The Toilet Trainer

Around 1935 a supervisor’s manual was published that contained a summary of what was then considered mankind‘s collective knowledge on supervisory best practices.

A few decades later that manual was rediscovered and its contents repurposed specifically for the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) by a gentleman who is a legend in the area of mine safety training and is still active in mine safety training well into his 80s. This gentleman bequeathed to me, asking to remain anonymous, what he referred to as his Toilet Trainer, a pocket sized summation of all the mine safety and health best practices. He knew if it was sized small enough to fit in a pocket it would absolutely be reviewed regularly in a toilet stall when occasion allowed.

What you have before you is the first digital version of The Toilet Trainer, adapted for the digital age, modified and updated to apply it’s fundamental principles to leadership development in any industry.

And don’t tell me you don’t do work from a bathroom stall. I hear you yahoo’s in the stall next to me in truck stop bathrooms all across the Mountain West telling Enrique that since the concrete hasn’t arrived yet to go ahead deliver the lumber to the Walnut Dr job so that maybe by the time he gets back to Sycamore it’ll be there and he can get started. Right there in the stall next to me. Out loud. Like you’re the only one in there. It’s gross. Stop it.

But since you won’t, for the love of all that is good and decent, make some better use of the time, become a little bit better at what you do and wield this wisdom wisely.