More Than Just Profits

We screw up. Make boneheaded mistakes. Lose big accounts.

We get frustrated. Lose patience. Make the mistake of thinking short term.

We mess up tough conversations. Don't show enough empathy.

Sometimes our leaders suck at accountability. I suck at accountability.

We are not perfect. Far from it. I want to make that very clear.

Because I think that sometimes through my LinkedIn posts it comes across like we are some perfect company. That we have it all figured out.

We don't.

We are a work in progress.

We are all a work in progress.

Where I do think we differ is our passion.

Our guiding star is different than most companies.

This persistent march towards "healthy" is weird to most executives.

When I talk to other CEO's, they look at me like I am kinda dumb when I talk about all this stuff.

People first. Values obsessed. Purpose driven.

Empowering.

Healthy teams. Transparent numbers.

Sharing Our hobbies. Our families. Our lives - with co-workers.

But I don't think its dumb. We don't think its dumb.

We think its the only way to run an organization.

So that's why I continue to write. To create content. To share our stories.

This method works. It creates incredible results. Our top line has grown by $30 million. Our bottom line has improved 300%. Organically.

More importantly, being healthy works for our people. They create all the revenue and profits anyways. Why not build a business that prioritizes them?

While most companies focus on being smart, we have focused on creating healthy teams.

We assume that with 110 of us, we can probably figure out the smart stuff.

Its the healthy part that most companies neglect.

And if you are sick you have nothing.

So, we triple down....figuring that the numbers will follow healthy.

And while the results have been fun (who doesn't like a good report card?)

It's not the thing that motivates us. Because at the end of the day, who really cares how much money you make if you aren't doing good for humanity.

If you are doing it for something bigger.

This is where we start todays newsletter.

Let's get into it.

2 weeks ago we talked about values and why they matter.

Today we will talk about purpose.

Healthy company cultures are very clear on both.

Values are what you stand for. Your beliefs. They start at the top of the company with the leadership team. Like your executive leaders have to really believe in these values! . And not just words, you see it very clearly in the every day actions of leadership. You know it's real because of the stories.

You cant just say "we're about this."

It has to be seen. Concrete. Actions. Real time decision making is through the lens of values, not profits or revenue.

Then you use those values to hire, fire, and promote. They are your guiding star when it comes to people. Hire the attitude. Train for the role. Rinse and repeat and continue to fill your division with "the right people." Fire the folks that don't align. The culture cancers. The terrorists. Often these are people that perform well. It's hard, but like we talked about two weeks ago, you gotta get rid of them if they can't get above the bar. Everyone, no matter how talented, must align with your values.

Next, you promote people using the values.

Puppies will turn into rock stars. We don't hire managers to be managers. We hire the right people and teach them to be managers.

You do these three things. Consistently. Day after day, week after week - and you're on your way to building a damn good culture.

But it's only the starting point.

Purpose.

What is purpose?

Purpose is why you exist that has nothing to do with money or profits.

To think about it another way...

What would the world lose if your company / division ceased to exist?

Think way bigger than just your product or service. Purpose comes from the heart. It has a soulfulness to it. Your division or company is passionate about something. It already exists somewhere inside of you and your people.

You just have to bring it out.

It must be clear so that we can all rally behind it.

Guys, we sell freaking plastic.

PLASTIC!!

Do you think anyone around here gives a damn about plastic?

Of course not.

This is why we struggled for so long in coming up with our purpose. If you're a hospital or a retirement community, you can probably arrive at your purpose pretty quickly

But what if you sell plastic? Or Rubber. What if you own a drainage company?

It gets far more difficult.

We knew we needed a clearly defined purpose. Jim Collins had shown us that all the greatest companies of all time adhered to a very defined passion.

So we worked on it.

For three damn years. I know that may sound daunting to some. But for us it needed to feel right. It needed to be authentic. We went round after round with our executive team.

Fighting, yelling, throwing sh*t in frustration. It sucked. But but it was also beautiful. Because you could tell that it really meant something to us. We didn't want to just pour our lives into selling a bunch of stupid plastic for no bigger purpose than making a bunch of money.

So getting it right was crucial to us. And our coach was smart enough to let us go on and on for hours. She could tell it meant more to us than most companies she coached.

There were 3 ideations of our purpose. Here they were.

1. We exist to improve ourselves, our customers, and our vendors. Ho hum. How uninspiring right? Sounds so vanilla. So plain. But it was a start and we couldn't spend 4 months straight on it....so it was a placeholder and we went back to work - knowing at some point it would come. Notice it had nothing to do with selling plastic. We were fixated on this whole concept of improving peoples lives around us. So you can see the direction to what would eventually become WDHTS. (work doesn't have to suck) The second creation was the same just simplified.
2. We exist to improve. Now, obviously, this sucks too. lol. But it was our more simple version. Again, nothing to do with plastic. Shorter. We took away the vendors and customers - that just didn't seem right. None of it seemed right, but again, a placeholder as we went back to work. We knew one day it would come. Looking back on it they both sucked. But the first idea is always the worst idea but also the most important idea. RIGHT?! Then finally....
3. Work Doesn't Have to Suck. I still remember the day we landed on this. We were arguing about it (as usual) with our coach, and in frustration our COO, Jacob just slammed his fist on the table and said, "MAN I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'S JUST LIKE, FREAKING WORK DOESN'T HAVE TO SUCK!!!"

We all turned and looked at him.

It had that "aha" effect.

It was big. It was bold. It was simple. It came from our hearts.

That was it!

And looking back - it's been 5 years now, and I can honestly say this company would not be the same without Work Doesn't Have to Suck.

The second we defined our purpose everything else just fell into place.

We knew we were passionate about our people. We had already started paying them more. We started taking off Christmas Eve and the day after Thanksgiving. We had already increased vacation days. There was more empowerment because we had defined our branches as "decentralized."

My point is this.

We had already started to think in terms of "Work Doesn't Have to Suck."

We just had to bring it out of us. Clearly.

Right now you are sitting there reading this and you have a purpose.

Your company. Your division. Your branch. Whatever it is - there is a passion deep inside of you.

But the problem is that its not clear. It's not clear to you yet. And it's definitely not clear to your people.

And it has to be.

In business we get so caught up in scaling, productivity, efficiency, etc - BLA BLA BLA - that we forget what drives human behavior more than anything....a sense of belonging! A sense of effective social contribution.

Feelings. Emotions. These things matter in the workplace.

This is why creating your purpose is so important.

Tapping into humanity and soulfulness.

This is what great cultures do.

Its what Apple did before they were "Apple." Think Different. Steve Jobs understood this more than anyone. We've all remember it. It was inspiring! And it had nothing to do with what they sold.

Your purpose taps into human emotion. Which will always be far more powerful than anything else.

Bring it out. Define it. Then build the organization around it.

Really quickly I want to run through Gino Wickman's top 8 rules for how to create a purpose or passion. He wrote the book called "Traction." Absurd bestseller. Everyone has heard of EOS. These are really great. Follow them.

Your purpose:

1. It's stated in three to seven words.
2. It's written in simple language.
3. It's big and bold.
4. It has an "aha" effect.
5. It comes from the heart.
6. It involves everyone.
7. It's not about money.
8. It's bigger than a goal.

Another great source is Chapter 3 of Jim Collins book "Built to Last." It was written in 1994 but still completely applicable today. I read it every year. This will also help as he looks into some of the greatest companies of all time. Just remember that purpose is foundational. This is not some fad. Companies have been doing this for hundreds of years.

Or just text me and I can try and help. 972-342-1645

Moving on.

Okay so I wanted to add one more section here.

This is something we did that made our purpose real.

Most companies have a purpose / passion / mission / etc. However its just words. They write it somewhere only to forget about it completely. It doesn't really take hold because it's just words. Don't let this happen. Words alone mean nothing.

You need stories.

So here's what we did.

We attached our Purpose to our 10 Year BHAG. (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

Before we discovered our purpose, we had a big 10 year revenue goal.

Our BHAG was just a revenue number. $50,000,000 in revenue.

That was the big mountain we were climbing. (enter eye rolling emoji here)

Seriously, it was a stupid freaking revenue number. Because at the time, we were young and dumb and inexperienced....we thought all our people would get totally pumped up about hitting a revenue number in 10 years.

BOY. WERE. WE. WRONG.

I remember getting up in front of the company and passionately talking about this big hairy audacious goal. We were gonna work our tails of for the next 10 years and the climax of it all....... A REVENUE NUMBER!

hahahahahahahahaha. Like, dude how lame is that. A freaking number.

Talk about not tapping into human emotions.

So we scratched it. DELETE. Gone forever.

In its place we created a 10 year BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL around collecting 500 stories about "Work Doesn't Have to Suck."

500.

If you go into any of our 8 offices. You will see a big sign that says 500.

The reminder to all of us what is most important.

Work Doesn't Have to Suck Stories come in three ways.

1. Heartfelt emails from employees talking about their job, this atmosphere, and how our culture has made them a better, happier person. And how they take that home. Because they enjoy work now they are a better Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, friend. etc.
2. Things that we do for employees. Pay for cancer treatments. Send an employee back to Vietnam for the first time in 40 years. A trip to Disney. a car down payment. Pay to keep a 40 year Pee Wee football league going. (all these are true) We feel like a company our size has resources. Why not use those resources for good when we can.
3. Stories of employees making their job not suck. We empower our people. We tell them there is no red tape. Please change things you don't like about your job. Try doing it a different way. If something you are doing sucks and you have an idea to make it not suck, for heavens sake change it.

And here's the last thing, and this is very important.

I'm the one who collects the stories.

We didn't source it out to an administrative position. That would be unauthentic.

"Yah, this is the the most important thing to the company...this is literally our BHAG, but let's just have someone else do the collecting."

No.

This is my responsibility. Its on me to collect them.

I'm the one talking about it constantly. I lead with the stories during our state of the company addresses. I share the stories first in our board of directors meetings. I am the one calling and texting the managers, seeing if they have any new stories.

Again, notice the subtlety - we always start with stories.

Not the numbers.

Everything has to start with the why.

Everything.

Currently we have 112 stories. The goal is 150 by the end of the year.

50 stories every year for 10 years.

500.

My encouragement to you guys is this.

Go figure out why you exist.

What are you passionate about that has nothing to do with laying concrete or selling hamburgers.

It doesn't matter what you do. It matters why you do it.

You feel it.

It's the feeling you get sitting down at Chick-fil-A.

Or walking on a Southwest Airlines 737.

It's. just. different.

And that difference is so freaking powerful. And so freaking palpable.

Last week I spoke at a business owners organization, and one of the class members was talking about how he can't recruit and get great talent because his industry is not sexy.

And I was like dude, we sell freaking plastic!

And we get some of the most incredible people I've ever met.

Right now we've got 53,776 applicants in our people analytics database.

People who have applied and taken our job application survey.

And none of them know a damn thing about plastic.

Why do they apply?

One reason.

Work Doesn't Have to Suck!

It matters. More than anything else you do.