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For the last 20+ years I have worked for smaller companies, and the key to success has always been about building relationships. Whether it’s with customers, suppliers, or other team members, a strong relationship – one that is built on trust and understanding – will prevail through the good times and the bad.

Strong relationships make for strong business – in any industry or role. The Analytics group at One Energy has worked on building these relationships over the years by following a few simple rules:

  1. It’s not about the sale. Regardless of who the parties are, if the goal is just getting a sale done, the relationship will never last, and instead, it becomes dependent on each sale to exist. Lasting relationships, on the other hand, are about solving problems. Solve a customer’s problem by introducing them to the correct product, and they’ll remember that. Help a co-worker out in a time of need, and they’ll remember that. Work with a supplier to develop new products, and they’ll remember that. Sales are just a way to get into the game. Solving problems has staying power.
  2. Everyone must benefit. This is not a secret; it is a fact. The challenge is to prevent any one party from getting greedy, or else everything starts to fall apart. If a supplier makes too much margin, your customer will no longer trust your work. If you negotiate a supplier into a losing position, they will no longer want to work with you. For relationships to last, it must be fair for all parties involved, while still solving the problem.
  3. Be a resource. In all good business relationships, questions arise constantly. Get to a position of being a resource that people can use, and actively promote being that resource. A coworker that finds it easy to get quick accurate answers to their questions is far more likely to return the favor. When a customer picks up the phone when they have a question and you are able to help them, they will think of you as a useful resource.
  4. People skills are powerful. Make sure to have someone on your team who has a knack for genuine interpersonal communication. My colleague has an amazing ability to read and interact with people in a way that is different from anything I have experienced. The communication is genuine and real, which creates a bond between people. Their ability to read individuals and situations through active listening and effective communication has been a tremendous asset to our team. In a time of big data and trending analytics, it is easy to lose track of the need for people skills. The ability to quickly provide feedback on whether a presentation hit the mark or not. The ability to steer a conversation based on reading the room. The ability to make connections with not only the group leader, but others in the room. It’s these kinds of people skills that build strong relationships

Over the years, I have seen people overestimate the strength of their business relationship to the point of neglect, and it never ends well. But if all parties value and put effort into the relationship, and follow the rules above, it has the potential to outlast any single sale or negotiation.

Rich Bohon is the Head of Analytics at One Energy.

Learn more about Rich and the One Energy team.

The best part about school starting back up? The field trips!

At least, that’s One Energy’s favorite part. Student visits allow us to hear from community members of all ages, and introduce aspects of the energy industry from an up-close perspective.

Today’s Wind View shows one of our favorite activities during visits to the North Findlay Wind Campus: the yard tour! Our on-site “laydown” yard is stocked with wind turbine components ready to be deployed for projects whenever we need them. Plus, they serve as educational exhibits during tours of our headquarters!

September 07, 2021 – Wind Study | Answer 22

Did last week’s Wind Study questions float your boat? 🚢

Download the homework answers and see if you solved the problems related to cargo ships and buoyant forces.

And stay tuned for next week’s science and math assignment!

Source: https://theconversation.com/suez‐canal‐blockage‐how‐cargo‐ships‐like‐ever‐given‐became‐so‐huge‐and‐whytheyre‐
causing‐problems‐158090

September 03, 2021 – Science Shorts | Static Electricity

Quick! Name the last time you spent a whole day without using electricity.

Tricky, right? Electricity is all around us – and it powers many everyday items all over the world! 💡

Previously we’ve covered current electricity, explaining AC and DC power. But today’s episode of Science Shorts is about another type: static electricity! ⚡

We’ll explore the meaning of static electricity, explain how it works, and demonstrate it with a hair-raising balloon experiment! 🎈  

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and don’t miss any future Science Shorts!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Instagram!

Why is it so hard to ask for help? And even when help is offered unsolicited, why is it often so hard to accept?

I worked for years as a consultant, and I often wondered why companies waited until things were such a mess before calling in outside help. Much like an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, bringing in assistance to prevent problems or to clean up small issues can take a whole lot less time and money than unsuccessfully trying to do it yourself.

In spite of the infinite number of times I’ve heard, “Why didn’t you ask for help?” I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone ask, “Why did you ask for help?” Perhaps there aren’t many regrets from those who do request assistance.

Some people consider asking for help to be an admission of weakness, yet we live in a world where knowledge is increasing exponentially and people in all professions must become increasingly specialized in increasingly narrow fields. It is simply not possible to know “everything” – so why are some people so reluctant to ask for help, particularly when it comes to specialized skills and topics? The rapid pace of change in our world is so intense, it has even given rise to one of those super-specialized fields called, ironically, “change management.” Just a few decades ago, who would have thought people would specialize in managing change? Today, change management is a common topic of discussion on almost a daily basis!

I don’t think I have ever met anyone who has said that implementing change is easy. Whether you have an organization of ten or ten thousand, change is hard. Careful cultivation of consensus is an art form in and of itself. Even when all the stars align, when you have “the right people on the bus,” and everyone agrees on where the bus is going, change is invariably met with at least some inevitable resistance. Talented moderators and facilitators have spent decades learning and cultivating skills to bring organizations to at least some level of consensus and to help them navigate challenging times. They have become those narrowly specialized professionals.

In spite of the universally known challenge of change, I recently heard an entrepreneurial CEO say “Dictatorships don’t need facilitators.” That comment has really stuck with me. On the one hand, it’s a truism: if you are simply going to dictate all the rules, what’s the point in having anyone help you? If you “lead” a group of subservient, unempowered, or spellbound followers, does it matter how you deliver the message – or what the message even is?  Isn’t it as simple as dictating the change? Won’t everyone just immediately embrace the modifications?

On the other hand, every fiber of my being tells me this is a falsehood – at best! Living in 21st-century America, struggling with the challenges of post-pandemic employee hiring and retention, can any entrepreneur afford to be a dictator? Even a very charismatic, brilliant, well-meaning dictator could probably benefit from the guidance of a professional outside moderator or facilitator, if only to help lull unsuspecting subjects into thinking they don’t work for a dictator!

Regardless of what you are trying to accomplish from your leadership position within your organization, I can most certainly guarantee that you are too close to be objective. In all but the rarest of circumstances, there is history between you and your organization that gets in the way of implementing change in the most effective and efficient way. Facilitation is unarguably a good thing – for companies and for individuals (even if they consider themselves dictators). Outside help can lessen time constraints and bring top-notch professional expertise and unbiased advice to the table, more effectively convincing naysayers. To be perfectly candid, if you think you can accomplish what an outsider with decades of specialized training and experience can, I would tell you that, based on my decades in the business world, you are wrong.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for leaders with enough self-awareness and the rare combination of humility and confidence to recognize when someone else can do the job better, faster, more efficiently – and are willing to ask for help. My own attempts to be that kind of leader have given me the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented consultants and facilitators over the course of my career, and I can’t begin to describe how much I’ve learned from them.

I don’t have the answer to why it can be difficult to ask for help, and I don’t think the reason is universal Personally, asking for assistance has become easier for me with each passing year, so perhaps age or experience is the key. But I would encourage other professionals to start early! Ask for help sooner and more often than you think you should. The value you will gain from the people you meet will accelerate your learning curve and make you a more effective leader earlier in your career. Also, no one will ask, “Why didn’t you ask for help?”

Dedicated to all the amazing moderators I’ve known over the years, but especially to Mo Fathelbab, one of the most talented facilitators with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working, starting at a pretty young age.

Anne Bain is the Head of Accounting at One Energy.

Learn more about Anne and the One Energy team.

Each year, One Energy welcomes a group of summer interns to the North Findlay Wind Campus.

OE interns rotate through every department at the company, learning from different team members, gaining an understanding of the entire enterprise, and completing a final intern project, which they present to the entire company.

As the fall semester starts, we’re bidding adieu to our five summer interns. Thank you to the 2021 One Energy interns, and best of luck this fall!

CBS affiliate KX News reports on Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Renewable Fuels Facility in Dickinson, North Dakota, and the company’s plans to install a Wind for Industry project to help power operations. Individuals from Marathon, One Energy, and the North Dakota Farmers Union were each interviewed for the piece.

August 30, 2021 – Wind Study | Question 22

School is BACK in session – and so is Wind Study!

That’s right – get ready for more weekly science assignments from One Energy’s own engineers, meteorologists, and project planning team.

This week’s topic is buoyancy. Can you solve these problems related to cargo ships and buoyant forces? Find out by downloading the questions here.

Then come back in one week; we’ll post the homework answers next Monday!

Source: https://www.mech4study.com/2019/05/what-is-buoyancy-full-explaination.html

As the summer comes to a close, we wish students and teachers a great start back to school!

Graduating seniors in the class of 2022: be sure to bookmark www.megawattscholarships.org and apply for one of our $5,000 Megawatt Scholarships when applications open in the fall. Your name could be displayed on a turbine, like the one pictured in today’s Wind View!

At One Energy, we take great pride in our projects. That’s we built our headquarters next to the wind turbines at the North Findlay Wind Campus! The nine wind turbines pictured here directly power our customers’ industrial manufacturing facilities. With our headquarters being so close to projects, we can admire the results of our hard work every day!

This is Wind for Industry – and this is industrial decarbonization.