Will Sampson talks about how shifting direction adroitly can make a big difference in the success of your business. His guest is Jeff Wagner, executive chairman of CalPlant, a company that is transforming rice straw, a waste product of rice farming, into high-quality medium density fiberboard panel products for the woodworking industry. The company recently had to make a pivot of its own, entering a restructuring program to keep the startup plant on track.
This episode of the Woodworking Network podcast was sponsored by 3M Xtract. With 3M Xtract, sanding is virtually dust-free. The new 3M Xtract system includes new net sanding discs, random orbital sanders, and portable dust extraction units that capture up to 97% of the dust generated during sanding. Here’s how it works: The net backing in the discs enables optimal dust capture through the vacuum sander, while ceramic 3M Precision-Shaped Grain delivers an industry-leading cut-rate. Want to learn more about the 3M Xtract Clean Sanding Solution? Go to 3mXtract.com. 3M Xtract™: Sanding, reimagined.
Woodworking Network is a home for professional woodworkers, presenting technology, supplies, education, inspiration, and community, from small business entrepreneurs to corporate managers at large automated plants.
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Intro music courtesy of Anthony Monson.
The power of pivoting
Setting goals and reaching them are two different things. Dreaming up where you want to be is easy, but it takes a combination of careful planning and perseverance to actually reach those goals. I’m fond of the Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz’s advice: “Every plan is a good one - until the first shot is fired.”
If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us that we must be creative and flexible as circumstances can change dramatically in an instant to put our well-thought-out plans into complete disarray. Sometimes, when we are forced to quickly change direction, the solution gives us an even better result than we had planned for in the first place.
Establishing goals is good but fixating on them and on a particular path to the goal can create trouble. I’ve taken a number of wilderness survival courses and as a young newspaper reporter I covered a fair number of cases of missing hikers or hunters. In the classes, I learned that fixating on a specific goal can easily get you into trouble as you try to reach a certain destination despite losing daylight or good weather. In the missing hiker or hunter stories, often that’s exactly what happened. The person just had to get somewhere even though the trail was harder than they thought, or the directions were not so clear. Then they got disoriented and lost their way until the rescue crews found them.
I once covered a story in which a prominent local politician’s teenage son took his girlfriend on a four-wheel-drive adventure in the snow in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. When they didn’t return on time, a search was organized. Rescuers found the teens and the truck stuck in snow with not enough traction. Rescuers just lowered the tire pressure a bit to increase the grip and drove the truck right out. I commented to the politician dad that it was too bad his son didn’t know that trick. He laughed and said, “No, if he did he just would have gotten stuck farther up the trail.”
When we fixate on a particular goal and path, we also lose sight of potential opportunities that might crop up along the way. Some of those opportunities might be even better than what we had chosen for our original goal. The 3M scientist who invented the Post-It Note famously was working to find stronger, tougher adhesives when he happened on a formula that created a lightly bonding adhesive that could be reused. It took him years to find a use for this seemingly inferior adhesive, and it didn’t happen until he partnered with another scientist who needed removable bookmarks that stayed in place. The two scientists teamed up to make what eventually became Post-It notes.
Very few of us end up where we predict. Something happens to change our plans. We pivot. We change course. We take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. Or we pass on opportunities offered to stay on our old course. The key is to keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities and be willing to adjust your plans and goals to fit changing circumstances. Learn to use the power of pivoting to move yourself forward even if it is not the direction you originally chose.
Before we get to our interview with Jeff Wagner, let’s pause for a word from our sponsor.
Are you ready for a better way to sand? With 3M Xtract, sanding is virtually dust-free. The new 3M Xtract system includes new net sanding discs, random orbital sanders, and portable dust extraction units that capture up to 97% of the dust generated during sanding. Here’s how it works: The net backing in the discs enables optimal dust capture through the vacuum sander, while ceramic 3M Precision-Shaped Grain delivers an industry-leading cut-rate. Want to learn more about the 3M Xtract Clean Sanding Solution? Go to 3mXtract.com. That’s 3m-x-t-r-a-c-t.com. (spell it out). 3M Xtract™:
Sanding, reimagined.
Now, let’s get to my interview with Jeff Wagner, executive chairman of CalPlant, talking about new developments related to Eureka, a new MDF board product made from rice straw waste.