Episode Transcript

Michael Abernathy 0:00
Hey what’s up everybody? Welcome back to THE a.m. guys. Welcome back to 5 Minute Rants. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. And welcome back to the show where we talk about anything and everything predicated on the journey of life and business. Well, I’ve got a special guest here, Andrew Edwards.

Andrew Edwards 0:28
Hey, thanks for having me.

Michael Abernathy 0:29
Welcome, bro. Welcome back.

Andrew Edwards 0:31
Thank you.

Michael Abernathy 0:31
You were just on a little while ago.

Andrew Edwards 0:33
Yeah, I was.

Michael Abernathy 0:34
What’s it feel like to be back?

Andrew Edwards 0:35
It’s great to be back.

Michael Abernathy 0:36
I’m glad, I’m glad. Well, today, guys, I’m actually going to talk to Andrew about bill of materials for teams. And before I say anything else, Andrew, just take it away, bro.

Andrew Edwards 0:36
Okay, cool. So when we think about bill of materials, you’re probably thinking about screws or different parts required to build something. But we can also think about bill of materials in terms of people and requirements of different people to fill different roles to accomplish something. And that’s just what I want to preface all this with. First off, is we’re talking about people here. Then, secondly, how really that order that comes from clearly defining what people are responsible for what affects the outcome of a situation.

So Here’s an example. Our little group of friends and family, we played soccer recently. And we were on a team with just a few of us that didn’t really know soccer that much the other team, they didn’t really know soccer that much.

Michael Abernathy 1:37
My Team.

Andrew Edwards 1:38
Yeah. None of us are like, soccer people. But the team I was on, I just talked to everybody and said, Hey, let’s define our roles, you know, kind of general positions and what that means up front. We had a quick team meeting, and then everybody stuck to their roles. And we had order. We didn’t have to run as much. We didn’t have to work as hard. And it worked out great. And our team won.

Michael Abernathy 2:04
Yes, y’all did. Y’all beat the pants off of us?

Andrew Edwards 2:06
We did

Michael Abernathy 2:06
My team lost guys.

Andrew Edwards 2:09
Yeah. But it wasn’t because we were better or it was just order. That was really all it was. And it was just really simple. So you think about that, in terms of a bill of materials, we each had positions. And so we think about that Michael said this recently about decentralizing leadership. He’s used that word recently. And I think it’s really the same thing you can really lead from the back when you have very clear responsibilities defined for each person.

Michael Abernathy 2:34
Yeah, I agree with that. That when we’re talking about this, and really creating a bill of materials for how the company needs to run forward, what resources are required, from hardwares, tool sets, to skill sets and people and then defining those lanes really gives everybody the ability to make decisions with everything that’s under their responsibility.

Andrew Edwards 2:55
Yeah.

Michael Abernathy 2:55
And because they now are free to make their own decisions for what and how they see best to run things underneath them. Everything moves forward at a much rapid… at a much rapid or pace… or faster pace. Yeah, I English good.

Andrew Edwards 3:10
Yeah, me too.

Michael Abernathy 3:12
Then What would normally happen? And I mean, y’all crushed us on the soccer field? So it was like six to two.

Andrew Edwards 3:18
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. We had so much fun. And, and it’s, you know, think about our business partnership. Michael’s really driven this for our business partnership. Where it’s very clear what each of our lanes are, and responsibilities are and the different tool sets and everything that comes under that. And, you know, we each do that in our marriages to where our wives are very, you know, thankful for it, because it kind of helps everyone shoulders drop thinking about different effects. And that was our team in soccer. Going back to that it’s like our team was, I think, pretty at ease. Because we knew, this is my part of the field. Each of us knew this my part of the field.

Michael Abernathy 3:53
It’s like knowing where your room in the house is. And everybody knows where each other person’s room is. And you’re welcome to enter the people’s rooms. But this is my room, it’s my job to keep it clean. I can organize it, how I want to see it, and how I best see fit. And I get to own it. And what this does, and what Andrew and I were talking about, and I really had him talking about because of he really brought up it’s like really like, you know, a bill of materials for teams for people because it allows them to have clear responsibility for things and I thought that was a really good way to put it.

Andrew Edwards 4:26
Yeah.

Michael Abernathy 4:27
So anything else you want to add man in our last 30 seconds?

Andrew Edwards 4:31
I don’t have anything else.

Okay

We might be done before five minutes.

Michael Abernathy 4:35
We might be done before five minutes. Fastest podcast ever. I really think though, that this is really true. People… we as people generally do not like the unknown. And so if we alleviate that by providing clarity of responsibilities, whether it’s in a household, whether it’s in a business or workplace, it really alleviates so much fear and uncertainty and then it also allows cohesiveness within the teams operate towards a unified goal, like everything that we’re unified under.

Andrew Edwards 5:04
Yeah.

Michael Abernathy 5:05
Just to recap.

Andrew Edwards 5:06
Yeah, thank you.

Well, guys, I did the traditional couple seconds over, and I’ll catch y’all later. Peace! You want to say goodbye Andrew?

Bye.