In 2001, as Training and Technical Development Manager (TTDM) in Guinness Nigeria, I read an article about “Herd mentality”: people wanting to go where others go…like cattle in a herd.
The author argued that humans who want to excel will periodically need to break away from the herd.
I agree(d) with that author – based on my experiences, of rapid career advancement to senior management roles in less than 7 years in Guinness Nigeria, combined with successes I’ve achieved as an entrepreneur for over 12 years now.
Breaking Away Periodically Will Not Be Comfortable (The Story of My Graduate Trainee Experience )
In October 1994 I was one of twelve (12) newly recruited Graduate Management Trainees (GMTs) in Guinness Nigeria.
The series of aptitude tests/screenings, followed by selection board discussion and interviews, had trimmed down thousands of applicants to just 12!
Naturally we all felt excited, and the company’s top management – the MD and other senior managers – told us they had great plans for us.
We started from the Lagos office undergoing general induction across departments.
At each stage we attended different classes, in which we learnt how the departments we visited worked etc. Our lecturers were selected managers from the relevant departments. So we got very practical information, not textbook theory. It was very exciting.
And we did everything together – including going to lunch.
One Day We Got Assigned to Different Departments
That marked the beginning of what would eventually be our deployment to our “permanent or starting stations”
In my case, I – along with another male colleague, reported to the Ikeja Brewery Training Department along Oba Akran road.
We would stay there for about 6 months, during which time we had to learn from the training instructors and their boss: a young expatriate Training Coordinator called Richard Chambers (RC).
Within a few weeks I discovered there was so much useful learning to be had.
Mountains of work instructions, and operator manuals for different machines in the brewery were within reach.
Also, speaking with RC, I learned he’d started his brewing career quite early – back in Scotland, his home country.
By the time he was sent to Nigeria, he’d gained major experience running breweries, and preparing high level reports.
In fact, one thing that would later make me get to work closer with him, was his amazing proficiency in automating spreadsheet workbooks, by writing advanced macro codes.
Back then in 1995, Lotus Smart Suite was in use across the company. So the spreadsheets we worked with were Lotus 123 spreadsheets.
My demonstrated interest eventually made RC hand me a laptop, on which I helped him check for errors in hundreds of complex, advanced formulas.
Then one day, he announced that I and my colleague, would have to write reports on each of the brewing process areas we’d visited.
They would include photos, about the step by step operations carried out from reception of raw materials, to transfer of finished beer to the bottling department.
Neither of us had expected that. Our colleagues in other departments had told us they were getting on well, and having loads of fun, from what we could see.
This announcement from our otherwise likeable boss, made ours a different prospect.
But RC wanted it. And so we began.
In the end, I recall sitting with him as he pasted photos he’d gone round the brewery to take, with me following him, of different process areas and machines.
It took me weeks of staying back during break, coming in early, and closing late, to finish typing the 4 different reports: for the Raw Materials, Brew house, Fermentation, and Cold Processing areas.
And it was a lot of hard work too.
I found I needed to also come in earlier, to chat with the floor operatives about their jobs, and also stay late to catch up again with them, when they were less busy.
These less schooled but highly experienced process men, knew stuff about what it took to make the place click.
Spending time with them was therefore eye opening for a newbie like me. Soon I began to enjoy it, even though I also missed the company of my friends.
But it paid off, because a lot of my later success as a brewer were due to the long hours I spent with those guys.
That experience helped me develop the skill of quickly building rapport with junior workers, which would later enable me succeed, in my years as a shift brewer.
One Day RC Asked Me: “Do You Want to Be a Good Brewer?”
I replied “Yes. Of course.”
I had just told him I was going on break. It had been a while since I’d managed to find time to join my fellow “trainees” for group lunch as we often did.
Some had teased me in passing about it. That day I felt I could try catching up with them.
RC apparently had other things in mind. He motioned for me to follow him, and took me to the laboratory.
There we joined in tasting sample beers from different stages of process, as well as some bottled samples.
That was my first introduction to beer tasting.
RC told me being able to recognize the characteristics of beer in different stages of process, was crucial to succeeding as a brewer.
From that day on, he made me join him for tasting, before we then went together for lunch.
Each time this happened, we would often get to the management dining room, just as my trainee colleagues were leaving.
And they would tease me about being “Chambers’ pikin” (Chambers’ child) or “Author Guinness”. It was all fun, but I still felt a bit alone as a result.
It was on the day RC put in the photos, and handed me the spiral bound copies of my 4 Training Reports, that I realized I’d achieved a major feat. And that made it worthwhile, all of a sudden!
I still recall him saying I would thank him for making me do it all – especially writing the reports.
Within ONE year of working in Benin Brewery after my redeployment, I found myself extensively consulting my 4 reports, to remind myself of all the stuff I’d seen and learnt during time in training back in Lagos.
At that point, I understood what RC had told me.
That was when I discovered the frailty of the human memory.
You see, while you’re learning something, you feel like you’ll always remember every detail. Whether practically or theoretically, it’s often the same thing.
Get away from it for a few hours or days and you’ll be shocked by how little you can actually recall.
It takes a LOT of repeated contact to firmly imprint information or learning of any sort, in one’s memory!
That’s why having a documented reference to consult (like the reports RC got me to write) is always a wise thing for a trainee to do.
Later on as TTDM, I employed the same approach with the engineering trainees that reported to me.
In fact, I developed what I call a Self-Managed Development Guide to implement mine (email tayo at tksola dot com for a PDF that explains).
Some months after their deployment, they ALL came back to present me a gift. One of them made a speech on behalf of the others, thanking me for what I did.
And I silently thanked the creator for making me learn from someone with foresight, like RC!
RC’s Passion for Solving Reporting Problems Using Spreadsheet Automation, ALSO Rubbed Off On Me!
As mentioned earlier, I spent lots of my free time watching RC coding automated spreadsheets.
One application he developed was adopted officially for Monthly Technical Reporting, by top management in each of the breweries
I later built on what I learnt from him, to develop over 4 automated spreadsheet applications for use in Production, Training, and Engineering departments of Benin Brewery.
That work – done in my spare time – was key to my getting rapid career advancement in my short stay in the company, because it got top decision makers to know me.
But doing the above, also required choosing to stay away from the herd e.g. not joining the others for group lunch etc, every now and then!
Today, I do it for a living, serving clients – in and out of Africa – with my ExcelVB software products, and custom development service.
Final Words: Lesson to Take Away…
Sometimes what will make you better, and prepare you for success, may come disguised as work, and even bring some pain and hardship.
And at times you may have to stay ALONE, away from others you like to be with, to get it right.
If you don’t, you may lose the massively career boosting benefits that can accrue to you!
