Paradigm Industry Insiders
Conversations That Move the Window and Door Industry Forward
The window and door industry is evolving fast. Customers expect more, technology is raising the bar, and the companies that adapt quickest are the ones who will lead.
The Industry Insiders Podcast, powered by Paradigm, is where leaders across the industry share how they’re navigating change, building stronger businesses, and setting the pace for what’s next.
Hosted by John Wheeler, a 25-year veteran of building materials and software and sales technician at Paradigm, with season 1 guest co-host Stefanie Couch, founder of Grit Blueprint, a lifelong industry insider and growth strategist, the show takes you inside the strategies, tools, and ideas reshaping how windows and doors get sold, delivered, and experienced.
You’ll hear from manufacturers, dealers, and innovators across the supply chain, offering real-world lessons you can apply to your own business.
Paradigm Industry Insiders
Turning Problems Into Possibilities: Leadership in IT Implementation | Joseph Slawson, Boise Cascade
Host John Wheeler of Paradigm is joined by Joseph Slawson, Millwork IT Manager at Boise Cascade, who shares powerful insights on building successful teams, navigating complex implementations, and leading with authenticity through 18 years of industry experience.
Topics covered:
• Make the best decisions with available information rather than waiting for perfect plans
• Build the right team and trust them to do their jobs without micromanagement
• Document processes extensively, including what went right and what to avoid
• Own mistakes as a leader while giving glory to individuals who perform well
• During mergers and acquisitions, recognize that new team members face multiple challenges simultaneously
• Create psychological safety by ensuring everyone's voice is heard in meetings
• Maintain positivity and frame challenges as opportunities to solve interesting problems
• Balance team dynamics during travel by ensuring everyone feels included
• Lead by example when it comes to owning mistakes and showing humility
• Transition from tactical to strategic leadership as your responsibilities grow
Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Paradigm on LinkedIn and YouTube to catch more stories, insights, and ideas from your peers across our industry.
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No matter how difficult the struggle or the situation or the project, you have to first say, do I want to do this? And then once you say, yeah, I do, now go all in. This is the job that I like doing. I do like being IT because we have all of these unique problems and it's like, guess what? It's an open slate for us to figure it all out. I'm certain we'll find a solution. I just don't know what it's gonna look like yet, but we're not gonna leave you with nothing.
John Wheeler:You're great at this, you know, whether it's falling on the sword or whatever, but you're not necessarily afraid to make mistakes.
Joseph Slawson:Even if it's gone significantly wrong, I can say, hey, based on all this information, this is what we thought we had on the table. And if the team messes up in total, I own the mistake. And if someone does really well, I give them the glory, and then the team gets glory kind of just organically from that.
John Wheeler:Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where real people share real stories about what's happening with doors, windows, millwork, and life. I'm John Wheeler, and along with my co-hosts, we sit down with your peers who are moving our industry forward. These are honest conversations packed with practical insights and lessons you can take and bring value to your team. Here's today's conversation. Welcome to the uh Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where we tell the stories of the people and the technology and the products of the millwork window and door industry. I have Joseph Slaussen here. Hello. Um, from Boise Cascade. I'll let you introduce yourself, tell me a little about you.
Joseph Slawson:Hi, I'm Joseph Slossen. I'm the millwork IT manager over at Boise Cascade. I've been there for 18 years now.
John Wheeler:18 years. Yes. So I I did my history the other day, and it equals 25 in the as a whole. Uh-huh. And I realized that I was like an industry elder. Nice. Excellent. Yeah, which was which it was that was interesting. Um so you have, you know, we've worked together for a while, and you have a ton of history and and experience and things implementing all sorts of systems, right? ERP, CPQ, all of the acronyms and things. What tell me about the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful implementation and rollout? Sure.
Joseph Slawson:Well, like I said, I've been in been doing this for about 18 years, and uh one of the biggest projects we did was rolling out a WMS system. And it was countrywide, every site needed to have it. But the big thing that made that a success was get the right team and trust them to do their job. Don't trump don't try and micromanage the project. Instead say, okay, I know I've got experts that can do hardware side of it, I've got experts that can do software configuration, I've got experts that can do the network and the communication back backbone. If I try to do all of that or try to review each of those portions to the same level they are, it's not gonna be successful. And then I'm gonna be wasting time when there's things I'm supposed to focus on. So really it's get that right team, trust them. Then document. Document, document, document. Because the first few rollouts, the first few locations, that was that was rough. We were learning a lot, it was a new software for us. The the team was understanding what they what they were supposed to do, each portion. Um and so then as we wrote down, okay, here's what went right, here's what didn't go right, you get all those things, you go to the next one, it's a little bit easier, next one's a little bit easier. By the end, by the end, I'm able to send a secondary team to do stuff and not be the lead on each one.
John Wheeler:The documenting, you always think of documenting, like here's here's how we built you know, the the bill of materials or something, but documenting the actual process, I don't know that I've ever thought I'm sure other companies do that, but I've never thought about documenting the the process. And like here's some doo-doo to not step in.
Joseph Slawson:We had a spreadsheet, because it was in the time of spreadsheets. We had a spreadsheet that had a whole bunch of links in it, which had here's how you do this portion of it. And it would have a breakdown of things that went right, and it wouldn't show things that would wrong went wrong. It would say, uh, make sure you do these exact steps because it'll mess something up.
John Wheeler:That's interesting. Um I wrote down in my my notes, don't know where it came from, but no paralysis analysis. So I think I mix those up. But I think that probably speaks to you know making a decision and moving on at a certain point.
Joseph Slawson:Yes. So that's another thing that I'm glad you brought that up because really you my one of the things I tell my team a lot is we make the best decision we can with the information we have at the time. And then we're not afraid to, after we kind of see what reality throws at us, adjust that and change it. And I remember looking up some quotes and coming up with one from General Patton, which says, a good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. And we live by that a lot. It's like, oh, can we get the perfect plan? If we don't have a perfect plan, we can't wait. You can't wait to have a perfect plan. You gotta act with what you have.
John Wheeler:Yeah, because it will never never you'll never do anything because it'll never seem perfect. Right. Then you also, and you're you're great at this, um, you know, whether it's falling on the sword or whatever, but you're not necessarily afraid to make mistakes because you made the best decision at the time. Right.
Joseph Slawson:Well, yeah, that that statement of you make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time really comes back to I can then defend it, even if it's gone wrong, even if it's gone significantly wrong, I can say, hey, based on all this information, this is what we thought we had on the table. And if the team messes up in total, I own the mistake. And if someone does really well, I give them the glory, and then the team gets glory kind of just organically from that. Right. And so it's really good to be able to say, hey, Matt did a really good job doing this, or or uh Zach did a really good job doing this other thing. And and again, if if things go wrong, I'm like, hey, it the mistake was mine, and here's what we're gonna do to solve it, and always have a solution or at least always have a new plan to solve it, because that that helps fix everything.
John Wheeler:And I f the the planning part, you know, uh if you you know if you pay attention to industry news, Boise is uh busy in the MA space. Yes. And I think you know, as far as the systems are concerned and and integrating companies in from a technology standpoint, you've been you've been in there and you have to I would I can't imagine the planning that goes in into some of those. And I think starting to do something plays a part of that. You have to just start doing something, otherwise it's never gonna happen. Tell me about um I don't know, I guess the success and some learning experiences from that. Sure.
Joseph Slawson:So MA, so mergers and acquisitions for anyone that doesn't know that term, uh that's a lot of fun. And there's always an extra dynamic there. Uh one being there's always a time crunch. And it's funny, even though I'm the head of the IT department for my area, I still don't find out about those till we're closing in on we're we're well into deals are being signed and we're ready to go. So I'm told, hey, clear your calendar. We need we need this in a month. And I'm like, okay. Do we know what software they have currently? Do we know anything about their inventory? Do we know anything about uh what their infrastructure is? So a whole bunch of learning as fast as we can, usually a site visit. And then it's again, bring the right team. But now we've got another people aspect. So I'm bringing my right team, but we're interacting with folks that aren't that aren't integrated in our culture yet, don't know me and my team, so they don't know if we're, oh, are these guys gonna come and make it life harder for us? Or are they gonna come and make life easier for us? And then that's a big thing that we often see when we're bringing a new group in. Even if we've done a good job of being positive and being cheerleaders, they're gonna switch to a software system where they're gonna feel like, oh, what I could get done so much in a day before, now I'm getting 15%, 15 to 20% done. So we have a lot of encouragement, a lot of, hey, you're learning a new software system. Remember, that's taking up part of your day. Hey, you are still trying to do your old job and not fall into your old processes. And you're trying to interface with a new culture in a new company.
John Wheeler:Is that the part of the positive stress that you talk about? Yes.
Joseph Slawson:Yes. We my my team thrives on, hey, we have a new challenge. We're in IT because we don't want to do the same thing over and over again. We want to have a new challenge presented to us each time. Aaron Powell An interesting take on IT.
John Wheeler:Uh yeah. Sorry, IT folks.
Joseph Slawson:No, IT, we love that. We love that. We love being like, okay, what's the next challenge? Um, you know, it's funny. I I reference the movie Apollo 13 to my team a lot. And there's one where they have to have the filter that's a circular one fit into a square hole. And it's like, and I remember the line from there is something like, they've handed this to this problem to us and we got to come through. And so I'll say that to my team a lot. Whatever it is, hey, some group, whether it's a branch, upper management, the yard crew, whatever it is, has handed us this problem and we got to come through.
John Wheeler:Interesting. And then especially when you apply that to the the scale of the specific business that you're working with. Right. It's not uh yeah, it's it's it's challenging. You're, I think anyone that that I'm included in this, in this, in this group, but anyone that's ever been around you um or worked with you or whatever, usually says like that's one of my favorite people to work with, right? And don't get a big head. Um but tell me about because you're you are 100% transparent and genuine and authentic, also. It's not some fake thing that you try to be everyone's best friend. Um and you know, tell me about how you keep that authenticity and personality, but also at the scale that you're doing things and the changes that you're you're implementing.
Joseph Slawson:Sure.
John Wheeler:First of all, thank you.
Joseph Slawson:That's those are really kind words, and I appreciate that a lot. It is the authenticity, I think, is the key word there. For me, I first of all, I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy it all the time. And that's there's it all starts with a a a positive attitude. And I know lots of people talk about always staying positive. There's some truth behind no matter how difficult the struggle or the situation or the project or whatever it is, you have to first say, Do I want to do this? And then once you say, Yeah, I do, now go all in on it. I do want to do this. This is the job that I like doing. I do like being IT because we have all of these unique problems. And it's like, guess what? It's an open slate for us to figure it all out. And so I bring that kind of positivity, I bring that kind of I'm certain we'll find a solution. I just don't know what it's gonna look like yet, but we're not gonna leave you with nothing. It's almost like design mode. Yeah, and and and it's a lot of fun. I draw the team in. That's another thing. Uh the reason why a lot of people enjoy working with me, I make sure everyone gets a voice. I make sure that, you know, I bring the team together and there might be someone that really does well with that portion, but they're kind of quiet. We won't be done with that meeting until I've said, hey, I didn't hear I didn't hear any any input from you. Do you you want to say something now? Do you want to tell me later? Everything's fine, but that's that option of not in front of everybody. But I want to make sure that their voice is heard because just getting to the outcome is not good enough. They have to be included in the journey as well, which goes back to when we're implementing softwares and stuff. We go early and talk with them and say, hey, here's what we're trying to do. Give us feedback. I can't guarantee that your all your feedback's gonna be included, but I guarantee it's gonna be heard and weighed. And that's kind of important.
John Wheeler:So much nicer than I put it. I think my eyes always say, It's a really bad idea. Um, you're not old, but I think that I would I have just pictured you in like a one of those shirts that says no bad days on it, right? And somebody comes and says, like, oh, you gotta do this. And I think you've told me before, like I keep a positive attitude because, like, what are you gonna say? Like, sorry, I have to do my job more. Yes.
Joseph Slawson:Remember that discussion. That's yeah, that's funny when somebody's like, Oh, I'm sorry for calling you in the middle of the night or doing this or that, or or putting this project on you. And I'm like, this is my job. Right. What what am I what am I gonna say? Sorry that you've made me work harder, made me do my job, it's okay. That's uh it's what I want to do.
John Wheeler:Right. I want to come away with solutions. That's it's you know, you can draw parallels to to marriage and kids and all sorts of things. But if you say you wake up in the morning or, you know, whenever whenever it happens, but like I want to be here, I want to do this, and you know, reevaluating that every step along the way, I feel like it lets things not pile up on you. It almost rolls off because you're like choosing to do it and you like shrug off the the bad stuff and kind of get excited about it. You know, the a lot of the industry has kind of tight-knit teams, and I know that the team that that you work with and have worked with for a while travels a lot together. Um, you know, it's drawing the kind of family dynamics almost. How do you be successful and get along? I know in my past I've certainly not always got along, but you might get out of a pretty tense meeting, and if someone were to mess with my teammate, they better not because I still have their back, even if that wasn't didn't go along so great. Tell me about that. Travel is interesting.
Joseph Slawson:Um, it can either it can either be super stressful or it can be an opportunity to bring the team together and say, hey, while you're away from your regular desk and your regular family, let's bond together some so that all of our projects are that much better. And so again, one of the things I make sure of is I make sure that everybody is uh has the chance to have input, uh especially around food. So food is an interesting one. You travel and if we're like, oh, let's go to sushi, and you've got the one person that doesn't like sushi, but they haven't said anything. And they're like, oh, now next night we're gonna go to Chinese and they don't like that one either. It's like, oh, we've got two whole days that they hate that and they're and they're you know trying to pick at stuff and figure out what they want. So I will often say, Hey, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna choose something. And the only the only veto I keep in there is if there's a an actual food allergy or uh or a specific health problem. Yeah, you gotta go along with it be. But otherwise, it's like, yeah, everybody gets a choice. Um again, a lot of cheerleading, a lot of positivity, a lot of, hey, we're out here, I know you're away from your family. Uh, I make sure there's always time for them to call back home. I will often say, hey, between the end of the day and before we uh join up to go to dinner, I'm gonna call back to the homestead and talk to my wife and kids. I recommend you guys do the same. I really encourage them to do that so that then when they can come back to and it's dinner time, um, we can do that. When it's at the work day, I watch and see kind of who's starting to get frustrated. And I'll be like, hey, take a quick walk with me, take a quick break. Um that falls under that portion of do your job and trust them to do it right. One of my jobs is making sure that the team's the team's temperature level stays below the boiling point.
John Wheeler:That's so interesting because it you're almost like a coach, you know. So like college football and college sports specifically, like if when that's what those are the things that the those coaches need to pay attention to, right? The the on-the-field stuff is important, but you know, they they understand the transitional period that those those kids are in when they're you know under their care or kind of on their team. It's interesting. Interesting you should say that.
Joseph Slawson:Two two big influence for me on that one was yes, I practi I was in organized sports in in high school. I was also in Boy Scouts. And Boy Scouts had a big impact on me because the the the leaders of the Boy Scouts did that really well as far as keep everybody safe, keep everybody engaged, keep everybody from from fighting with each other. Because I mean, we were young boys that wanted to do, you know, all sorts of things, and sometimes we'd step on somebody else. And they had to step in and make sure there was that balance between don't stop us from being excited, but make sure that we're not pushing somebody else out, uh even unintentionally.
John Wheeler:And for me, it was always where's your other other person, right? Where's your, you know, the buddy system is one thing, but it's like, hey, go find whoever it is, because like, or make sure that they're okay. They've been gone, you know, yeah, doing whatever whatever tasks that they were doing, like go make sure and like looking out for one another. Interesting. What I think there's something about Tulsa um and traveling and weather played a part of it. Tell me about that story.
Joseph Slawson:That's that's a fun story. Um, yeah, the the team, the team is in Tulsa, and this one's not the the rollout team. This is kind of the scouting team. We're doing we're doing some scouting on some new projects and some new ideas, um, which might or might not have included uh looking at a door configurator. So yeah. But we're out there and it's just supposed to be a couple of days, and we're supposed to visit the branch and do some things. Terrible snowstorm comes in. So bad that it shuts down the branch, it shuts down a lot of the town. And we are at a hotel in kind of the downtown area. There's a few restaurants close by, but that's pretty much all you can get to. And so we just had a fun bonding. I remember we actually got a tour of the hotel because there was nothing else we could do. So yeah, show me around. Yeah, one of the one of the the older, uh kind of like the head janitorial staff, as well as one of the the people that kind of knew the hotel, they take us on a tour and they will unlock some of the the highest level rooms because there's nobody staying in there. And it's like, oh yeah, this one's from you know, pre-1900s. It's really cool, like a historic hotel. Yeah, it's really cool. It was just fun. And again, we laughed and joked and we we worked with what we could, but there wasn't a whole lot we could do, so we just enjoyed each other's time.
John Wheeler:Did you ever have to eat like just ketchup packets for dinner?
Joseph Slawson:No, but I think I don't know if it was that trip or another one that was also kind of a uh we were not snowed in, but delays and different things. Um they had a charterie boy board, which turned out to be more just like a lunchable. It was, and it was hilarious. Yeah, and it was like, you know, we could complain about it or we could laugh about it. Yeah, what are you gonna do? Eat and snow or something? Yeah. So we laughed and had a good time, and and I think I think we took some pictures and sent them back to folks just making fun and and not in a mean way, in uh, hey, this is this is life for us.
John Wheeler:Yep. This is what it's like. It's not always glamorous. No. Um yeah, traveling has its perks, but it also has the times that suck. I think one of your personality traits, um, you know, is humility and accountability. You have confidence in yourself, but it's not it's not that confidence that comes across as arrogant. Um you tell me tell me about like where that comes from and and why that's like that and how important that is in your role for your team.
Joseph Slawson:I was uh I have great respect for my parents. I was raised well. I was raised with a lot of um own your mistakes. My father was a carpenter, and I learned from him a lot of how to do stuff with my hands, and there was a lot in there that comes from that comes to uh you recognize what you do right and what you do wrong, and you've got to fix it yourself because no one else is gonna fix it for you. And so a lot of that learning then translates into when I work with anybody, I encourage them a lot, and at the same time, I've got kind of this this strong but not overwhelming sense of I can help and fix anything that you have that uh but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna come to the table like I can fix it all. Because I I know my own limitations and I know that I'm gonna make plenty of mistakes. But at the same time, if somebody is brand new and they're learning the system and they're like, oh, I'm afraid to touch anything and break it, I will say to them, I'll look them right in the eye and say, There is nothing you can break that I can't fix. And that's not arrogance, that is, I want you to know that I'm gonna support you with whatever whatever goes wrong. We can fix it. I can undo it in the software, I can even climb into the back and and and and fix it and and give you a start over on that. There's really a lot that we can do, and that comes from experience. And with more experience, I also learned more and more that it it just comes down to uh I'm gonna make mistakes. And if I can own them and show other people that, then they're more comfortable to make mistakes too.
John Wheeler:Leading by example. My uh for better or for worse, it's my parenting strategy also. Good. That's all right. Hopefully, hopefully it's most of the good stuff that comes through, but also the um, you know, I think you know, you look at the that Captain America movie and where he like jumps on the grenade and he's like, everybody get out of here. Yes. I think that's a hundred percent something that you would do. But I think you know, you've talked about your team also, and there there's things that maybe they're even better at than than you are, or they do a better job than you would have because they have their focus and you know, highlighting those people for that.
Joseph Slawson:No, and that's a really good point because earlier in my career, when I was kind of just in charge of a smaller team and I was in doing software support, I could do every job that they could do. I still let them do their job, but in a pinch, I could be like, oh, luckily I've done the reading or I had that experience before, I can do other jobs. Now I'm in a position where I've got designers and programmers and and uh document writers where I cannot I if I try and step into their role, I cannot accomplish everything they do in nearly the same time frame. And it took a lot for me to go from that tactical mentality of, oh, I can just jump in and and move the pieces on the board to I've got to direct somebody else to do that. And that's one of the most interesting learning experiences that comes with folks when they are good at what they do and then they get to be moved up into a more leadership role. They've got to let go of some of that tactical and be more strategic.
John Wheeler:You like playing long drawn-out board games. And I I feel like now you professionally play a long drawn-out board game. So I had to talk on that for a second.
Joseph Slawson:Board games are a passion for me, and I really enjoy those. Um and I even have in an as one of my interview questions, as one of my pre-interview questions, to kind of figure out how someone thinks, I say, choose a game that you like. Explain how you would teach to me. What's the first thing you would teach me? What's the last thing you would teach me? It's really enlightening to see what comes to mind first on how that is. Um, so then I can kind of get inside their mind a little bit and say, okay, this is how your this is how your mind works of what's most important to what's least important. I'm glad you've never interviewed me.
John Wheeler:I'd pick Uno. The most important thing Say Uno when you have one card left. That's the most important thing. The last thing is destroy your neighbor.
Joseph Slawson:But no, um I I enjoy that a lot, and that's actually something in my personal life where I I have a real passion for it. My wife and I have a whole bunch of board games, and we we'll play them with church friends or or we'll bring them out at dinner parties, things like that. It's just it's just a lot of fun. It's awesome. Everything from simple games like hard games like Uno, all the way up to the ones that are like, okay, we're in this for two hours. Let's do this.
John Wheeler:Yep. My son and I play uh Risk. We do it on the if you do it on the Switch, it goes really, really fast. Nice. And the then you don't have to like remember the rules and forget things. But yeah, that that's a very long, drawn-out game. Yeah. And temperas can get pretty heated. I don't I think I I hate losing more than I like winning. And so when you get beat by your 12-year-old over and over and over again, you're just like, I should be better at this, but I'm not.
Joseph Slawson:If you're ready for a long tactical game like that, try terraforming Mars. Terraforming Mars is a good game right now.
John Wheeler:I'm gonna have to figure that out. Cool. I appreciate you coming on. Um, this is a lot of fun. So, yeah, thanks for coming on. Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. Thanks for joining us on the Paradigm Industry Insiders podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Paradigm on LinkedIn and YouTube to catch more stories, insights, and ideas from your peers across our industry. See y'all.
