Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Jim Woodell

Curt Anderson 0:00
Music Damon, we need to get intro music. Damon, happy Monday, brother. How are you? Great, Curt. Great Curt ready to roll, ready to rock and roll. All right. Well. Welcome everybody. Hope you had a wonderful, magical, incredible weekend, wherever you’re coming from. So today we are absolutely thrilled. We are a static, man. This is gonna be a good one. We have Dr. Jim Woodell out in our house today, Jim, happy Monday, my friend. How are you?

Jim Woodell 0:27
I’m great. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me here.

Curt Anderson 0:30
Okay, so let’s take Damon I’m not sure how this happens. But remember when we applied to well, if you had somebody, let’s just do a hypothetical. Okay, let’s go hypothetically, on this show, if we had somebody who maybe got a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, great university here in New York, right? Wonderful. Good basketball, right? Master’s from Harvard. I don’t remember when you and I applied to Or wait, we didn’t apply to Harvard. We remember when we got that we applied for our PhD, but we couldn’t spell PhD correctly. So they didn’t exactly Okay, well. So let’s just say hypothetically, just just ask him for a friend. If somebody was on the show that has a bachelor’s from Syracuse, maybe a master’s from Harvard and a PhD from Penn State University. Jim, do you know anybody that has that, that those credentials by any chance?

Jim Woodell 1:15
I think I might have those degrees. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 1:17
I asked your mom and she said that she knows somebody really? Well. That’s Oh, boy, what a credit to you. And so you know, very impressive, very esteemed, you know, credentials that you’ve had built up a wonderful career. My first question for you today. Who was your hero growing up that inspired such this wonderful career that you’ve built for yourself? Who was your hero growing up?

Jim Woodell 1:41
Wow, I wasn’t ready for that. Let’s see, who was my hero growing up? Wow, I you know, I think my heroes were really a lot. Like I immediately the people that are coming to mind are teachers that I had, like, I moved around a lot. When I was a kid, I went to 12 different schools before I even got to college. Did you really in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Connecticut to very briefly. But you know, so I, I kind of latched on to teachers when I got to new places, because they were like this. They were my guides and the stability. And so yeah, I think the people who inspired me were really those people who got me excited about the worlds that I’ve worked in communications and teaching and learning and educational technology. And, and, and then it was even my teachers in my graduate programs who kind of directed me in this space I work in now. So that’s

Curt Anderson 2:41
awesome. You know, and sometimes I think teachers get a little bit of a tough rap. And so what an inspiration there to hear, you know, your teachers were guides and helped you, you know, and my goodness, you know, doesn’t get any better than, than the credentials that you have. So well done. And so shout out to all the teachers that helped him get to where you are. So Jim, let’s Alright, so let’s fast forward a little bit, I view you you are a pioneer in e learning, you are crushing it at e learning before E learning was even a thing. So if it

Jim Woodell 3:09
didn’t know what the E was, they didn’t. That’s right. We didn’t know. Right. So

Curt Anderson 3:13
you know, we talk a lot about e commerce. And so you know, sometimes we’re blessed with an E commerce pioneer on the program. Here. We view us truly, truly a pioneer in elearning. Share a little bit about your path, I think PBS and some wonderful universities, colleges that you’ve worked at, share what went on there for that kind of built your path, sir. I

Jim Woodell 3:33
mean, real quickly, like, actually, the origin story here is I was in as an undergrad at Syracuse. I was in television, radio and film, like I wanted to go off and be like a big Hollywood producer director one day, did an internship one summer in Hollywood, and I got really turned off by the entertainment industry. But I’m still really interested in communications media. And so I pivoted a little bit and decided to focus on education. And I kind of combined those and that’s how I got interested in the world of communications technology in education. So yeah, right after I left Syracuse, well, soon after I left Syracuse, I ended up at PBS and I was helping to produce live satellite delivered video conference, continuing education programs for nurses and lawyers and business people of all sorts. And that was a really cool experience. And so I you know, I started right out of my undergrad and in while I was an undergrad, I was doing research on educational telecommunications. But yeah, I started doing this distance learning stuff before it was before there was even a worldwide web. So you know, this was back in the 80s. So, yeah.

Curt Anderson 4:46
So what you pick Well, You’ve piqued our curiosity. I have to ask you, then hang on. Hold that thought, David. What turns you off about about Hollywood, that’s that. There’s just too deep we can’t talk about out here.

Jim Woodell 5:00
Yeah, no, I mean, it was just, it was interesting. But it was It wasn’t, there wasn’t depth there for me, you know, like, I wanted to make a difference. And you know,

Curt Anderson 5:09
kudos to you at a young man, you know, you know, the appeal the allure of Hollywood and you know, California, what have you but you were man a conviction, you knew what was a good fit? What was it? Damon, what were you? What were you chiming in on? Well, I was just like that. The changes

Damon Pistulka 5:24
that you’ve seen, because being in the technology part of this have to be so insane because I remember the days of if you’re going to take one of these continuing education things, oh, we’re going to college because they’ve got the download, you’re going to go somewhere, and you’re gonna go to the end. And they have like, 17 TVs and the old big box thing set up, you know, and you’re doing this training. But now you see, it’s so easy to live, it’s like, done in your training, you’re doing it right to your desk. So yeah, I

Jim Woodell 5:55
mean, now, I know, Curt was going to ask me about this Ben workshop that I’m launching. But I’m amazed at how simple it is for us to just like flip a switch on a website, and we can just populate it with content. So you have all these creators out there now, who are developing online, you know, elearning kinds of offerings. And it’s really, it’s fantastic. It’s great to have those tools so readily available. I mean, the the the downside is, you know, who’s, who’s helping everybody do it well, right, like, who’s making sure that the pedagogy is good that, you know, people are actually achieving the outcomes. But I think it’s great that it’s been so democratized because yeah, you know, we had to pay 1000s 10s of 1000s of dollars for satellite time to distribute those programs and things. You don’t have to worry about those things anymore. Well,

Curt Anderson 6:40
that’s awesome. So Damon, I mentioned to you so Jim and I are connection I, as you know, we’d like to have our guests recently are from none other than Dorie Clark. So I’m connected through our community in so Jim Dory is going to be our guest in July on Oh, fantastic live. So we’re thrilled about that. So Jim, and I connected and just a lot of exciting things going on John buck, lino says, Hello, he’s in. He’s in New Jersey, guys, you absolutely have to connect with Jim, please connect with Jim on LinkedIn, I dropped his website in the chat box, or you want to check out his website he just mentioned then workshops, you’re going to have to hang out with us for a few minutes, a few more minutes. Before we get into that. Jim, let’s walk through the 90s a little bit, because you’ve really this is this is phenomenal. Jumping ahead. You were at Southern New Hampshire University, which really has done an amazing job from elearning. But take us through a little bit of the 90s. If you would, I’d love to hear about what went on at Southern New Hampshire because they’ve really become the stalwarts of how to transition from a traditional college elearning. But what was elearning like in the 90s? For either folks that are too young, or those of us who are too old to remember, how’s

Jim Woodell 7:47
that? Well, you know, again, the 90s was sort of my my PVS time and also my, my master’s degree, the time, it was really zooming ahead of the 2000s. Really, when I ended up at SNHU. And, you know, I Yeah, so I was running the Online Education program at SNHU. And it was at the time we were a big program, but we hadn’t yet transitioned kind of into the sort of national visibility. We had students all over the world. But it wasn’t quite the kind of operation it is now. What I think is really cool about that program, as I look back when I was there, and what was it like you said, well, it was it was still feeling very pioneering, because we were just beginning to do distance education online. It was exciting, because for me what distance education and the real reason I’d always been interested in distance education is because it was providing access to educational opportunities to people who might not have it have those opportunities, otherwise, it’s become much more focused on convenience, even by the early 2000s, it was a convenience thing more than it was an access thing. But the the access is still there. And and what I really am proud of about SNHU and how it’s developed, and under the, you know, really visionary leadership of Paula Blanc, the president at SNHU. It’s really focused on making sure that working adults have an opportunity to rescale upskill develop their education so that they can continue to progress. And so I think that’s really cool. You know, I think any institution of higher education that recognizes the fact that they have a number of learners who are not 18 to 22 year olds, but who are people who are already in the workforce who are just looking to either finish a degree so they can advance or to get some new skills. I think that’s very powerful. And I think it’s one of the things that you know, distance education is good for is providing that kind of flexible access to education.

Curt Anderson 9:49
That is so powerful. Yeah. Damon, you know, like two of our heroes are mothers, you know, they went off yeah, non traditional age your mother earned her PhD my mother wouldn’t got her Master’s at that. And so, you know, again, I love what you’re saying, Jim. And so we speak to a lot of manufacturers, where folks on the line, you know, or anywhere, you know, whether they’re in the office and accounting, HR, they have an opportunity now that didn’t exist, thanks to people like you that had the foresight, that, hey, now I could get my bachelor’s degree which I, you know, either life was in a way or just it wasn’t a priority at a younger stage. And what talk a little let’s, let’s go a little deeper there that 2000 to 2004 that you were at Southern New Hampshire, you know, what was the mindset? What was going on there? That you guys, why why did that university embrace this? And so many other universities did not?

Jim Woodell 10:40
Well, I mean, you know, alright, so Wow, that’s a I have to try to think about how to not answer in a really complicated way, right? I mean, different institutions of higher education have different missions, right. And so that’s maybe someday, I think, generally, the public sees sort of colleges and universities and kind of this big lump. But in fact, there are many different kinds of colleges and universities, and they have different missions. And even within a particular sector of higher education, let’s say, just within the regional comprehensive university sector, which is institutions that tend to be focused more at the Masters and undergraduate level, they don’t have a lot of PhD programs, they are very much more focused on their region and regional needs and things like that. But even within that sector, the missions vary from one institution to another because the communities are different, right. And so the people that they’re working with are different. And so so that is a short, short ish answer to the question, Why did other institutions not adopted institutions adopt things because they want to be responsive to whom they see as their stakeholders. And so, you know, in a big research university, they might see their stakeholders much more globally, and much more at the national level. So they may not necessarily be responsive in the same ways. They’re, they try to be responsive, but they’re responsive around different issues, particularly if they’re a research intensive institution, a lot of their focus is going to be around what might come of the research that they’re doing. So why were we focused on it? Well, at SNHU, we, you know, we were a private institution, not a public institution. And we were very regionally focused, we had, I can’t remember seven or eight, continuing education centers throughout the state of New Hampshire, and also in Southern Maine. And so we had always been focused on the working adult population. I mean, that school was started as a business school, like a night school, you know, that people would go to in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. And so it had always been focused on that kind of adult learner population. It has, of course, a traditional undergraduate student body now on campus, you know, that whole, all the trappings of a New England College, but because it had always been focused on helping adult learners advance their careers. I think the it was a natural outgrowth, distance learning was a natural outgrowth of their continuing education mission.

Curt Anderson 13:08
Yeah, I love that. And so I use Southern New Hampshire frequently, as you know, a case study of, you know, again, as we’re talking to manufacturers, who you know, maybe a little bit resistant to change, or, you know, a lot of them are digital immigrants, like myself, and you know, just, you know, Hey, why do I need this? And I’m like, you know, and I just found Southern New Hampshire, just a great case study of in your head on the head, brick and mortar college, they have sports teams, I think division two sports, what have you, and just really embraced it and just took the, you know, took their university in a whole different direction. Now, you went on to boy, kudos to you roll up the sleeves and you pursue your PhD? Talk about So, from your early elearning days to moving into your PhD? What was going on in that? How did how did you see elearning evolving? And how did you see yourself evolving to pursue that PhD?

Jim Woodell 14:01
Wow, well, you keep asking me certainly complicated questions that I have to think how can I answer this simply? Yeah. I mean, my personal evolution, I think was really around the fact that I was interested in exploring new ways to serve the kinds of people I was interested in serving, I knew that higher education was a key to economic prosperity, right? It was an but I saw that very much on an individual level, you know, the adult, right, so as after SNHU, I was at a community college. And so in the community college, again, you know, community colleges, generally different missions from one community college to another, but generally, we know that they’re very responsive to workforce development needs. And so I was running online programs at a community college and recognizing that we were powering up people’s careers and helping them think about the next step. And I was just interested in exploring other ways that that colleges and universities play this role. And I didn’t actually know until I got to Penn State What that would mean. But at Penn State, again, I was very inspired by a couple of my teachers there. And I suddenly sort of dawned on me that this idea that higher education was sort of a driver of economic prosperity went well beyond the individual, right? It was not just for individual learners, institutions of higher education, especially like research intensive ones, they’re inventing and discovering things every day that not only save people’s lives or change the way that we do public service or whatever. But that actually go to market and help derive the economy in that way. Or in the case of manufacturers, universities, discover new technologies, they develop those technologies in partnership with others, becomes part of economic development. And part of community development, universities are engaging. You know, a lot of people don’t know this, they know that the university up the road is graduating students, maybe they know that they’re doing life saving discovery, you know, doing research that’s helping to advance science. But most of them don’t know that they’re involved in the K to 12 schools in the area, or that they help run the Public Health Center in the community, or that they are the ones that created the Farmers Market on the weekend. So universities and higher ed institutions generally play this incredible role in communities in the economy and workforce development, and people just don’t even really know about it. So that I became very interested in that, that universities were drivers of economic and social prosperity, and I wanted to be involved in that world. So do you want me to keep going with my evolution beyond? You know, this

Damon Pistulka 16:38
is awesome.

Curt Anderson 16:39
Let’s just pause right there. Because, you know, there’s a story, Jim, like, Dude, your Give me chills, like think about, think what the lives that, you know, because there’s a story behind every student, you know, you’re like, oh, but you know, there was a single mom, with two kids that earned her accounting degree, there was a working dad who decided I don’t want to drive, you know, or whatever, you know, whatever task he’s doing, and I want to better myself and pursue this. And, you know, being a pioneer, you helped change and just think you I think, was what North Shore Community College you’re at. And, you know, Southern New Hampshire, we’ve mentioned repeatedly, you know, look at just the number of lives that you’ve had an impact on that one, otherwise have had those options, those choices. So yeah, let’s continue this, let’s continue this journey. what was next? Yeah,

Jim Woodell 17:21
well, the institutions that I worked at, really, you know, and the, and the faculty, you know, really were the ones that were changing those lives.

Curt Anderson 17:30
You’re very modest. But you know, you

Jim Woodell 17:33
importantly, what I learned was that that’s an important role to play. Right, the being of the administrator representing the institution is an important role to play. And so I became very interested in the role that institutions of higher education play, and how they do that in partnership with other institutions, whether those be business and industry or government organizations, nonprofits, whatever. So became very interested in this idea that universities can be a driver can be an engine, but they can’t do it without doing it collectively with other kinds of organizations in their region. So I got really interested in that I focused my my doctoral research on how one particular university system, the University of Massachusetts system kind of became oriented towards economic engagement under the leadership of at the time the system president, Jack Wilson. And then I wanted to take I became very interested in public policy while I was at Penn State, and how public policy plays a role in stimulating these kinds of relationships between universities and others. So I had been exposed to the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities APLU, while I was a doctoral student, because the group that I worked with at Penn State as part of my graduate research assistantship was very involved in APLU. And so I would go to these meetings and APLU had this whole group of people focused on, you know, coordinating the members, the member institutions. APLU is a membership association of about 240 or so large public research universities. And they were convening among the many things that APLU does. They were convening leaders from those institutions around these issues of Community and Economic Development. And of course, APLU being in Washington DC, having has a public policy focus. So long story short, as I was finishing my doctoral research, a job was posted at APLU. I wanted that job because I wanted to be working in public policy. quickly got he got to eight got to APLU and quickly learned the difference between policy and politics, and learned that it was not politics that I was interested in. It was very much public policy, but it was also very interested in institutional policy and sort of local policy. How do institutions of higher education work with their local government? To partners and business and industry in the region, to grow the economy from within, rather than kind of doing the old style, economic development of smokestack chasing and so forth. Universities have this ability because of the tremendous assets of a university. They have this ability to support, you know, what you might call economic gardening, if you’re familiar with that term, but you know, they can grow that from within because of the assets that are right there at the university. And so I forgot what question I was answering.

Curt Anderson 20:33
I did too. So no, that’s all right. So let’s unpack a couple of things that you keep mentioning. I love how you’re talking about economic prosperity, what education and learning, you know, can trigger for folks and for not only just for individuals, but for a community. Bless you, Damon. And so we, you also talked about, I think, when you say economic gardening, my experience with that that came from like the Kauffman Foundation that was very heavy with entrepreneurship would have you let me throw you a softball about this one, Jim. Ready, it’s coming up. I’m winding up. I ended up the pitchers a southpaw. Let’s talk about our dear friend Ray is a Gonzo. So and then, let’s dive right in. I know you’re doing an amazing program with Ray guide. We love Ray’s virus, iMac, the MEP that’s a manufacturing extension partnership in a great state of Illinois, Northern University, you have a fun program going on there. What’s happening with our dear friend with with Ray,

Jim Woodell 21:27
so well, so Ray and his colleagues at Northern Illinois University and also at IMEC, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership organization in the state of Illinois. They’re part of a bigger project that I’m working on, along with APLU. My former employer APLU has partnered with NIST and their MEP program. And what we did was we funded three partnerships. One is between Northern Illinois University and iMac in Illinois. Another is between Ohio University and the MVP in Ohio. And then the third is between University of Louisville and advantage Kentucky Alliance. And what we’re doing in those partnerships. First of all, they’re advancing the technology that they want. Each of them is around a technology, a particular set of technology adoption issues, you know, and they’re working on advancing their program for technology adoption. In Illinois and Ohio. It’s a very specific technology, I’m sorry, in in Ohio and Kentucky, it’s very specific technologies, 3d printing in Kentucky, and in Ohio. It’s digital twinning. And in Illinois, it’s not a specific technology. Instead, it’s a specific program, which is a program for grad for students. It’s their capstone engineering project, where they do these projects, and they work with local small and medium sized manufacturers to help them solve engineering problems in in their, in their manufacturing place. And so, so what happens is, is this between this in this partnership between Northern Illinois University and iMac. And IU gets introduced to a much broader community than they might have access to otherwise, because they’re partnering environment. But then importantly, just beyond going beyond the getting the introduction, they also are developing this long term relationship, what our project is focused on is actually not the thing that they’re trying to do with manufacturers. It’s not whether or not they have a successful design, senior senior design capstone project, or whether they successfully deploy 3d technology or 3d printing technology or whether they successfully deploy digital twinning. Of course, they want to do that, and we want to support them. But our project does actually look at that partnership. So to look at how our NIU and I met working together, and then how do the small and medium manufacturers become part of that partnership? What kinds of things do you need to have in place? One of the fun conversations I’ve had with Ray and his colleagues at NIU and and they play iMac is, what does it mean to be partners? And what kinds of principles? Do you build a partnership on? How do you have a good relationship that, you know, so could you can do a partnership, which is really just about transactions, like you’d give us your email list, we’re gonna send out a bunch of stuff. And, you know, maybe you’ll make an introduction for us to so and so or whatever, maybe you’ll even sit down in a few meetings, but it’s all transactions. If you don’t get to that relational level. That partnership will be fine, you’ll achieve some outcomes, but it won’t be sustained. And so we know that in order for universities, and MEPs, to develop better partnerships, which is the goal of this project, we need to find the strategies that universities and MEPs can use and working together that will sustain those partnerships for the long term and therefore drive the longer term kinds of outcomes that we seek whether those are in technology adoption, which is really the focus of this project, but also in workforce development. And other areas. I mean, even looking at how partnerships between MEPs and universities, or how those kinds of organizations alone can work in revitalizing communities that have, you know, suffered from the loss of manufacturing. So anyway, there’s a whole range of issues that these partnerships can really be brought to, but not if we don’t understand well, how those partnerships work and how they can be most effective. And that’s what Ray and his colleagues, they’re in Illinois, as well as the folks in Ohio and Kentucky are helping us to learn. And the idea is to generate some practices that we can then share with the rest of the university and MDP universe to help them strategize on building better partnerships as well.

Curt Anderson 25:50
Man, this is awesome. We’ve got some great, we’ve got some fun comments here. Yeah, that’s connecting all the pieces education, community, business and industry and public policies. And our dear friend Nate. Nate was just a unreason. So Nate, God bless you, brother. Thanks for joining us enjoying hearing all this great stuff going on here. So alright, let’s let’s continue this a little bit further. So So, Jim, if there’s anybody out there that if there’s a manufacturer like boy, you kind of perked me up? I’m not familiar with this MVP thing? NIST. I know this because of ISO I had to get an ISO certification. Can you just just enlighten everybody? iMac is amazing. Absolutely awesome. Dr. David Boulais. Is their fearless leader, Director. Incredible program. Can you just enlighten? Enlighten everybody a little bit? What is the MEP network? And for anybody that’s not familiar with it by chance?

Jim Woodell 26:42
Wow, I feel like I’m not the best person to address this question. But I’m going to try and I hope that my colleagues at NIST and MEP will forgive any kind of blips I make in this introduction, but the Manufacturing Extension Partnership is a program that was created I don’t even remember when now I know, I knew the date at some point. But you know, it’s a it’s decades old program. And sort of borrowed, it actually borrowed the language from land grant universities, many people are familiar with Cooperative Extension that universities do. They’re out there in the region and helping mostly agricultural kinds of issues. Well, Manufacturing Extension Partnership was developed to, you know, kind of create that same sort of dynamic for manufacturers. It wasn’t necessarily specifically helping universities, though, connect with manufacturers, but rather to create essentially technical assistance. Organizations that could help manufacturers grow and develop, learn about the newest technologies understand things like ISO or understand things like lean manufacturing, and things like that. And so. So these are from one state to another, it’s very different is what I’m learning. So in one state, like Illinois, IMEC is the MVP for the whole state. It’s one organization that serves the whole state, and they partner with a lot of other organizations like NIU to achieve their mission. In other states, it’s many different organizations. And then sometimes they go by different names. So those folks who are participating might know of MEP, but they don’t know it by that name, right. They know it by IMEC, or advantage, Kentucky Alliance, you know, which is so they don’t all necessarily kind of front end the MEP language in their brand, but they’re available for the other thing is, is that they do different things, right, they become very focused on different things. So you might go to one state or one MVP within a state that’s very focused on sort of the lean manufacturing, ISO kinds of things, leadership training, and so forth. Might go to another one, though, that’s very focused on advanced technologies. And so they’re your, you know, they become a great resource for you and actually figuring out how to make use of new technologies to improve improve your processes and your production.

Curt Anderson 29:01
Well, I not an MEP expert, but dude, I think you did a phenomenal job. He did that. Really good. Yeah,

Jim Woodell 29:09
my MEP colleagues to watch the replay. And

Curt Anderson 29:13
I will say, you know, what an amazing job. And kudos to you for bringing this relationship, merging these relationships with Northern Illinois University and the MEP network and just look at the benefit to the manufacturers, the workforce, all sorts of dynamic opportunities here. So I have another softball coming issue. Oh, now there’s this thing called then workshops. That’s, that might be an easier question. How’s that and somebody just dropped in this thing about the MEP. Thank you for jumping in the extra draft Lincoln. Yeah, there’s a link right there. And so guys, if you are a manufacturer, and this has piqued your curiosity expecially if you’re in Illinois, or is Dr. Jim just mentioned, in Ohio or in Kentucky, there’s some great programs but of course, you can just connect with Dr. Jim himself right here on LinkedIn and who Be happy to help you. So Jim, let’s let’s fight and we’ll start winding down. I don’t man, I could listen to you all day, let’s let’s wind down on this. What is then workshops? I know you are the founder, you are the brainchild of this wonderful program, what’s going on there?

Jim Woodell 30:15
Okay, so Ben works up. So, during the first year of the pandemic, you know, we did a lot of soul searching in my consulting business to think about what other ways can we be reaching folks and helping them to advance economic and social prosperity, particularly through partnerships with universities. And so we decided that given my background in elearning, I had some understanding of that world, I decided I wanted to create, essentially an online professional development Academy. And the people I had in mind as people to come and learn from that Academy were, of course, the people that I had worked with for seven years that APL use of the people at universities who are trying to partner with business and industry, government, local community organizations, to advance economic development, workforce development, community development. But then I discovered that those people that work with universities also need new ideas, fresh ideas about how to do this kind of work. And so we’re really what we’re developing with men workshop is an online professional development Academy, and focused on developing courses and other sorts of offerings to help whomever is working in this universe of economic development, workforce development, community development, and particularly the places where those things intersect. That’s what the Venn is for, right Venn diagram, talent, innovation and place are the three circles. We develop this framework when I was at APLU. So where we’re at those intersections of talent innovation plays, how can we get better? How can we be better at collaboration? How can we be better at setting goals and measuring our progress towards them? How can we be better at getting buy in and communicating about the impact of our program? So a wide range of issues? So we launched two courses in pilot mode last summer, we learned a lot. We’re just about getting ready to those posters are actually available now for registration. We’re going to be running them in cohorts, again, starting this summer. We have for other courses and development courses that we have online. Now we’re about how do you create effective partnerships? And how do you communicate about your economic impact as value creation, so we’re starting reframing economic impact as value creation. Other courses that we’re developing are about transformative, we’re calling it transformative regional impact. So it’s really about creating regional initiatives among different players to create economic prosperity in the region. We have another course specifically focused on how universities engaged in community development. And so you know, please go and check out the offerings. But more important, I’d love to hear from anybody who’s watching us today, I’d love to hear what problems do you face? What challenges do you face that you wish there were some professional development resources available to you to help you figure out? I know, there’s a lot of great stuff out there for manufacturers. But there may not be stuff focused on how you partner well with academic organizations or other organizations. And if there is, are you have questions or challenges in that arena, we’d love to hear about them. The other thing to know is that in alongside ven workshop is we’ve launched something called Venom community. So we have this open platform online ven community, if you go to that same link, Jim wood l.com/learn. And instead you go and you go to Jim widow, that comm slash learn and if you click on community at the top and community, there’s a place where you can join and jump into discussions about these issues about how to collaborate better about, you know, workforce development initiatives that are going on in a variety of other things. And we do a bunch of webinars and other things as well. For example, tomorrow and Thursday, we have two discussions happening about post COVID partnerships. What do they look like? How what how are we going to be working differently in this sort of new era that we’re moving into after after the pandemic? So we’re trying to stimulate some great conversations. But again, our focus is on helping professionals that work in this universe. Oftentimes, they have professional development that’s focused on their work like economic developers, they’ve got IEDC, they go to their conferences, they’ve got a lot of great stuff about doing economic development. Workforce developers, they have a lot of organizations that they go to as well. Everybody’s got their organizations, but there’s nobody that’s saying, hey, but whatever happens when these different kinds of things have to interact, how do you get better at doing that kind of work? And that’s what we’re trying to do with men workshop.

Curt Anderson 34:45
Well, gosh, I have so loved Margo cargo Margo. We love Margo, Monday to me. I

Jim Woodell 34:53
don’t know Margo, but I love her too, just because I love cargo Marco. Yeah, I gotta figure out a name like that.

Curt Anderson 34:59
She is You know, America, Jim would be a great guest. And she does a bunch of LinkedIn lives. And so she comes out so we go on hers, and she’s just, she’s absolutely phenomenal. So, Jim, we’re gonna wind down on this. So first off, man, kudos to you and everybody have a round of applause for Dr. Jim and how you’ve dedicated your career. There’s a your website is in the somebody just dropped it right there. Here it is. Chat. Awesome. So you absolutely want to connect with Jim here on LinkedIn. First off, yeah. Secondly, check out his website. Check out his community. If you know folks in this space boy, get them connected. he’s the right guy. You know, anybody knows our dear friend raise again? Oh, boy, what a tough tandem. That is David. Yeah, right. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. Janney from taxis with tech. And she’s, she’s in Michigan. She covers a great lake region. So Jenny, Happy Monday to you, my friend. Thank you for joining us. Check out your local tech. But, Jim, last question for you today. Man. I’ve been trying to throw softballs. I’m not sure how I’m doing. But here’s the last one for you. For a guy that’s done is amazing work. And again, you’re very humble. And I just our hats are off to you for the lives you’ve changed. Hey, here’s Ray. Ray’s in the house Ray. His ears were ringing. He’s like, boy, I better get on LinkedIn and check out what’s going on here. So Janie jobs a Hi, Jenny, we love you, dear. Thank you for joining us, man. It’s what a great conversation. So Jim, who inspires you? You’ve done such an amazing job for the past 30 years. So you shared with us who your heroes were when you were young? Let’s close out on today. Who is your inspiration? Maybe who? Or maybe that’s plural? who’s inspiring you to keep things driving as hard as you are these days?

Jim Woodell 36:42
Okay, I guess I would go back to the teachers, right. I mean, so but I broaden it out a little bit, you know, so first of all, I’ve worked with higher education institutions, they’re their folks that are the lifeblood of a higher education institution, in addition to the students are the people who are teaching the students. And they’re not just teaching, they’re also doing important research. Those people inspire me because it’s their work that actually is creating these benefits, right? Like, if they weren’t there doing that teaching or doing that research, we would not have the assets that universities and other institutions of higher education have to offer. But beyond them, I think that people who’ve inspired me over the last 15 or so years, as I’ve kind of emerged, gotten into this sort of world are the connectors. You know, they’re the people like Ray really, Ray inspires me for sure. That and you, Kurt, you know, the work that you and Damon are doing in just bringing the community together. People don’t recognize the the value, the tremendous value that and it’s not just like an inconsequential one, like, oh, yeah, we do some networking, we get to know each other. Innovation doesn’t happen without these kinds of conversations. You know, new ideas are not shared, new solutions are not figured out. Unless these kinds of conversations happen. And these conversations don’t just happen. They take connectors, they take people who are willing to out there, who are boundary spanners who are willing to go, I’m gonna go talk to the university people, and then I’m gonna go talk to the small medium unit manufacturer over here and make sure they know how to talk the same language. And so they can kind of do something productive together. So it’s the connectors, the intermediaries, the people who are willing to go out there and cross boundaries and look for new opportunities that emerge from connecting people in organizations. Man,

Curt Anderson 38:33
that is awesome. That was a, what a great way to close. And a couple more comments, we have people already jumping on your website. So this is fantastic. And Ray, do and let’s let’s just go for what you and Ray are doing. And again, we can’t underestimate the power of what you guys are doing for young folks making a huge difference. I remember Ray, I was on vacation with my family. I was out in California visiting other family Ray calls me up and I’m on the West Coast. He’s like, Dude, I’ve got this exciting program at Northern Illinois, let’s talk about it. And so I’ve been a fan at a distance and Jim you and I, our paths crossed. So you know, we salute you for the hard work that you’re doing the difference you’re making. And for a guy in academia to be the networker and the connector that you are that’s just a true testament to you know, our admiration respect goes off to you. And not just individuals but these agencies that are benefiting from you being your you know, bringing your energy your superpowers and your passion to make a difference. So what an inspiration this was David, man I like I was talking to Jesus Great. All right, so guys, we’re gonna wind down. Jim, any last parting thoughts we have connect with you on LinkedIn, your website? Any other parting thoughts for our crowd today?

Jim Woodell 39:47
No, just to say that, you know, ditto, I’m inspired by you guys as well and I really appreciate that it this energy that you know manufacturing Monday motivation is like a perfect name for this. Kurt, you are a great motivator. They’re, and I’m excited about this. And just to say, again, to the folks who have participated or if you’re watching the replay, please do reach out to me. I don’t hear enough from people. I can’t hear enough from people out there working in the, you know, sort of on the front lines of economic development, manufacturing, like making things better. I can’t hear enough from you about what are the challenges that you’re facing? What kinds of issues do you look for more help on? The more I can hear from people about that, the better we can create tools and resources that make a difference.

Curt Anderson 40:35
That’s awesome. And here’s our Hello, John Buck Leno and everybody in this chat box, you know, all leaders in manufacturing Janee tack Ray, of course, we’ve got cargo Margo. You know, everybody that’s in the chat box, guys. Thank you for joining us today, Damon Knight, we never take this for granted, man. We are so honored and as Ray said, honored and humbled. And we’re honored and humbled to have folks like Dr. Jim, join us here today. So yes, he wish each and every single one of you an amazing, amazing week. Damon we’re taking Friday off, you’re going to spend some time with a family so we won’t be around on Friday. I know you’ve got some big and then we got Monday’s a holiday. Next week is Memorial Day. So hey, God bless our veterans got Yeah, well visit anybody that in your in your journey that, you know, laid to rest that served our country proudly. So guys have an awesome, incredible phenomenal week. Dr. Jim, hang out with us for one second. And, guys, God bless you. Thank you, Dr. Jim, thank you for sharing

Jim Woodell 41:31
why everybody thinks Thank you