be very important as I am starting three months of training before I even touch my own territory.  This “eye for detail” is critical to our kung fu as this is essential to improving and achieving not only our black belt but must be present and developed in order for us to continue to improve for the rest of our lives. 

I am going to take what I have learned in the Kwoon and will continue to apply it like I have never done before. 

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu