MEL #046 | From Local Plant to Worldwide Impact through Taking Initiative and Leveraging Transferable Skills with Greivin Chavarria

CHAVARRIA (00:00)

I thought that was a great opportunity for me to learn So I quickly went to my manager at that time and I raised my hand. And I said, I really want to be part of that. I don’t know what you want me to do. You know, I’ll bring the coffee if that’s what I need to do.

But I knew I want to be part of that discussion

ADAMS (00:41)

In this episode, I speak with Greivin Chavarria, Global Quality Strategy and Innovation Director at Medtronic. Greivin grew up in Costa Rica where he discovered chemical engineering by asking questions at a local sugar mill.

He launched his career in process optimization through a rotational program at CEMEX, where he built global experience and led major manufacturing operations. After completing an executive MBA at MIT, he transitioned into the medical device industry.

In our leadership segment, Greivin discussed how, only weeks into a new role, he inherited a 60 % capacity ramp project for a multi-shift production line. He combined strategic actions with political and cultural lenses, aligning cross-functional teams, protecting quality, and connecting the work to patient impact.

Greivin’s advice to engineering leaders, try small experiments in people leadership. Study enduring operations principles like the Toyota Way, pursue continuous learning, and embrace discomfort by raising your hand before you feel fully ready.

Explore the full episode summary, including guest bio, key takeaways, transcript, and recommended resources in the show notes at drangeligadams.com slash podcast. Without further delay, here’s my conversation with Greivin Chavarria.

ADAMS (02:01)

Hi, Greivin Welcome to Mastering Engineering Leadership.

CHAVARRIA (02:04)

Angelique, I’m honored to be here. Thank you for extending the invitation and I’m so happy to reconnect with you

ADAMS (02:09)

Great, me too. I’m thrilled to have you here. Can you start by telling us how you got into engineering as a career path?

CHAVARRIA (02:16)

Ooh, that takes me many, years back. So I’ll provide a little bit of my background as part of that answer. I grew up in Costa Rica in a pretty small town outside of the cities. And during that, during my time growing up, my family was very focused on the value of education.

So I always thought about, know, I need to study, I need to study hard, I need to do well in school. And probably when I got to high school and I was going through the years, I was doing well and I didn’t know what I really wanted to do with that. People thought that I was good in math, in science, but I also did well in other disciplines. So just was not sure what I wanted to do. In my family, most of my, well, my mom,

One of my uncles, they’re educators. So I thought about that as a personal career path. Another one of my uncles is an architect. And I really want that aspect of, know, designing something using math and, you know, design concepts. But it was when I started working summers with my dad. My dad used to work in a sugar mill that was close to where we grew up. And I started to work with him.

He was running the small cafeteria that the place had for all employees. And talking with people, I started to learn about what were some people doing. So I would talk with the head of the lab at that facility and ask, okay, what is that you guys do there? And he will tell me about the analysis that they were running to make sure the sugar process was working correctly and the right quality sugar was coming out of the facility.

And then I would talk to people that were more on the finance side and different aspects. And I think it was one of the conversations when I started to see what the engineers were doing in that facility that really intrigued me the most. So at that point, I started to think, I like engineering. I just don’t know which one of all the different disciplines of engineering. And I continued asking questions. So this was like two different summers or breaks in high school.

until I got to talk with the chemical engineer that was visiting that side. So this was the person in charge for all the regulation aspect from a chemical engineering perspective. He started to teach me about mass balances and the energy diagrams that he was using to understand the entire process and his regular responsibilities and how he was trying to develop the process.

you know, using thermodynamics and, you know, fluid dynamics and all of these concepts. And it really got intrigued. So that’s when I said, you know, out of all the engineering disciplines, think chemical engineering is what I want to do. So I applied with Costa Rica. You have to take, at the time, you have to take an standardized exam. And based on how you do in that exam is that you can apply to some of the different careers.

And I got this score that I needed to apply into chemical engineering. So at that point I knew, okay, this is my path, you know, going forward.

ADAMS (05:09)

That’s great. And then, after you got your degree in chemical engineering and you, you quickly went into the process side, the manufacturing side of things. Can you talk a little bit about your career trajectory?

CHAVARRIA (05:20)

Absolutely. So when I graduated, I first went actually, and I normally don’t put that in my curriculum, but I went very quickly to avod laboratories at the time. So it was more in the medical device industry. And I was there just for a few months. I was learning the process and learning how to be in that space and a large

construction material companies at the time, CEMEX, I had applied for that company before. It was actually a rotational program and they were late to respond, but they responded and asked me if I wanted to still join the rotational program. So I very quickly transitioned to that space. It was far away from the city, relatively remote location. So actually people had to live in a small, you know,

area close to the plant. So I have to basically disconnect from the city, move, you know, far away. And I started to learn about the chemical reactions that are part of this manufacturing process. It was a great experience. That’s one of the things that I would probably put out there for anyone listening. If you have an opportunity to do a rotational program within a company, sometimes that is a great way to understand what things you really enjoy and what things you don’t enjoy as much.

and trying to determine what is going to be your career path going forward. But yeah, I started in process optimization from an equipment perspective. So quickly after my rotational rotation program, I was assigned to the production, the manufacturing process. I started to learn more about how to really optimize first individual pieces of the system of the equipment and then how to understand how the system will work well together.

And I really enjoyed that because I was able to apply the things that I had learned during my engineering degree to the full extent. was trying to advise how to run the equipment to increase efficiency, to reduce energy consumption. So I was having a great time at that point. It was probably a couple of years into my career in the company when I heard that a team was coming from the headquarters.

or East Stilford Quarter in Monterrey, Mexico. And I heard that a team of experts was coming to assess the process and understand ways to potentially increase capacity because demand for cement was reaching a point where the plant was gonna be completely sold out at that particular point. And I thought that was a great opportunity for me to learn even more besides what I was learning locally. So I quickly went to my manager at that time and I raised my hand.

And I said, I heard this team is coming here. I really want to be part of that. I don’t know what you want me to do. You know, I’ll bring the coffee if that’s what I need to do. But I knew like, I want to be part of that discussion and that analysis. So he very quickly, he accepted and asked me to get in contact with the team that was coming to do the assessment. So I reach out and I ask, what can I get ready for you? Right? How can I get ready?

So when you get here, we can use your time the most effective way. I established a good relationship with the people remotely for the visit and they actually sent me the whole plan of what they wanted to execute. And I decided I was gonna execute it on my own first before they got there. And that way I could learn what I did right and what I did wrong. So I went ahead and executed the plan that they have, did most of the analysis and the day the team came into the site.

I basically told them, this is all that I have accomplished already. But if you want to verify any of these, I’m happy to take you to the field, go to the equipment, we do the measurements and determine if what I had done is adequate or not. And that opened a huge door for me because after that, they wanted me to go with you to other locations to do the same thing outside of Costa Rica.

ADAMS (09:04)

Yeah, that’s amazing. mean, I want to double click on a couple of things you said there. So one is that you raised your hand, You saw an opportunity for yourself and you raised your hand to your boss and you said, I really want to do this and I’ll take, you know, I’ll take anything.

As much as people would love to be tapped on the shoulder far often than not, I hear leaders like yourself saying, I raised my hand, I took the initiative, I was willing to go in at entry level. The second thing you said, which is really fascinating to me is you said, they sent me the plan.

I went ahead and tried to follow the plan myself. And one you wanted to learn, which I think is great, but the part that was really unique, I think, was for you to then show them, this is what I did. I don’t know if it’s right or not, but can you please validate this for me? And I just think that’s a great learning mentality,

where did you get that idea from?

CHAVARRIA (09:59)

Yeah, no, those are great reflections and concepts. If I can build on your first reflection, you know, the raising the hand ⁓ for anyone listening, I want to make sure that you know that raising the hand is not, ⁓ I got this. I’m just going to raise my hand. It was like, this sounds interesting. I don’t know if I can really do this to the full extent, but I’m going to take a chance. And I think, you know, I have good, good confidence of my, you know, engineering principles, what I have learned.

But I obviously I’m not at the level of the people that were coming to the assessment. Still I want to be part of it. So there’s a certain degree of being uncomfortable with the decision, but knowing that at the end of the day is an opportunity for growth, which connects with the second part that you mentioned. At the time, I didn’t know this, but I thought if I do it on my own and I got something wrong in the process,

I’m gonna be able to get someone to explain to me what is wrong and then take that as a learning opportunity for the future. What’s interesting because I have been listening to Frances Frey and reading a little bit of her work right from the Harvard Business School. And I think the phrase she uses, sometimes what gets in the way of excellence is the courage of being bad at something or being wrong at something.

⁓ so anyway, at the time, probably I didn’t have that exact thought in my head, but what I thought is even if I’m wrong, I’m going to learn from this experience.

ADAMS (11:22)

Yeah, And I could imagine, you signaled to them, wow, this person really takes initiative, really wants to learn, is so proactive. We want them on our team

CHAVARRIA (11:32)

yeah, think things aligned well at that point. So I actually, I think it was during the same week they were in Costa Rica working with me, they asked me, would you like to do this in other places? And I immediately said, absolutely, you tell me when and where and figure out a way to get there. So they were serious on that and very quickly asked me to go to Monterey, Mexico at the time.

the company was working on an expansion project in Dominican Republic. And they asked me, you like to come and work on this with us for a few weeks? And I thought it was a great opportunity to continue learning. So that was the next step on my learning journey. So I packed up. I thought I was gonna be in Monterey for a couple of weeks. I went there and I think was at the end of week one or week two when they asked me, well, what if we extend this for about a year?

But by the way, we want you to move to Switzerland because we have a lot of projects that are closer to that location. At the time, the company had a research and development facility in Switzerland and it was just a good central point for many other projects that they wanted to do. A lot of the work that the team was doing was related to computational fluid dynamics and finding ways to improve combustion. And I didn’t have that full

you know, a skill set at the time for me, but I knew something and is the team like what you said, you know, being proactive, that I was being proactive, but also I learned that for me to be part of this team, I need to find where can I add value, you know, in the eyes of the rest of the group that I was working with. And I think where they saw that I could add a lot of value is I was not afraid of

going to the field, engaging with operators, asking for help to go and take measurements, taking a measurement and then verifying it at a different location to make sure that I was getting the right information for the studies that they were doing. I kind of became, more people were helping, but I kind of became the person really taking a lot of the field work and then coming on learning for what they were doing right in terms of the calculations and.

and the computer work that was at the end of the day used for the adjustments in the designs that we were knowing. So finding where I could find value was important for me. And I think that allowed me to work with that team for roughly a year at the time, which expanded my network because I was now visiting locations in different countries. I think some of your previous guests.

talk about the value of an international assignment. I’m just gonna emphasize that aspect that is so important. know, understanding the cultures, just working, you know, with different people, expanding your network. And through that expansion of my network, I was able to connect with some of the leaders in the processes space that were in the US at the time working for the same company. And they asked me once my assignment in Switzerland was done,

if I would be interested in coming to the US. And I think I landed in Costa Rica after that assignment. And within a couple of weeks, I was already backing again to be able to move to the US. So it was a good way for me to transition and really leverage the network that I had developed to find the next opportunity.

ADAMS (14:46)

And along the way, you decided to go back to school to get an MBA. So can you talk a little bit about that decision? And then, of course, we’ll let everyone know. So that’s where you and I met. We were at MIT together. ⁓ And you were living in Knoxville at the time. And so we had a chance to get to know each other, not only in the program, but sometimes we were on the same flight. And so we’d share notes and just really had a great opportunity to become friends.

CHAVARRIA (15:10)

Yeah, I’ll take you through a little bit of that journey. Actually, when I finished my undergrad, one of the things my professors immediately mentioned is you’re gonna continue with your graduate degree right away, right? And I really wanted that industry experience first. I wanted to say, to go and work a couple of years in industry and then come back to school and do.

probably a master’s degree in chemical engineering or some engineering discipline. But actually after that experience in Switzerland, I came to the US and I was asked to move to California where Semmix had one of their biggest facilities. I thought I’m probably gonna work there for a couple of years doing more equipment optimization. And after that, I’m gonna apply for graduate school.

But when I went to California, my manager at the time decided to leave the company within about six months of me being there. This is the biggest or was at the time the biggest facility that

Semex had in the US, was providing supply and demand for California, Arizona, Nevada, ⁓ Mexico and a few other places that I probably don’t remember anymore. And when my boss decided to leave, I raised my hand one more time, so you’re gonna hear a topic there, when I said, I think I can cover for that job, at least temporarily. I didn’t think they were gonna give an inexperienced manager the option, but I started covering for the job.

while the leadership was looking for a replacement for that position. So it was a production manager role, probably the biggest one in the US at that particular point. And I started to do the job with the help of a lot of people at the time. So a lot of the supervisors, my peers, other engineers, they guided me through the process, the operators themselves, making sure that I had the right advice.

And after a few years of looking for a replacement, think the leadership at the site decided that I was doing a job that was according to their expectations. So they decided to offer me the position. That took me through a different journey, which is I wanted them to learn about people leadership, developing that skill. And honestly, it’s one of those things that I thought I was going to do for maybe two or three years.

And I found myself doing that for about seven years. So at that point, I was really interested in applying for grad school. But before I did that, I’m like, I probably need to get just back in the swing of things with going back to school. So I enrolled in a Six Sigma Greenbelt class at the University of California at Riverside. I enjoyed the class.

Lean and Six Sigma were concepts that I was really interested in at the time. And that opened the door for me to actually work with the leadership at Samix at the point, because they wanted to start a Lean Six Sigma program. So I was able to jump in on that space. That’s when I moved to Knoxville. The moment that I moved to Knoxville, I started thinking about, now I’m closer to other schools that I’m very interested in. I want to start applying.

But honestly, the first couple of years of the Lean Six Sigma journey were very high-paced learning and application. So it was until I got to a point where I felt that now the learning and the growth was starting to slow down where I said, it’s time for me to apply to school. Again, I honestly applied to a couple of schools closer to Knoxville.

at great schools that I was very happy were interested in my application and had accepted me. But I had to apply to MIT. I remember I applied late. And actually, one of our advisors called me. We had a great discussion. And he told me, the only thing you have to be aware of is you are a couple months late at this point. So you have to wait a year if you want to do this.

Which was an interesting choice to make at the point is do I wait for another year and determine if I’m going to be accepted to the school of my dreams at the time? Or do I go with schools that are really good in the area that already have accepted me and that I can start pretty much right away? This

is one of those questions that probably changes your trajectory. What the person asked me is, are you going to be OK if you don’t take your chance of waiting for that year and going to MIT? And I had that conversation with my family. And at the end, we made the decision that my wife and my family always call it a burn the boats moment, where I said, thank you. I’m not going to start my MBA right away.

but I’m actually gonna go do my MBA a year later, if accepted. If not, I was gonna have to re-plan. Luckily that didn’t happen.

ADAMS (20:02)

I didn’t know that story. Yeah, I didn’t know that you were at this fork in the road where you had to either potentially wait or go.

CHAVARRIA (20:10)

Yeah, so when I was doing the executive MBA at MIT, I was helping CEMEX deploy an operational excellence program, leading Six Sigma concepts around the world. So we had 59 facilities, I believe, in 19 different countries. I was having to work, I had the opportunity to work with people in all of those different countries and…

plan development programs for the application in Lean and Six Sigma and actually teach courses myself on Greenbelt and Black Belt And I was having a ton of fun. Honestly, at the time I was getting a little bit of tired or a lot of the travel aspect. My wife is from the Midwest, so from Wisconsin, but she spent most of her early…

adult life in Minnesota because that’s where she went to school. And at the time we decided that it was probably good to have a change in the career. I was interested in looking at other industries and in this area we have, you know, big Fortune 500 companies that, you know, were interested for me at the time that I thought it was a good career change and get a different, you know, perspective.

But many people think about career change and going from one industry to another. And that is, there’s always a risk of doing that, right? You may have to take a step down or, you know, maybe the initial change, right? Has some additional challenges. At the time I had a person that was coaching me through the process and gave me a lesson that is probably worth sharing, which is transferable skills. So I was in an industry

I had developed many skills, both in people leadership, but also just in general understanding engineering management and Gleam and Six Sigma, of course, as part of the process, as well as the MBA, all the skillsets that I had just also developed through that. And I started to do a list of what are the skills that were important in the industry that I was targeting, in this case, medical device.

and what skills that I have that were transferable from where I was coming from. So I did a spreadsheet with all those and trying to identify where are my gaps. And clearly for me, one of the gaps was understanding quality in an FDA regulated industry like medical device. So I remember applying to the company that I work at right now, Metronic.

And that was one of the topics of every interview is coming from a different industry, understanding of the regulations from the FDA and other regulatory bodies. And what can I do to overcome that gap that I had in my experiences? So at that point, my answers were more related to as a well-known gap, I need to identify a way to develop it. This is going to be my point of concentration.

And at the same time, because I knew that that was a gap, I could very quickly address with the quality engineers, with the quality leadership, the need for them to guide me through many of those decisions because I just didn’t have that experience in the past. So it was an important transition for me. I learned a ton. I have continued to learn every single day.

And it has worked well because now I’m actually ⁓ working on a strategy for the quality function. So I knew that there was a gap and I have been able to continue to develop the skills in that area to improve basically my position as a leader in operations and now in the quality space.

ADAMS (23:50)

All right, Greivin, can you give us an example of when you’ve used leadership skills in your work.

CHAVARRIA (23:53)

I think that is an everyday kind of situation, but I’m gonna probably provide one specific challenge because I think helps me illustrate kind of the thought process that I tried to apply. And hopefully this one will resonate with you, Angelique, because it comes directly from one of the classes that I took together. So when I joined Metronic, I joined the company as a manufacturing manager.

at one of our facilities. At the time that I joined that particular value stream that I was gonna be managing the manufacturing operations for was in the process of launching a new component. So this is an integrated internal supplier. We were making components for other facilities and I was in charge of one value stream that was in the process of launching a new component. The interesting thing is I had

done my interviews, I accepted the role. I’ve gone maybe through my first week or week and a half and my manager at the time calls me and sits down with me and says, so this is the challenge we have right now for you. We’re really behind on this production ramp up for this new product launch. And I need you to help me figure out how we’re going to get through.

through this gap in the production readiness. The increasing capacity that was needed at the time was roughly 60%. And these are two lines that were working already two full shifts and a partial third shift, a nice shift was already in place. And from there we had to go 60 % more capacity.

So it was a nice challenge. It was one when you say, okay, you is you need to hit the ground running ⁓ after a couple of weeks of being in a new company. And it was obviously also an opportunity, right, to show, you know, what skills can I bring that maybe the team at the time didn’t have or maybe was not considering. So what I use at that time is one of the lessons we had in our organizational behavior.

behavior class, which was applying three lenses to every problem and thinking about, you know, what is the solution from a strategic perspective? What are the political considerations and not political from a bad, from a bad term, but more, you know, the power forces that influence this work and also the cultural elements that were needed in that space. Right now I lead a PMO and I

every time I work with my PMs, many of us, in particular, many of us that have that engineering background, I think we excel on the strategic lens in terms of what is the right answer? I’m gonna make all these aspects fit together and get the perfect solution. And we put less emphasis sometimes on the political and the cultural lens. And so it’s always, that is always present in my mind and something that I try to coach the team to think through.

and not think only about the perfect answer, but also about the other elements that can influence adoption and support in the organization. So at that particular time, I sat with the production supervisors and put in place what I was thinking to be the rightest strategic plan. So things we did, like for example, we fully staffed the tertiary, right? Which, you know, that’s an increased capacity that way.

We actually started that weekend shift. So Saturdays and Sundays, some people will come in and also produce additional parts, work with overtime for some of the parades that were already working Monday through Friday. So those are the things that you’re like, okay, these are the quick hits. I can get production ramp up that way, obviously at a cost right at the end of the day. So is that the right cost balance and making sure that I justify that side? But then there were other elements. So for example,

we had the production group, we had a product development group. The product development group was at the same time doing some testing on those same lines. And sometimes those times were not tightly coordinated. So that created additional efficiencies where the operators were ready to go, but the production development group was running the equipment for some particular tests at the time. So working with the supervisors, working with the development group,

This is maybe into the political side a little bit in terms of, we need to work together. We need to find a way in which you can do your job, but we also need to meet our production goals at that time. I had a background in VNN Six Sigma and the company was and is still pays a lot of attention to application of those concepts. And, you know, we try to develop the concepts every day. So at the time I engaged the

OPEX team to find additional opportunities. How can we expand even the Lean and Six Sigma concepts to a greater level? So things they did at the time was apply Kanban and then the supermarkets that we had and finding the right optimal point for how the line was gonna be balanced, applying standard work and how we had a good flow through the entire cell for production. And then the other aspect, which was

we had a high model mix production line. So we say one product, but it’s multiple models of that product. So initially we were building according to the plan. So at the beginning of the month, we will get a plan and we’ll try to build to that. then halfway through the month, we will see that the signals were different. So we tried to get closer to the real signals, which is what was shipped at our facility the week before. And then we moved to what was

the plan at our customer facilities for the week after. And then we were able to work with them to understand very clearly the model mix that was gonna be needed for the next four weeks. So we can anticipate and really be built what they were needing in that particular space. All of that is that strategic lens, but we also put in place some aspects from a political perspective, the political lens perspective, right? So understanding the leaders presence on the floor.

and making sure that everyone understood that this product, you know, production ramp was really important. And getting the engineering team on the same page and the technicians to understand we cannot have equipment down. We’re asking people to work overtime. We’re asking people, you know, to, we’re trying to put a, a weekend shift together. How are we going to act as a team with a speed and decisiveness every time that an equipment is having an issue?

is not having the right yield or is going down necessarily, right? And the process and making sure that everyone had that same voice from leadership that this is important. We all have to work together and we win or lose as one team as part of the process. And at the end of the day was, the operators are gonna be our customers for everybody else. So if they need something, we need to move quickly and

you know, think about the pyramid from, you know, an inverted pyramid perspective where they’re the ones producing value. Everyone else is there to support those operators on the line. And all of that would have been probably good, but always the cultural side and Inmetronic, the mission is something critically important. We talk about the mission on a regular basis and connecting that, right? Because at the end of the day,

is not the same for those operators to think that they were trying to produce more for financial purposes. In reality, what we’re trying to do is produce more so our patients have product available when they really need it, right? And the idea that every decision we make, every action we take, we have a patient on the other side of that decision and making that connection very clearly. But also, and this is one of the things that I really like about electronic and the way the electronic acts is,

As part of our mission, we have six tenants and one of them is to strive, excuse me, strive without a reserve for the greatest possible reliability and quality in our products. So when you start asking people, know, we’re gonna work some weekends, right? Some overtime is in there, you know, we need to make sure that we meet production goals. Those cannot come at the expense of, you know, any kind of.

quality signals or issues. So we put in place rewards for the team and some of them were, you know, small stuff like, hey, we’re gonna get lunch for the team together if we reach certain goals, or we’re gonna get a little bit of, you know, t-shirts or some sort of, you know, water bottles or whatever the case was, right, with the logo about us meeting our goals. But we really emphasize at that point,

celebrating those operators who were raising their hand for any quality issues that they were seeing on the line. So we had a balance between getting the right production goals and at the same time achieving those without risking patient safety or quality of the products at the time, which is obviously even more important for us than the production goal itself. So I put that example because I think it’s a way in which

As an engineer, again, my head typically goes to the strategic side right away. And I have to thank Roberto Fernandez and the MIT executive MBA for bringing those lenses because now that allows me to actually assess situations in a different way and complement the approach that ⁓ I take right now that I coach my teams to take on forward.

ADAMS (33:16)

Yeah, this is great example. think the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s actually a really great example of what you said in our previous segment about transferable skills, So you here you are, you’re, coming in.

and you get this new challenge And so you have to immediately bring in everything that you know about how to increase capacity through all of the Six Sigma, all of these different things. But also now you’re also bringing in the learnings from the executive MBA around the three lenses. immediately your transferable skills are called upon and you can deploy them appropriately.

So I, of course, love that you’re talking about the three lenses. That was a big takeaway for me too. And I will link in the show notes. There’s actually a free online training that MIT has done on this a couple of years ago so people can watch a video about this and learn about the three lenses. And I’m curious, how was your approach to tackling this problem received,

So of course we’re expecting an engineering point of view. Yes, bring Lean Six Sigma, let’s measure workflows, let’s measure all the operational stuff, But now you’re talking about, collaborating across teams and the political side of things about sometimes certain teams’ needs are more important than others and managing that. And then also, you know, making sure that you’re connected to the mission.

Can you just talk a little bit about how your approach was received in the beginning?

CHAVARRIA (34:35)

Yeah, I think each action probably had a different response in the process. The strategic side, I think, well received. Obviously, when you’re trying to make decisions about adding personnel, a shift, or adding people on their shift, you have to make sure that that’s the right approach from a finance perspective, from a can we support a team perspective, all those aspects. I think the political and cultural lenses

are things that I don’t normally tell my team to consider, to take action on. I don’t know if myself at that time or my teams currently really talk about those explicitly. I think it’s part of how you put a change management plan together and incorporate them. Sometimes what I have heard from people is sometimes the best frameworks are the things you apply, you don’t need to…

talk about them as much, you use them to guide your decisions, but it’s not really the main talking point in the process. So at the time, I think the team enjoyed the idea of the challenge, the rewards, there are other aspects that I probably should have mentioned at the time, right? There are things where from a leadership perspective, setting the right example. So when we have people coming and working overtime, my managers at the time, two,

managers that reported to me or myself, we were there with them on Saturdays or Sundays and visited them and making sure nothing was wrong or just a simple message of, is my cell phone number. If your line is not working how you expect, you can call me. Doesn’t matter what time it is, doesn’t matter what date it is. Obviously within certain limits, right? For people not to get burned out, but in a way that they felt supported by their management at the time.

So I think all of those are aspects that the team connected well with, knowing how we were using our position, our responsibility to get everybody in the organization aligned and responding to their needs, to the needs of the operators at that particular time, which was responding to the needs of the patients. And the cultural lens, honestly, is one aspect that I think Medtronic does extremely well.

making those connections and understanding the impact that we have on patients is something that we discuss on a regular basis. And I just wanted to make sure that as part of those cultural artifacts that I was gonna be aware of what they wear, respect them, and obviously use them accordingly for the people to see that message.

is what they expected to see right from leaders in terms of the importance of quality and serving patients and how we are all going to be one team and know work or win or lose as one team.

ADAMS (37:26)

All right, Greivin, as we wrap up, what advice do you have for engineers who are interested in pursuing leadership roles?

CHAVARRIA (37:32)

I may go in a few different directions on this one, Angelique. So let me start with one that I think is very valuable and it’s something that I have been coaching new engineers on lately. Some companies, and I think you have discussed this in previous podcasts, the dual ladder aspect. Some companies have the dual ladder, some core companies don’t. So thinking about that as part of obviously your…

your commitments in terms of what companies you want to go and work for. But those that want to explore people leadership, I would say the value of small control experiments in that space is something that I put a lot of attention to. So for example, when a new engineer comes to me and I say new, right? A few years in the industry comes to me and shows interest towards people leadership.

What I normally advise them to do is start with something small. I do you want to be a project leader, right? So you are actually managing a team and, you know, delegating tasks and assigning them and keeping the team right with the right culture and dynamic moving forward. Or it could be temporarily managing some interns, right, during summer, right? If your company has an intern program.

⁓ You may raise your hand and ask your leader to be the one who is going to manage one or two interns in the process. Or even if there is someone new to the team, can you be the coach mentor, know, the peer mentor for that person in a way that you think about, you know, can I do this on a regular basis if I were assigned a team, a team of people under me? So I believe there is a lot to be learned in that space. I have had some people that after doing it come back to me and say, yep, I think this is the right

asked me to go and some people that say, I didn’t really enjoy that. I prefer maybe to stay on my technical ladder. So no right or wrong in that space is just using some control experiments like that in a way that you can decide if that’s what the person wants to do or not for their career. That is one. The second one is I think the listeners

heard me talk quite a bit about Lean and Six Sigma principles. Something that really has shaped my leadership thinking are the 14 principles from the Toyota Way. So if people have not read the Toyota Way from Jeffrey Leichner, I highly advise to take the time to do that. If you don’t have the time, if the person doesn’t have the time to do it, at least getting what 14 principles are and reading through them.

⁓ is something that I try to do on a regular basis because I think there is a lot of wisdom in those 14 principles. And every time that I find myself with doubts about doing something, I try to go back to those 14 principles and say, okay, what am I missing here? Which one of these 14 principles can provide at least an option for me to explore going forward? And then expanding on that is the idea of continuous learning, right? So how do you continue to evolve yourself through your career and learn something that is new in the process? At least for me, what has worked is that, you know, I got to a point where I was comfortable in a position and I tried to find, okay, what is the next thing that I need to learn? Temporarily, maybe uncomfortable, right? You may have to raise your hand and have doubts about, you know, am I ready for…

for this next step or not, but in every single one of those moments of discomfort, there is an opportunity for growth. So I would say those are the three things that I would advise for any ⁓ engineer who wants to explore leadership to consider going forward.

ADAMS (41:06)

Greivin, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today.

CHAVARRIA (41:08)

Thank you for having me.