Supply Chain Humanizer

KISS Principle: Keep It Simple Stupid

I’m only human, I can only create videos and articles every now and then. What I can do on a more often base, is to post some awesome pictures and simple texts about topics that caught my attention.

This is the place to be if you are looking for frequently updated content. Enjoy!

Employee Engagement Happens Between Surveys

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been involved in several conversations about Employee Engagement. While surveys are undoubtedly a valuable tool, they’ve left me reflecting on something else.

The most meaningful conversations rarely show up in a survey. They don’t appear in a metric or on a dashboard. They happen in everyday moments, when someone feels comfortable sharing a different opinion, raising a concern, or discussing not only what’s working, but also what isn’t. They happen when trust exists.

Surveys help us identify opportunities. Conversations help us understand them. And that’s where I believe leaders have a fundamental responsibility.

We cannot expect openness if we haven’t built trust. We cannot expect honest feedback if people don’t feel they will be heard. We cannot ask for commitment without creating an environment where people feel safe to express themselves with freedom and respect.

Building that kind of trust takes time. It is developed one conversation at a time, through listening, consistency, and actions that demonstrate that people’s opinions truly matter.

That’s why, beyond any survey result, I believe real engagement doesn’t happen when someone completes a questionnaire.

It happens when people feel comfortable speaking up, and when they know there will be someone willing to listen.

Because engagement isn’t measured once a year. It’s built every single day.

The Other Side of Business Travel

When we think about business travel, we often picture airports, hotels, new cultures, and interesting destinations. And that’s true, that side exists and can be incredibly rewarding. But there’s another side to the story that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much.

Today was one of those days.

Almost four hours in the car, more than three hours at airports, nine hours in the air. A four-hour layover, another flight, and one final hour on the road before reaching my destination. All of it on a Sunday and a public holiday.

After years of traveling for work, I’ve learned that the miles traveled tell only part of the story. The other part is found in the routines that get disrupted, the Sundays away from home, the birthdays, dinners, and moments we sometimes miss. It’s found in the waiting time, the fatigue, and the challenge of maintaining healthy habits while living between airplanes, hotels, and meeting rooms.

Even so, I still believe that business travel is worth it.

Not because of the airports. Not because of the hotels. Not even because of the destinations. It’s worth it because of the people.

The colleagues we meet. The experiences we share. The opportunity to understand different realities and perspectives. The lessons that only appear when we step outside our usual environment and immerse ourselves in someone else’s world.

Every trip comes at a cost. The key is making sure that the learning, relationships, and growth we gain along the way are worth paying that price.

Because in the end, the miles fade away. The experiences and the people do not.

The most important KPI in any operation is the Wellbeing of the People who Make It Possible

Throughout my career, I’ve worked with dozens of KPIs. Service level, inventory, productivity, costs, forecast accuracy, and many more.

They all matter, and they all help us understand how an operation is performing. However, over the years I’ve discovered something interesting: the best results rarely start on a dashboard.

They start with people who understand where we’re going, who feel part of the journey, and who find purpose in what they do. They start when people have access to the information they need to make decisions, the trust to share their opinions, and the motivation to contribute beyond what is expected.

That’s why I like to think about a different kind of KPI:

Keep People Interested.
Keep People Informed.
Keep People Involved.
Keep People Inspired.

Because KPIs tell us where we are, but people determine how far we can go.

Perhaps that’s why, after so many years working in Supply Chain, I still believe that the most important KPI was never a number.

Leaders do not accelerate change. They create the conditions for it to happen.

We live in a world obsessed with immediacy.

We want quick results. We want high-performing teams in record time. We want to develop leaders overnight. But the most meaningful transformations I have witnessed throughout my career never happened overnight.

Trust takes time. Learning takes time. Growth takes time. And people need time as well to become the best version of themselves.

Leadership requires the patience to support a transformation long before the results become visible.

Our role as leaders is to guide, provide feedback, challenge, support, and trust that each person has their own pace of growth.

Just as a caterpillar does not become a butterfly overnight, people do not transform overnight either.

Growth is rarely comfortable, but it is almost always worth it.

After a long time away from posting, I decided to

come back.

And no, I’m not coming back to tell you how we saved the world, multiplied our results by ten or discovered the secret formula for success.

The reality is much simpler.

Over the years, I’ve learned that behind every KPI, every successful project, and every goal achieved, there is always something far more important: people. People who make mistakes, learn, teach, get frustrated, adapt, and try again.

As managers, we often talk about processes, productivity, action plans, and results. And that’s perfectly fine. They are all part of our job.

But I believe we share too little about the human experiences behind those results.

About difficult conversations. About building trust. About the mistakes that helped us grow. About the leaders who shaped us. About the teams that achieved extraordinary things without anyone truly realizing it. That is why I decided to start writing again.

Not because I have extraordinary answers. Not because I believe my experience is unique. Simply because, after more than a decade working in Planning, Logistics, and Leadership,

I believe it is worth sharing some of the stories, lessons, and reflections that happened behind the numbers. After all, the success or failure of any operation rarely depends on a process alone. More often than not, it depends on people.

In life, just as in business, everything starts with trust: trust in your family, your team, and the people who walk alongside you. Achievements matter, of course. But what truly gives them meaning is having someone to share them with.

Success is not built alone. And when you share it with those who were by your side throughout the journey, it undoubtedly feels much more rewarding.

Welcome back to this space.

Take a Look, It’s in a Book! 📚

This is not a Book Club as such yet it`s close enough. Our P&L Office has now several books from topics like management, leadership, team building and success stories.

How is it going to work? You take a book home, you read it and then you tell your teammates what you have taken away from it.

Among the benefits we expect out of this activity:

– Make us accountable for regular reading
– Reading more thoughtfully
– Promote social engagement
– Sharing what you have read forces you to have an opinion
– Reading promotes lifelong learning
– Broaden our horizons
– Hear new perspectives

This is also a great way for us to learn about new topics as, based on The Learning Pyramid, we learn 10% of what we read yet we learn 90% of what we teach to others!

We all grow at different rates, and that`s ok!

Such simple words with an invaluable lesson for life!

Everything happens in divine and perfect timing and we just have to trust in our growth and believe in ourselves. Remember that life has revealing lessons to teach you: learn them in your own way, at your own pace.

Value your uniqueness! Everyone has their own set of characteristics, skills, dreams and goals that make us different from others. Accept them and don’t be ashamed of who you are and how long it takes you to learn something! Believe in yourself and remember that you are capable and worthy, just as much as anyone else, beyond what you have already achieved and the mistakes you have made.

Take the time to look back and value yourself and all your victories, no matter how big or small they were. Be thankful for the successes you have already achieved that will undoubtedly attract more.

Breaks to be your best version! 😴 💪 🏆

Physical: prioritize sleeping 7 to 8 hours every day.
Spiritual: dedicate a few minutes of your day to meditate or do breathing work.
Emotional: Walk at least 45 minutes without distractions. Contact with nature and the outdoors is essential.
Mental: reflect on what hurts you and try to set limits.
Social: disconnect by being with yourself. You can go to your favorite cafe and enjoy a date alone.
Creative: is there something you want to do and you don’t feel like it? It’s time to start it!

Remember that taking a break to rest, regain energy and reset yourself is essential to lead a healthy and pleasant life.

Be a coach, not a trainer

A great leader is someone who inspires you to jump into action and provides guidance and recommendations. It is not someone that tells you exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it.

Simple yet powerful words: “Be a coach, not a trainer”

If you truly mean to give all you got, you will have nothing to regret 💪

Every day you have the opportunity to live up to your own expectations. Its doesn´t always has to be 100%, yet it has to be all you got!

What we are not changing, we are choosing

Our life is full of challenges, many of which (if not all) depend on ourselves. We may not have all the solutions at our fingertips, perhaps we often think that the universe is conspiring against us. Anyhow, we will always have the decision of how we face those challenges at our fingertips.

For change to happen, we have to actively choose to do things differently, and this is the important thing: IT WILL NOT ALWAYS BE SOMETHING WE WANT TO DO.

If you are in an unhappy situation, what are you doing to solve this aspect of your life? Are you actively trying to change things for the better or are you ignoring the problem?

Reminder: there will always be stuff on our “things I have to change” list, what matters is to face each one of them with a smile and embrace them as a learning opportunity.

Traveling for work: do we live on vacation mode?

Lucky you, traveling all the time! What a good job you have! You do have a good time, huh?

If you are one of those who travels for work, surely you have been told some of those phrases. And yes, we are happy, we sleep in hotels, we get our beds made, we experience new cultures and foods, we live on vacations, right?

I believe we are also a bit unfortunate. Being away from home 20 weeks a year means little sleep, working twice as hard and having difficulty establishing routines. We spend hours and hours at the airport and traveling with the mere company of a podcast, radio and books. It’s hours and hours away from our own bed, from our affections, from our home…

Every day of our lives we have the same choice, accepting what happens around us with a smile or with a worried face. In this case, I choose to smile. I choose to understand that traveling means growing and learning, that there is a team that has my back every single day, without the need of me being there, that, when I get home, I will receive that affectionate hug that is only given after prolonged absences, or with that emotion and madness as only my dog Adolfo knows how to do…

I choose to smile for the present that I’m leaving by, knowing that I have a team and a family that do nothing but support me to continue building a successful future. I simply choose to say THANK YOU!

There cant be real success without disruption

I got inspired while reading #RebelTalent by #Francesca Gino.

As I’m enjoying an awesome 29ºc winter time in Brazil ❄, I`ve decided to spend this week challenging everyone and everything. Well, actually with main focus on outbound just for this time 😄

Forcing us and those around us to permanently step out of our comfort zone, is the the best way I know to achieve lasting growth.

It pays to be curious, it pays to ask why again and again, it pays to break the rules at work and in life. There cant be real nor sustainable success without disruption. Lets shake things up! 💪

We plan based on our expectations yet we perform and live our life based on our reality

Last couple of years for sure had a huge gap between what we have expected and what actually had happened. Still, not being able to perform as you expected doesn`t mean you have failed, its actually the other way around. Having the proper skills to adapt to such disruptive environment is what makes us grow. If you have managed to adapt, then you have had great success!

I hate so much when people say “If you don’t expect a lot, then you will never be disappointed”. That’s just settling down. DONT DO THAT! 😠

Aim for greatness, expected awesome things from those around you and from yourself, and learn to adapt. Understand that it takes time, effort, sacrifice and willpower, but you will get there. And when you do get there, that sense of accomplishment, well, that’s what we call happiness! 😀

If you care about other people’s happiness, you’ll find yours too.

Some time ago I came across a lovely bedtime teaching story about a professor and his balloons, who`s author I’m not sure about.

As I’ve learned while reading “Building a second brain”, written by Tiago Forte, its goods to save data for later as you never know when it will come in hand.

For 2023, I`ve committed myself to post at least 2 times a week and I believe this story is a nice way to begin with. Enjoy! 😊

During a University lecture, a professor gave a balloon to every student. They had to inflate them, write their names on them and throw them in the hallway outside the lecture theatre.
Students were puzzled. The professor then mixed all the balloons. The students were given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no surprise no one found their balloon.

The professor then told the students to take the first balloon that they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 2 minutes, everyone had their own balloon back.

The professor said to the students: “These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people’s happiness, we’ll find ours too.”

The empty agenda

The first business trip of 2023 has arrived and this is how my agenda looks like for the upcoming week in Brazil.

No, I did not mess it up! ITS EMPTY, 5 days of blank space!

Why? Because over the last couple of years I’ve realized that you can’t set a team`s direction without understanding how their days looks like.

In order to lead a human group, we need to see “on air” the roles they play within the team and the company as a whole, we need to understand the aspirations they have, we need to experience first hand the struggles and challenges they go through.

This is why my agenda is empty, because I’m gong there to listen, to see, to understand the dynamics of the day-to-day Planning & Logistic operations. It`s simple: I’m going there to spend quality time close to my team.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, its the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means

Imagine two kids arguing because they both wanted an orange. After fighting for a while, they cut it in half without realizing that one wanted to eat the fruit while the other wanted the skin to bake a cake.

Conflict is not black or white, its about building up grey with a bit of each color.

Conflicts are only a problem when we let them become one. Victims are usually like: Why me? while leaders are: It’s up to me!