12 Week Plan LIVE Event: Workshop 3- Bellied Up For The Long Haul: Building an “Unleavable” Experience

If we could boil this entire morning down to one phrase, I think it would be captured in the phrase “intentionally engaging”. Intentional - done with purpose… deliberate. Engaging - charming and attractive. Patrice talked about the time, effort, and money spent in recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new team member.   I had the opportunity to work with Pfizer and was told that the onboarding of a new team member cost the company around $200k.   Certainly compelling, but that is not the real reason that you don’t want to lose team members. The real reason we want a cohesive team that values longevity is for the same reason that we go back to the same restaurants, revisit the same destination, pull for the same sports team, and drive the same route to work. We really do value stability, community, and “being known”. Every Tuesday at our house we are humbled and honored to host a group of young men that over time has become known as “Man Up” Back in 2016, I began meeting a group of HS Freshman guys at Wendy’s in Pritchardville. We would compete in silly challenges like spitball competitions, squat relays, and light matches in the restaurant.   We would have some serious conversations about things they were dealing with and write some thoughts down. Over the last six years, that small group of five has grown into a group of about 10 to 20 each week, and already a group of about 15 or so who graduated a couple of years ago. That group is marked by intentional conversation, prom-dance-floor-destruction, their own vernacular and language, a plunger that serves as a sort of armour, and a flag that is made up of torn underwear from the years of wedgie initiations underneath the Lemon Island bridge in the dark.  It’s a group that discussed money, relationships, sex, music, career, college, parents, confusions, and life principles that are now a part of their toolbelt.  They have their own language, their own grunts, their own body sounds, and their own nuances.  They have a culture that is not based on money, status, or how-can-I get-more. That is what we all REALLY want.  Stability, community, and “being known”. And yet, what are small businesses known for? We can answer that by listening to what those same man-up guys think big businesses are known for = stability. But is that true?  Have you looked around to see all of the big business laying off thousands of people at a time?  Does that feel stable? Small businesses are known for instability and chaotic community. How do we build a culture that is unleavable?   Pal’s Sudden Service vs. Taco Bell  Elements of a powerful culture… Vision Mission Values Team Meetings (Agenda-Driven, Leader Led) Team Member Check Ins Every-other-monthly Vision Days Annual Team Days Clear Org Chart and Job Roles Clear Process (MPR) Remembering important days Repetition, sincerity All the little you-isms (unique to your biz), so long as they are consistent and thoughtful I want you to use your Culture Calendar as the HUB of this next workshop time. Think of your existing team, AND your new team members.   For the first 10 minutes, I want you to create as many intentional, thoughtful, whimsical, and creative ideas as you can about ways to build culture that will require more time than money. For the second 10 minutes, I want you as a team to rank order those ideas from most impactful to least… and then bake them into your culture calendar with dates and frequencies, and the process by which who/how they will be done.