After four months of work with his publisher's design team, Trevor had two book covers and a favorite. Then he asked the people the book is for.

More than 60 people voted, and two out of three picked the cover he liked less. The split told the story. Newsletter readers and people who work in manufacturing chose the orderly cover, with puzzle pieces holding the title together. Marketers, speakers and authors chose the bold one.

What does that mean for change management in your plant? Trevor's answer: the change you love can still miss if the people it's for see it differently. He shares what an author coach taught him, "A book is not about someone. A book is for someone," why a supervisor once told him "bring me along for the ride," and what the Minnesota Vikings' patience with Dallas Turner says about developing people.

Manufacturing Greatness releases May 11, 2027.

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Connect with Trevor:

LinkedIn 👉 linkedin.com/in/trevorblondeel

Website 👉 manufacturinggreatness.com

As a young engineer on the Ford Explorer line, Shawn Herbig chased a strange complaint. Drivers said their radios were changing stations on their own. Dealers swapped the units, and every one passed the bench test. The cause: in cold-weather states, drivers wearing thick winter gloves were hitting two of the small buttons at once. Nothing was wrong with the radio, and to the customer, it was still broken.

That moment started a career. Shawn founded IQS Research more than 25 years ago and his team runs the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers Wage and Workforce Study. He and Trevor get into why perception isn't reality but still changes behavior, what people outside manufacturing get wrong about what's behind the door, and why child care is underreported in workforce data.

What does it mean to be a good consumer of data? Shawn's answer: confirming data deserves the same scrutiny as contradicting data. You never run a study to confirm a hypothesis. You run it to test one. For plant leadership and manufacturing workforce development, that's curiosity applied to the numbers.

Shawn and Trevor share the stage at the Kentucky Industry Conference this week.

IQS Research 👉 iqsresearch.com

Bluegrass Bitters 👉 bluegrassbitters.net

Frequency Matters, by Kristin Mackey and Shawn Herbig 👉 amazon.com/dp/1504332938

Shawn on LinkedIn 👉 linkedin.com/in/shawnherbig

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Connect with Trevor:

LinkedIn 👉 linkedin.com/in/trevorblondeel

Website 👉 manufacturinggreatness.com

An HR professional in manufacturing told Trevor her onboarding program is strong for ninety days, and then it starts to dip. Her instinct was to extend it. The research says something else.

Once somebody is past three months, lack of onboarding is the last reason they leave. Toxic culture, unsafe conditions and feeling disrespected are at the top of that list. And on the stay side, job stability and competitive pay are almost tied, with a cluster right behind them worth nearly a third of first place answers: feeling valued by your manager, a positive team culture, and clarity of expectations. Not one of them is an SOP.

Trevor walks through what changes on day ninety-one, why pay climbs in importance with age while stability stays flat across every generation, and why the youngest workers rank being heard above being paid. Onboarding has an end date. The conversations do not.

Based on national research with The Center for Generational Kinetics and Crossover Solutions, 1,250 U.S. and Canadian adults open to working in manufacturing.

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