April 22, 2023 • 31 mins
I'm excited to introduce you to Garry Ridge. Garry has 25 years of experience as the Chairman and CEO of WD 40 company. Garry's philosophy on company culture is based on Aristotle's quote, pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. turning that into action. He believes that all leaders can create a workplace where you go to work each day, contribute to something bigger than yourself, learn something new, feel safe, are protected and provided freedom by a set of values and go home happy. He is passionate about the learning and empowering organizational culture he has helped established at the WD 40 company.
Check out these highlights:
2:30 What is WD-40 Company Culture?
3:28 Imagine if work was about something bigger than you? It's about people, purpose and value.
5:33 Importance of Trust and the Culture Petri Dish
10:12 Importance of leadership
13;35 Hire for values
19:34 Expressions of appreciation
22:06 Purpose in life it to make people happy
25:58 Accountability
28:46 Companies have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the world.
Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chellie Phillips (00:06):
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in
the right place. Check out thisepisode of culture secrets, the
podcast dedicated to creatingworkplaces for both employees
and the company's thrive.
Welcome to another episode ofthe culture secrets podcast. I'm
your host Chellie Phillips, andthis week, I'm excited to
introduce you to Garry Ridge.
(00:29):
Garry has 25 years of experienceas the Chairman and CEO of WD 40
company. He's also an adjunctprofessor at the University of
San Diego, where he teaches theprinciples and practices of
corporate culture and a Master'sof Science in Executive
Leadership Program. Garry'sphilosophy on company culture is
based on Aristotle's quote,pleasure in the job puts
perfection in the work. turningthat into action. He believes
(00:52):
that all leaders can create aworkplace where you go to work
each day, contribute tosomething bigger than yourself,
learn something new, feel safe,are protected and provided
freedom by a set of values andgo home happy. He is passionate
about the learning andempowering organizational
culture he has helpedestablished at the WD 40
company. In 2009. He co authoreda book with Ken Blanchard
(01:14):
outlining his effectiveleadership techniques titled
helping people win at work, abusiness philosophy called don't
mark my paper helped me get anA, he's a native of Australia,
and he holds a certificate inmodern retailing and a Master's
of Science in executiveleadership from the University
of San Diego, I want you to stopfor a minute and consider the WD
40 is employee engagementscores, they consistently
(01:36):
remained above 90% 98% of theiremployees say they love to tell
people they work at WD 41 99%believe their opinions and
values are a good fit for theorganization. 93% of their
employees report that theorganization encourages
employees to continually improvein their jobs, another 97%
indicate they're clear on thecompany goals and 93% say
(01:59):
they're excited about thedirection that WD 40 is in the
overwhelmingly positive picture,WD 40. Companies employees love
working there, they're engaged,and they're optimistic about
their future with the company.
So how can you replicate thissame cultural experience in your
workplace? I'm glad you asked,stick around for the next 30
minutes. And listen, as Garyshares a few words of wisdom
with us. And just kind of alittle nutshell, kind of can you
(02:22):
give me the the overview of whatthe WD 40 culture is that you've
created there? Now?
Garry Ridge (02:30):
Yeah, basically, it's a culture that's based on a
couple of beliefs. One of thebeliefs is that one of the
biggest desires we have as humanbeings is to belong. And most
organizations don't createcultures where people actually
feel like they belong, making acontribution to something bigger
than themselves. So it's basedon belonging, purpose, values,
(02:53):
and learning, which we believeare four of the most important
elements of building aconnection and culture. And that
ties
Chellie Phillips (03:01):
right in with what we're seeing. Now, in a lot
of the studies where people wantto do meaningful work, they want
to know their work matters. Andthey want to be able to see
themselves as part of thesuccess that an organization
has. So when you first wrotethis, what were some of the
internal signs maybe that yourealized, if other CEOs are
looking at this? What are someof the things that they might
(03:23):
see where they stop and think Imight need to take a look at
what's happening inside ourorganization.
Garry Ridge (03:28):
So let me make this statement. And then I'll kind of
expand out, I heard me say itbefore, if you've listened to
any of my podcasts, but imaginea place where you go to work
every day, you make acontribution to something bigger
than yourself, you learnsomething new, you're protected
and set free by a compelling setof values, and you go home
(03:50):
happy. So if I unpack that alittle bit, you know, I think
simply you need to look at whatelements of that statement are
not embedded or lived within theorganization. So does your
organization have a clearlyunderstood purpose and when I
say clearly understood purpose,you know, WD 40. Our purpose is
(04:13):
to create memories, which is ifyou look at our purpose
statement, We exist to createpositive lasting memories. And
we do that by solving problemsin factories, homes, and
workshops around the world. Sowe're in the memories business.
Now. You might want to say thatwe're in the squeaks business,
but that's not really a purpose.
So again, you've got to takewhat do you do? And Simon
(04:34):
cynics, your work is great aboutthis. It's not about what you
do. It's about why you do it andhow you do it. So why we exist
is to do what we did and how wedo it is by creating a a culture
of learning and teaching thatdelivers a highly engaged
workforce who live our company'svalues every day. So I had a
(04:55):
model that I put together andit's people Purpose values. And
then you have strategy andexecution, which is where most
organizations spend most oftheir time. And then you have
learning. And learning is soimportant because learning is
the fuel to passion foreverybody. So you have to create
a safe learning environment,
Chellie Phillips (05:17):
one of the things I keep hearing is, is
safe. It's a place where youfeel valued and values are
important. So that brings meback to this this element of
trust that has to be there. Howimportant is that? And how can
you start building that into thefabric of your organization?
Garry Ridge (05:33):
Trust is extremely important. And number one, it
comes from leadership inleadership, is the leaders ego,
eating their empathy, instead oftheir empathy eating their ego.
So your ego is the opposite totrust at vulnerability, are we
comfortable being vulnerable? Dowe care about our people, which
(05:54):
means that not only in Word, butindeed, we love our people
enough not only to applaud themand reward them for doing great
work, but we're brave enough asleaders to redirect them when
their behavior is workingagainst growing great culture.
You know, when I went to schoolback in Australia, many years
ago, my science teacher gave mea petri dish, and the science
(06:17):
teacher said, We're gonna growculture in this petri dish. So
what's important important iswhat are the ingredients that
you're putting in the petridish, are you putting in the
right ingredients, those ofwhich you and I have just been
kind of talking about, that'simportant, then well, then
what's important that you watchthat petri dish every day, and
(06:37):
that you feed the ingredientsthat grow great culture, and you
extract the ingredients thatdon't great go a great culture.
So I have an algorithm that Ikind of adapted from some of
Simon cynics work that saysculture equals parentheses,
values plus behavior, closeparenthesis, times consistency.
(07:01):
So you've got to have theingredients, you've got to have
the behaviors, and you've got topay attention to it every day,
every day, every day.
Chellie Phillips (07:09):
And I think in doing some of the research,
that's kind of where peoplestall out, as far as they
realize or recognize that theremight be an issue and they want
to do some work for it. So theyhave a lot of discussion about
it. And they come up with somecatch fake phrases, or maybe
they give it a name. But after acouple of months, and they roll
it out, it kind of goes by thewayside, kind of like our you
(07:29):
know, all the mission statementsthat go on on the wall, and
nobody reads them when they comein anymore. As a CEO and
leadership team, how importantand how do you go about adding
that as a driver every day whenyou show up at the office?
Garry Ridge (07:42):
Well, two ways. One is, it's embedded in the talent
development program, or what alot of people would call our
review system, you know, we havethat our values as part of our
regular conversations with ourwe call call ourselves a tribe
with our tribe members on anongoing basis. And we ask them,
(08:03):
our people to share with us howin the last 90 days, have they
lived our values. And we onlyhave two measurements of values.
You either live them or youvisit them. And we say we don't
want a lot of visitors whenembedding this norm in the
things that we do. Our valuesare not you know, this thing, as
you said, framed up on a wallthat people point to value
(08:26):
should be on a very coffeestained piece of paper that is
referred to and used all thetime to help make decisions. So
you know, people you've got toadopt, adapt. And a lot of
people adopt something, atraining program, they adapt it,
I call that fairy dust, theysprinkle it over the business,
(08:46):
but they forget that if theydon't embed it in behavior, the
fairy dust will evaporate. Andit'll be on to the next, you
know, shiny coin of whatleadership program do we do?
Because we think if we do thisleadership program, it'll change
everything. Well, it doesn't.
And the reason it doesn't isbecause we live in a in a very
(09:07):
fluid world, even more so thanever today. So you know, we're,
we're, you know, if you'reflying an aeroplane, you have
headwinds and tailwinds. And youcan you can maneuver through
that, because it's eitherpushing you back or forward. But
what we have today is a lot ofturbulence and turbulence is
unexpected. So you can't takeyour eyes off the controls any
(09:28):
more around culture, you've gotto be watching it all the time,
because there is turbulencethat's going to move it around.
Chellie Phillips (09:37):
He brought up something that made me think of
when I was talking withPanasonic, one of the things
that they talked about wasmaking sure that their entire
leadership team was on boardwith this and that they had to
unfortunately make the harddecision to let some go after
they they were not adopting theprogram and they were not living
up to the standards that theyhad put in there with coaching
and different things like that.
How important is it going intothat program to realize that you
(10:00):
may actually have people therewho are a detriment to your
culture, and being willing toactually cut loose some of those
and make those big decisions.
Garry Ridge (10:12):
Extremely important. And that's where it
falls down. If in our leadershipteam, you either, you know,
adopt, adapt and embed ourculture, or we'll share you with
a competitor. And you know, Idon't know whether you read the
article that I wrote on put onLinkedIn called The Great
Escape, but you know, it's, it'speople are escaping to or from
(10:35):
cultures these days, this hasbeen going on forever. And, you
know, I think that and that'swhy our our measurement system,
our employee engagement surveys,all of the work we do has been
so important, because we have tobe continually measuring. And
particularly in the seniorleadership group, if you know,
if you don't want to be on thispath with us, it's okay, you're
(10:55):
a great person, it's okay. Ifyou don't want to be you're not
happy here. So go be happysomewhere else. But this is what
we're going to do
Chellie Phillips (11:02):
that that's so vital, is making sure that
everybody is speaking from thesame same voice so that you
know, everybody's hearing it,it's not, you know, it's not
just being tongue in cheek, andit's just something we're
checking a box and doing well.
Garry Ridge (11:14):
You know, when I talked about the petri dish, if
someone in the leadership teamthat is not accepting the
culture as a norm is a toxin inthat petri dish. And if you
don't pull it out real quick,it'll turn the whole petri dish
sour. That's what I mean, bywatching that petri dish, you've
(11:35):
got to be brave enough, you'vegot to love your people enough.
And Noah said, You've got to bebrave enough to redirect
behavior. And if that behaviorin the petri dish is sending it
sour, if you cannot redirect thebehavior or corrected, then you
have to take it out. Or you haveto be prepared to look at that
petri dish tomorrow morning, andsee a big sour mess, because
(11:56):
that's how quickly it canchange.
Chellie Phillips (11:58):
I think, and one of the articles that I read
that someone had written aboutyou and the culture that y'all
are creating, it said that whenyou started this, you had an HR
department that was only threepeople. And I think sometimes
people get hung up on that, oh,we have to have masses of people
being involved in something tobe able to make a an impact or
make some kind of shift. Can youspeak to that a little bit?
Garry Ridge (12:19):
You know, what you need to be as deliberate and
focused, and we couldn't affordmuch more than we had at the
time. And we built it up overtime. So what did we start with?
We started with measuring whatwe needed to measure, which was
our employee engagement, we thenlooked at areas that we wanted
to improve on. And then overtime, you know, now we have, I
don't know how many peopleglobally in our organizational
(12:42):
development group, probably 30,probably probably 10 times, but
we're probably eight timeslarger as a company. But, you
know, we just said, where do wewant to start? And we started
out, do we have a clearlydefined purpose? And do we have
a clearly defined set of valuesthat protect people and set them
free? That's where we started.
And we worked on that. And westarted to embed it in the
(13:03):
organization.
Chellie Phillips (13:05):
And it touched on something a few minutes ago,
when you were talking aboutpeople leaving culture,
especially now we're talkinglike with the great resignation,
or the you know, realignments,or especially this what's
happened over the last couple ofyears, thanks to COVID, and
different things like that. Ithink it really has made people
very conscious of is this whereI want to be for the next 1015
years down the road? And youalso mentioned hiring
(13:26):
deliberately, and and makingsome of those choices. So when
you're hiring for culture, whatare some of the key things that
you look for in someone?
Garry Ridge (13:35):
Well, if you ever go to our careers page, you'll
see that what it points you tois our values. So we hire for
values alignment first. And wedo that by having meaningful
conversations with the people totry and understand what they
stand for what they don't standfor. And so, you know, I can
teach anybody with a certainlevel of competency to do
(13:59):
something better in a function.
However, it's the valuesalignment that's so important to
us. And you know, in in latertimes, people are coming to us
because they want to be in anorganization that has been seen
to be one where it respectstheir people, and the culture is
strong. So you get referrals andredirections. And we didn't have
the great escape, and we don'thave a huge issue. Now having
(14:24):
finding people to come and workin the organization because we
have such a high reputation forhaving a culture where we come,
you know, our cultural promisesa group of people that come
together to protect and feedeach other. That's why we come
together. And you know, over themany 25 years, we've never laid
(14:44):
anybody off in any downturn atall. We've all been, you know,
we've been able to maintain ourposition in fact, through COVID
We have some of the best resultswe've ever had in our life. And
it's because you know, peopleWell, we're work going home
every night worried about, youknow, am I going to be able to
feed my kids or pay for mydoctor?
Chellie Phillips (15:06):
I think that's one thing too. Sometimes
management or leadership getshung up on culture is maybe a
fufu kind of concept, but it canhave a dramatic effect on the
success, profitabilityproductivity inside an
organization. Can you touch onthat a little bit,
Garry Ridge (15:22):
we've proven it.
We've proven it, you know, we'vegot a an employee engagement of
93% 98% of our people say theylove to tell people they work at
the company. 97% say they feeltheir values are aligned with
the company's values. 97% of ourpeople say that they respect
their coach, who was actuallytheir boss, because we don't
have managers, we have coaches,because the job of a leader is
(15:44):
to help those they lead play abetter game. So we've got all
those great measures. And by theway, over a 20 year period,
we've taken the value of ourcompany from about $300 million
to nearly $3 billion. And we'veincreased our revenue more than
six times. And we've been ableto do that by taking our brand
(16:04):
to 176 countries around theworld. So if you think about it,
all we do is sell oil in thecan. So you know, why would
anybody be passionate aboutselling oil in a camp because we
don't sell oil. And again, wesell memories we sell, you know,
a place where people learn,grow, and feel like they belong.
And that's one of the biggestchallenges as organizations,
(16:26):
people, if people don't feellike they'll belong, they'll
leave. You know, you, me andanybody else we know, has has,
at some time in their life leftthe company, a relationship or a
party. Why? Because they didn'tfeel like they belong. And
that's our job is to help peoplefeel and it's not about free
pizzas, popcorn and candy. It'snot about that it's deeper than
(16:48):
that. This is simple. It's noteasy. And time is not your
friend.
Chellie Phillips (16:54):
Can you elaborate on that when you say
time is not your friend? What doyou mean?
Garry Ridge (16:58):
Consistency, you, you do not build a strong,
enduring culture in six months,it takes and you've got to set
the foundation and you've got towork on it every day, every day,
every day. And once you startnot working on the toxins get in
the petri dish.
Chellie Phillips (17:16):
Speaking of that, we always like to look at
what are some of the potentialroadblocks that someone might
encounter when they startlooking at the culture inside an
organization? Can you talk aboutany that you might have
experienced as you're growingthe culture inside WD 40?
Garry Ridge (17:30):
This won't work.
This is all soft stuff. This isyou know, you've been drinking
too much of Ken Blanchard's KoolAid, you know, it's really all
about the numbers. You can'tprove it. We can't afford this.
This program? Yeah, we push therandom excuse generator, because
that's what they come up with.
And the reason it's naivetyreally, because they don't
(17:52):
really know. I mean, and somepeople, you know, it's the ego
egos probably one of the biggestthings that I think about, I
don't know, if you've ever seenme with this, I invented this
person. This is our soul suckingCEO, you know, an owl must
always be right. He's amicromanager. He has all the
answers his corporate royalty,you know, he's always you know,
(18:13):
when things go wrong, that heblames others, he hates
feedback, you know, all of thestuff that happens with
leadership's in an organizationare roadblocks, because it's the
ego getting in the way.
Chellie Phillips (18:25):
Do you find roadblocks to be mostly in the
management level or withemployees? That were employees
more afraid of the change? Orwere they more willing to accept
and kind of embrace it and gowith it?
Garry Ridge (18:37):
In the beginning, it was, oh, I don't believe that
you're going to continue this? Ithink it was doubt more than
anything else, like, Sure,you'll get this? Yes, we've seen
this before. So I think it wasmore doubt. That's why I say
time is not your friend, youhave to you have to show the
people you lead, that you dohave a harder goal. But you also
(19:02):
do have a backbone of steel. Youknow, it's you've got to show
care and Canada at the sametime. Now,
Chellie Phillips (19:09):
I know there's a lot of people today that are
looking at making careertransitions and different things
like that, because maybe they'renot in a place where they feel
that value or they feel thatthey have the role. If you were
sitting down with someone whowas looking to make a career
shift, what are some of thethings that you would tell them
that these are what you shouldlook for for a company where you
(19:29):
will be valued or where you'llhave input or where you'll feel
like you can grow and develop asan individual.
Garry Ridge (19:34):
So the obvious things you would look for is
true expressions of appreciationof the people practically I
would go in and watch peoplecoming and going to work at the
organization every day and dothey run in legally or do they
limp in slowly and when theyleave at the end of the day? Are
they're smiling or are theyspeeding out of the parking lot?
(19:57):
That's really the culture youknow, what's the organ
Association saying, but thenwhat is the organization doing?
What does the leadership looklike? How do they behave? You
know, those are the that's thesort of stuff. They'd be talking
to people inside the company andsay, What's it like to work
here? You know, I don't I don'treally believe things like
Glassdoor, etc, so much, becauseyou know, they can become, I
(20:22):
call it people yelling from thebleachers with masks on, there's
always going to be, you cannotplease all the people all the
time, and no good deed goesunpunished. So there are always
going to be people yelling fromthe bleachers with masks on, but
do they have a clearly definedset of values that are
understandable? Is there a truepurpose? You know, what are they
(20:46):
doing as far as learning andteaching? Do they value
learning? Those are the sorts ofthings that I would be kind of
on my radar.
Chellie Phillips (20:53):
And one of the things that you mentioned, we're
talking about through the surveythat you've done over the course
of time is, it sounds to me thatthe employees have become brand
advocates for the organizationthemselves, which is a definite
part that you would want to getout of, you know, a culture
shift? How are you encouragingemployees to have their voice
(21:14):
and talk about the organization?
I know, there's a lot ofcompanies these days that, oh, I
don't want my employees onsocial media, I don't want them
doing these kinds of things. Howare they having their voice and
sharing the message for you?
Garry Ridge (21:26):
We don't encourage them, they do it because they're
proud of it. So you know, wedon't run contests and
incentives to help people getout there and voice positively
about it. But you know, ourpeople, our tribe members
genuinely love talking about thememories we create for other
people. Because we do it with asincere heart.
Chellie Phillips (21:47):
Hello, that I read somewhere about that you
actually got so caught up inthis, you actually went back and
got your master's in leadership,what what is it about leadership
itself that you think are is keyand vital to being able to
create a culture shift insidethe organization?
Garry Ridge (22:06):
It's not about you, it's about the people you lead.
And it's not about you. Youknow, when I was given the
privilege to lead the companyback in 1997, long time ago, 25
years ago, I was scared, but Iwasn't afraid. But what I did, I
was reading some of the work ofthe Dalai Lama on a flight from
(22:27):
Los Angeles to Sydney, actually.
And he made a statement, ourpurpose in life is to make
people happy. If we can't makethem happy, at least I'd hurt
them. And what I saw around me,not necessarily in my company,
but around in leadership wasleaders hurting people. And I
didn't understand why they weredoing that I didn't have the
answer. And at the same time, Iread a statement of Aristotle,
(22:47):
where he said pleasure in thejob puts perfection in the work.
And I thought to myself, Okay,if we were able to create a
culture where we didn't hurtpeople, we actually helped them
and they'd liked what they'redoing. My simplistic brain said,
I think that's a good thing. ButI didn't know how to do it. So I
(23:08):
looked around. And I fortunatelyfell on to this program at the
University of San Diego, whichwas a master of science and
executive leadership. And itwasn't your typical MBA, I
didn't need an MBA, I knew mostof what I knew. But this, Ken
Blanchard, who was one of thearchitects of the program, made
this statement, he said, mostMBA programs, get people in the
(23:30):
head, we got to start gettingpeople in the heart. And I
thought, I think I like that. SoI applied and I was submitted,
and I did that master's program.
And you know, Ken, who's a dearfriend of mine, I ended up being
on his board for 10 years afterwe got to know each other. I
wrote a book with him, as youprobably know, he's my he was my
(23:52):
mentor. And you know, he's the,he's the guru of servant
leadership. And I just took alot of what he and the program
taught. And I started to playwith it in the organization. And
it started to work. And that'swhere it all came together.
Chellie Phillips (24:09):
So you've kind of continued that, that same
thought pattern from what I've,from what I've by creating your
own internal leadership academy.
Is that Yeah, can you explain alittle bit about how that works?
Garry Ridge (24:20):
Yeah, it's called Tribology. Interestingly enough,
tribe-ology is actually thescientific study of friction.
But we liked the word because itapplied to the product or the
stop friction with our products.
Tribe-ology- we call ourselves atribe. It was kind of cute. And
what we've basically done istaken from the MBA from the
sorry, master's program I did,we've sent 30 plus people
(24:45):
through the same program. So 30people in the organization have
drunk that same Kool Aid havemaster's degrees in leadership
from the University of San Diegoor something equivalent there
where we found that so we'vewe've embedded that in the lead
worship team and one of therequirements of doing have been
granted that scholarship fromthe company is you will become a
faculty member of our tribologyleadership lab as we call it on
(25:10):
graduation. And then we takeelements of the program that are
appropriate. And we teach itright through the organization
in different classes, differentways. It's, it's evolved over
time. Now, of course, a lot ofits hybrid and virtual, but it's
really become very much part ofwhat we do in the organization.
I read
Chellie Phillips (25:30):
somewhere that one of the big focuses of that
is accountability. Andaccountability seems to be one
of the hardest pieces whenyou're putting together these
programs, because everybodyassumes that there. In your
case, their coach, or theirsupervisor was the one who's
actually accountable. While theymight have a chore to do, the
ultimate outcome falls onsomeone else. So how do you go
(25:51):
about shifting that mindsetinside an organization where
each person becomes accountablefor their own piece of
Garry Ridge (25:58):
it? Well, first thing is to define what they're
accountable for most people letpeople down, because we haven't
been clear around defining whatwe're gonna hold each other
accountable for. And it was thebook that I wrote with Ken
Blanchard, which is calledHelping people win at work. The
timeline is a businessphilosophy around not marking
people's papers, but helpingthem get an A. And the first
(26:19):
definition is what is an ad looklike? So one of the things
that's very important in ourorganization is that we define
A's. So if I'm your coach, we'llsit down at the beginning of the
year. And we'll say, let's lookat you know, your role, what
your key components of your roleare, what are the three to five
most important and what isn't alook like if they walked in the
(26:41):
room today? What would it looklike, and my job as your coach
is to help you get that A. So ifyou think of a great coach,
great coaches don't run on thefield, great coaches spend time
on the sideline, observing theplay, they never go in and grab
the ball, they never kick theball, and they never go to the
podium. And they also spend alot of time in the locker room
(27:04):
building trust and culturearound the team. So if you're a
coach at our company, numberone, A is a very clearly defined
with those that you coach, theresponsibility of getting that A
is the player, your job is toshow them areas where in their
play, they prove their play tohelp show help them get that I
(27:25):
and to work with them in thelocker room, if you will, to
build that trust around thosethat they work with.
Chellie Phillips (27:33):
I love a coach analogy. And that is so true is
you know like everybody havingthat that clear expectation from
the from the get go from theonset of the program. We talked
a little bit about measures, youtalked about that you'd do
employee engagement surveys,different things like that, what
are the top five things that youthink people should measure
(27:54):
inside their organization?
Garry Ridge (27:55):
Well, maybe I would put these in more themes, trust
between the groups that theywork in, in levels of openness
to learning, alignment withvalues, clear clarity around
purpose, those come to mind,
Chellie Phillips (28:11):
all good things. And I know we're running
short, because I wanted, Ipromised I would keep you at 30
minutes, because I know you'rebusy. But one piece of advice
that you would give anorganization who was beginning
to do digesting what's happeninginside their organization and
looking at building theirculture. Is there a piece of
takeaway advice that you wouldgive someone, it's all
Garry Ridge (28:31):
about the people, it's really you've got to start
there. It's all about your it'sall about the people? What are
you going to do? How are yougoing to behave? To make sure
that people go home happy?
Chellie Phillips (28:42):
Anyway, do that? Pretty much in life, we
get that right?
Garry Ridge (28:46):
Well, the other reason why it's so rewarding if
you think of if you extend thatout a little bit happy people,
paid happy families, happyfamilies, create happy
communities, happy communities,create a happy world. And by
golly, we need a happy world. Sobusiness has a huge opportunity
(29:07):
to make a positive difference inthe world today. If we just
create cultures that treatpeople with respect and dignity,
that give them the opportunityto learn that they feel like
they belong. We have a hugeopportunity to make a positive
difference in the world. Andit's our responsibility. We
better do it
Chellie Phillips (29:26):
couldn't agree more. And so, Mr. Garry, I
really appreciate you takingyour time today and talking with
me, and truly appreciate theeffort. And if nothing else, I
hope they get the takeaway thatpeople are what matters.
Garry Ridge (29:39):
Thank you. It's been my pleasure. Anytime reach
out anytime.
Chellie Phillips (29:42):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks
for listening to this episode ofthe culture secret podcast.
Garry was full of advice andinformation, but he hit on two
points that I think are reallyimportant. A feeling of
belonging is so very key. Peoplewant to feel like they're going
someplace everyday where they'recontributing. into something
bigger than themselves. Theyalso want to trust that the
(30:03):
company and leadership havetheir back and care about them
as people. If you're interestedin learning more about the
secrets you can use to build astrong people centered culture
in the workplace. Join thewaitlist for my book, culture
secrets at WWW dot Chelliephillips.com backslash waitlist.
You'll be notified when it'savailable at your favorite
bookseller is scheduled toarrive on April 29 2023. If
(30:26):
you're listening to this afterthat date, go ahead and check me
out on Amazon and grab your copynow. If you have comments or
questions, please feel free toreach out to me on LinkedIn,
Facebook or Twitter. If you likewhat you heard, I'd love it if
you'd subscribe, drop me arating and share a link with a
friend. I'm currently bookingfor corporate training and
workshop presentations. I'd lovethe chance to work with you and
(30:46):
your company. If you'reinterested, please visit my
website at WWW dot Chelliephillips.com That's ch E L L I E
P h i ll IP s.com. And remember,building a value culture is your
competitive advantage and thebackbone of any successful
(31:06):
organization.
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in
the right place. Check out thisepisode of culture secrets, the
podcast dedicated to creatingworkplaces for both employees
and the company's thrive.
Welcome to another episode ofthe culture secrets podcast. I'm
your host Chellie Phillips, andthis week, I'm excited to
introduce you to Garry Ridge.
(00:29):
Garry has 25 years of experienceas the Chairman and CEO of WD 40
company. He's also an adjunctprofessor at the University of
San Diego, where he teaches theprinciples and practices of
corporate culture and a Master'sof Science in Executive
Leadership Program. Garry'sphilosophy on company culture is
based on Aristotle's quote,pleasure in the job puts
perfection in the work. turningthat into action. He believes
(00:52):
that all leaders can create aworkplace where you go to work
each day, contribute tosomething bigger than yourself,
learn something new, feel safe,are protected and provided
freedom by a set of values andgo home happy. He is passionate
about the learning andempowering organizational
culture he has helpedestablished at the WD 40
company. In 2009. He co authoreda book with Ken Blanchard
(01:14):
outlining his effectiveleadership techniques titled
helping people win at work, abusiness philosophy called don't
mark my paper helped me get anA, he's a native of Australia,
and he holds a certificate inmodern retailing and a Master's
of Science in executiveleadership from the University
of San Diego, I want you to stopfor a minute and consider the WD
40 is employee engagementscores, they consistently
(01:36):
remained above 90% 98% of theiremployees say they love to tell
people they work at WD 41 99%believe their opinions and
values are a good fit for theorganization. 93% of their
employees report that theorganization encourages
employees to continually improvein their jobs, another 97%
indicate they're clear on thecompany goals and 93% say
(01:59):
they're excited about thedirection that WD 40 is in the
overwhelmingly positive picture,WD 40. Companies employees love
working there, they're engaged,and they're optimistic about
their future with the company.
So how can you replicate thissame cultural experience in your
workplace? I'm glad you asked,stick around for the next 30
minutes. And listen, as Garyshares a few words of wisdom
with us. And just kind of alittle nutshell, kind of can you
(02:22):
give me the the overview of whatthe WD 40 culture is that you've
created there? Now?
Garry Ridge (02:30):
Yeah, basically, it's a culture that's based on a
couple of beliefs. One of thebeliefs is that one of the
biggest desires we have as humanbeings is to belong. And most
organizations don't createcultures where people actually
feel like they belong, making acontribution to something bigger
than themselves. So it's basedon belonging, purpose, values,
(02:53):
and learning, which we believeare four of the most important
elements of building aconnection and culture. And that
ties
Chellie Phillips (03:01):
right in with what we're seeing. Now, in a lot
of the studies where people wantto do meaningful work, they want
to know their work matters. Andthey want to be able to see
themselves as part of thesuccess that an organization
has. So when you first wrotethis, what were some of the
internal signs maybe that yourealized, if other CEOs are
looking at this? What are someof the things that they might
(03:23):
see where they stop and think Imight need to take a look at
what's happening inside ourorganization.
Garry Ridge (03:28):
So let me make this statement. And then I'll kind of
expand out, I heard me say itbefore, if you've listened to
any of my podcasts, but imaginea place where you go to work
every day, you make acontribution to something bigger
than yourself, you learnsomething new, you're protected
and set free by a compelling setof values, and you go home
(03:50):
happy. So if I unpack that alittle bit, you know, I think
simply you need to look at whatelements of that statement are
not embedded or lived within theorganization. So does your
organization have a clearlyunderstood purpose and when I
say clearly understood purpose,you know, WD 40. Our purpose is
(04:13):
to create memories, which is ifyou look at our purpose
statement, We exist to createpositive lasting memories. And
we do that by solving problemsin factories, homes, and
workshops around the world. Sowe're in the memories business.
Now. You might want to say thatwe're in the squeaks business,
but that's not really a purpose.
So again, you've got to takewhat do you do? And Simon
(04:34):
cynics, your work is great aboutthis. It's not about what you
do. It's about why you do it andhow you do it. So why we exist
is to do what we did and how wedo it is by creating a a culture
of learning and teaching thatdelivers a highly engaged
workforce who live our company'svalues every day. So I had a
(04:55):
model that I put together andit's people Purpose values. And
then you have strategy andexecution, which is where most
organizations spend most oftheir time. And then you have
learning. And learning is soimportant because learning is
the fuel to passion foreverybody. So you have to create
a safe learning environment,
Chellie Phillips (05:17):
one of the things I keep hearing is, is
safe. It's a place where youfeel valued and values are
important. So that brings meback to this this element of
trust that has to be there. Howimportant is that? And how can
you start building that into thefabric of your organization?
Garry Ridge (05:33):
Trust is extremely important. And number one, it
comes from leadership inleadership, is the leaders ego,
eating their empathy, instead oftheir empathy eating their ego.
So your ego is the opposite totrust at vulnerability, are we
comfortable being vulnerable? Dowe care about our people, which
(05:54):
means that not only in Word, butindeed, we love our people
enough not only to applaud themand reward them for doing great
work, but we're brave enough asleaders to redirect them when
their behavior is workingagainst growing great culture.
You know, when I went to schoolback in Australia, many years
ago, my science teacher gave mea petri dish, and the science
(06:17):
teacher said, We're gonna growculture in this petri dish. So
what's important important iswhat are the ingredients that
you're putting in the petridish, are you putting in the
right ingredients, those ofwhich you and I have just been
kind of talking about, that'simportant, then well, then
what's important that you watchthat petri dish every day, and
(06:37):
that you feed the ingredientsthat grow great culture, and you
extract the ingredients thatdon't great go a great culture.
So I have an algorithm that Ikind of adapted from some of
Simon cynics work that saysculture equals parentheses,
values plus behavior, closeparenthesis, times consistency.
(07:01):
So you've got to have theingredients, you've got to have
the behaviors, and you've got topay attention to it every day,
every day, every day.
Chellie Phillips (07:09):
And I think in doing some of the research,
that's kind of where peoplestall out, as far as they
realize or recognize that theremight be an issue and they want
to do some work for it. So theyhave a lot of discussion about
it. And they come up with somecatch fake phrases, or maybe
they give it a name. But after acouple of months, and they roll
it out, it kind of goes by thewayside, kind of like our you
(07:29):
know, all the mission statementsthat go on on the wall, and
nobody reads them when they comein anymore. As a CEO and
leadership team, how importantand how do you go about adding
that as a driver every day whenyou show up at the office?
Garry Ridge (07:42):
Well, two ways. One is, it's embedded in the talent
development program, or what alot of people would call our
review system, you know, we havethat our values as part of our
regular conversations with ourwe call call ourselves a tribe
with our tribe members on anongoing basis. And we ask them,
(08:03):
our people to share with us howin the last 90 days, have they
lived our values. And we onlyhave two measurements of values.
You either live them or youvisit them. And we say we don't
want a lot of visitors whenembedding this norm in the
things that we do. Our valuesare not you know, this thing, as
you said, framed up on a wallthat people point to value
(08:26):
should be on a very coffeestained piece of paper that is
referred to and used all thetime to help make decisions. So
you know, people you've got toadopt, adapt. And a lot of
people adopt something, atraining program, they adapt it,
I call that fairy dust, theysprinkle it over the business,
(08:46):
but they forget that if theydon't embed it in behavior, the
fairy dust will evaporate. Andit'll be on to the next, you
know, shiny coin of whatleadership program do we do?
Because we think if we do thisleadership program, it'll change
everything. Well, it doesn't.
And the reason it doesn't isbecause we live in a in a very
(09:07):
fluid world, even more so thanever today. So you know, we're,
we're, you know, if you'reflying an aeroplane, you have
headwinds and tailwinds. And youcan you can maneuver through
that, because it's eitherpushing you back or forward. But
what we have today is a lot ofturbulence and turbulence is
unexpected. So you can't takeyour eyes off the controls any
(09:28):
more around culture, you've gotto be watching it all the time,
because there is turbulencethat's going to move it around.
Chellie Phillips (09:37):
He brought up something that made me think of
when I was talking withPanasonic, one of the things
that they talked about wasmaking sure that their entire
leadership team was on boardwith this and that they had to
unfortunately make the harddecision to let some go after
they they were not adopting theprogram and they were not living
up to the standards that theyhad put in there with coaching
and different things like that.
How important is it going intothat program to realize that you
(10:00):
may actually have people therewho are a detriment to your
culture, and being willing toactually cut loose some of those
and make those big decisions.
Garry Ridge (10:12):
Extremely important. And that's where it
falls down. If in our leadershipteam, you either, you know,
adopt, adapt and embed ourculture, or we'll share you with
a competitor. And you know, Idon't know whether you read the
article that I wrote on put onLinkedIn called The Great
Escape, but you know, it's, it'speople are escaping to or from
(10:35):
cultures these days, this hasbeen going on forever. And, you
know, I think that and that'swhy our our measurement system,
our employee engagement surveys,all of the work we do has been
so important, because we have tobe continually measuring. And
particularly in the seniorleadership group, if you know,
if you don't want to be on thispath with us, it's okay, you're
(10:55):
a great person, it's okay. Ifyou don't want to be you're not
happy here. So go be happysomewhere else. But this is what
we're going to do
Chellie Phillips (11:02):
that that's so vital, is making sure that
everybody is speaking from thesame same voice so that you
know, everybody's hearing it,it's not, you know, it's not
just being tongue in cheek, andit's just something we're
checking a box and doing well.
Garry Ridge (11:14):
You know, when I talked about the petri dish, if
someone in the leadership teamthat is not accepting the
culture as a norm is a toxin inthat petri dish. And if you
don't pull it out real quick,it'll turn the whole petri dish
sour. That's what I mean, bywatching that petri dish, you've
(11:35):
got to be brave enough, you'vegot to love your people enough.
And Noah said, You've got to bebrave enough to redirect
behavior. And if that behaviorin the petri dish is sending it
sour, if you cannot redirect thebehavior or corrected, then you
have to take it out. Or you haveto be prepared to look at that
petri dish tomorrow morning, andsee a big sour mess, because
(11:56):
that's how quickly it canchange.
Chellie Phillips (11:58):
I think, and one of the articles that I read
that someone had written aboutyou and the culture that y'all
are creating, it said that whenyou started this, you had an HR
department that was only threepeople. And I think sometimes
people get hung up on that, oh,we have to have masses of people
being involved in something tobe able to make a an impact or
make some kind of shift. Can youspeak to that a little bit?
Garry Ridge (12:19):
You know, what you need to be as deliberate and
focused, and we couldn't affordmuch more than we had at the
time. And we built it up overtime. So what did we start with?
We started with measuring whatwe needed to measure, which was
our employee engagement, we thenlooked at areas that we wanted
to improve on. And then overtime, you know, now we have, I
don't know how many peopleglobally in our organizational
(12:42):
development group, probably 30,probably probably 10 times, but
we're probably eight timeslarger as a company. But, you
know, we just said, where do wewant to start? And we started
out, do we have a clearlydefined purpose? And do we have
a clearly defined set of valuesthat protect people and set them
free? That's where we started.
And we worked on that. And westarted to embed it in the
(13:03):
organization.
Chellie Phillips (13:05):
And it touched on something a few minutes ago,
when you were talking aboutpeople leaving culture,
especially now we're talkinglike with the great resignation,
or the you know, realignments,or especially this what's
happened over the last couple ofyears, thanks to COVID, and
different things like that. Ithink it really has made people
very conscious of is this whereI want to be for the next 1015
years down the road? And youalso mentioned hiring
(13:26):
deliberately, and and makingsome of those choices. So when
you're hiring for culture, whatare some of the key things that
you look for in someone?
Garry Ridge (13:35):
Well, if you ever go to our careers page, you'll
see that what it points you tois our values. So we hire for
values alignment first. And wedo that by having meaningful
conversations with the people totry and understand what they
stand for what they don't standfor. And so, you know, I can
teach anybody with a certainlevel of competency to do
(13:59):
something better in a function.
However, it's the valuesalignment that's so important to
us. And you know, in in latertimes, people are coming to us
because they want to be in anorganization that has been seen
to be one where it respectstheir people, and the culture is
strong. So you get referrals andredirections. And we didn't have
the great escape, and we don'thave a huge issue. Now having
(14:24):
finding people to come and workin the organization because we
have such a high reputation forhaving a culture where we come,
you know, our cultural promisesa group of people that come
together to protect and feedeach other. That's why we come
together. And you know, over themany 25 years, we've never laid
(14:44):
anybody off in any downturn atall. We've all been, you know,
we've been able to maintain ourposition in fact, through COVID
We have some of the best resultswe've ever had in our life. And
it's because you know, peopleWell, we're work going home
every night worried about, youknow, am I going to be able to
feed my kids or pay for mydoctor?
Chellie Phillips (15:06):
I think that's one thing too. Sometimes
management or leadership getshung up on culture is maybe a
fufu kind of concept, but it canhave a dramatic effect on the
success, profitabilityproductivity inside an
organization. Can you touch onthat a little bit,
Garry Ridge (15:22):
we've proven it.
We've proven it, you know, we'vegot a an employee engagement of
93% 98% of our people say theylove to tell people they work at
the company. 97% say they feeltheir values are aligned with
the company's values. 97% of ourpeople say that they respect
their coach, who was actuallytheir boss, because we don't
have managers, we have coaches,because the job of a leader is
(15:44):
to help those they lead play abetter game. So we've got all
those great measures. And by theway, over a 20 year period,
we've taken the value of ourcompany from about $300 million
to nearly $3 billion. And we'veincreased our revenue more than
six times. And we've been ableto do that by taking our brand
(16:04):
to 176 countries around theworld. So if you think about it,
all we do is sell oil in thecan. So you know, why would
anybody be passionate aboutselling oil in a camp because we
don't sell oil. And again, wesell memories we sell, you know,
a place where people learn,grow, and feel like they belong.
And that's one of the biggestchallenges as organizations,
(16:26):
people, if people don't feellike they'll belong, they'll
leave. You know, you, me andanybody else we know, has has,
at some time in their life leftthe company, a relationship or a
party. Why? Because they didn'tfeel like they belong. And
that's our job is to help peoplefeel and it's not about free
pizzas, popcorn and candy. It'snot about that it's deeper than
(16:48):
that. This is simple. It's noteasy. And time is not your
friend.
Chellie Phillips (16:54):
Can you elaborate on that when you say
time is not your friend? What doyou mean?
Garry Ridge (16:58):
Consistency, you, you do not build a strong,
enduring culture in six months,it takes and you've got to set
the foundation and you've got towork on it every day, every day,
every day. And once you startnot working on the toxins get in
the petri dish.
Chellie Phillips (17:16):
Speaking of that, we always like to look at
what are some of the potentialroadblocks that someone might
encounter when they startlooking at the culture inside an
organization? Can you talk aboutany that you might have
experienced as you're growingthe culture inside WD 40?
Garry Ridge (17:30):
This won't work.
This is all soft stuff. This isyou know, you've been drinking
too much of Ken Blanchard's KoolAid, you know, it's really all
about the numbers. You can'tprove it. We can't afford this.
This program? Yeah, we push therandom excuse generator, because
that's what they come up with.
And the reason it's naivetyreally, because they don't
(17:52):
really know. I mean, and somepeople, you know, it's the ego
egos probably one of the biggestthings that I think about, I
don't know, if you've ever seenme with this, I invented this
person. This is our soul suckingCEO, you know, an owl must
always be right. He's amicromanager. He has all the
answers his corporate royalty,you know, he's always you know,
(18:13):
when things go wrong, that heblames others, he hates
feedback, you know, all of thestuff that happens with
leadership's in an organizationare roadblocks, because it's the
ego getting in the way.
Chellie Phillips (18:25):
Do you find roadblocks to be mostly in the
management level or withemployees? That were employees
more afraid of the change? Orwere they more willing to accept
and kind of embrace it and gowith it?
Garry Ridge (18:37):
In the beginning, it was, oh, I don't believe that
you're going to continue this? Ithink it was doubt more than
anything else, like, Sure,you'll get this? Yes, we've seen
this before. So I think it wasmore doubt. That's why I say
time is not your friend, youhave to you have to show the
people you lead, that you dohave a harder goal. But you also
(19:02):
do have a backbone of steel. Youknow, it's you've got to show
care and Canada at the sametime. Now,
Chellie Phillips (19:09):
I know there's a lot of people today that are
looking at making careertransitions and different things
like that, because maybe they'renot in a place where they feel
that value or they feel thatthey have the role. If you were
sitting down with someone whowas looking to make a career
shift, what are some of thethings that you would tell them
that these are what you shouldlook for for a company where you
(19:29):
will be valued or where you'llhave input or where you'll feel
like you can grow and develop asan individual.
Garry Ridge (19:34):
So the obvious things you would look for is
true expressions of appreciationof the people practically I
would go in and watch peoplecoming and going to work at the
organization every day and dothey run in legally or do they
limp in slowly and when theyleave at the end of the day? Are
they're smiling or are theyspeeding out of the parking lot?
(19:57):
That's really the culture youknow, what's the organ
Association saying, but thenwhat is the organization doing?
What does the leadership looklike? How do they behave? You
know, those are the that's thesort of stuff. They'd be talking
to people inside the company andsay, What's it like to work
here? You know, I don't I don'treally believe things like
Glassdoor, etc, so much, becauseyou know, they can become, I
(20:22):
call it people yelling from thebleachers with masks on, there's
always going to be, you cannotplease all the people all the
time, and no good deed goesunpunished. So there are always
going to be people yelling fromthe bleachers with masks on, but
do they have a clearly definedset of values that are
understandable? Is there a truepurpose? You know, what are they
(20:46):
doing as far as learning andteaching? Do they value
learning? Those are the sorts ofthings that I would be kind of
on my radar.
Chellie Phillips (20:53):
And one of the things that you mentioned, we're
talking about through the surveythat you've done over the course
of time is, it sounds to me thatthe employees have become brand
advocates for the organizationthemselves, which is a definite
part that you would want to getout of, you know, a culture
shift? How are you encouragingemployees to have their voice
(21:14):
and talk about the organization?
I know, there's a lot ofcompanies these days that, oh, I
don't want my employees onsocial media, I don't want them
doing these kinds of things. Howare they having their voice and
sharing the message for you?
Garry Ridge (21:26):
We don't encourage them, they do it because they're
proud of it. So you know, wedon't run contests and
incentives to help people getout there and voice positively
about it. But you know, ourpeople, our tribe members
genuinely love talking about thememories we create for other
people. Because we do it with asincere heart.
Chellie Phillips (21:47):
Hello, that I read somewhere about that you
actually got so caught up inthis, you actually went back and
got your master's in leadership,what what is it about leadership
itself that you think are is keyand vital to being able to
create a culture shift insidethe organization?
Garry Ridge (22:06):
It's not about you, it's about the people you lead.
And it's not about you. Youknow, when I was given the
privilege to lead the companyback in 1997, long time ago, 25
years ago, I was scared, but Iwasn't afraid. But what I did, I
was reading some of the work ofthe Dalai Lama on a flight from
(22:27):
Los Angeles to Sydney, actually.
And he made a statement, ourpurpose in life is to make
people happy. If we can't makethem happy, at least I'd hurt
them. And what I saw around me,not necessarily in my company,
but around in leadership wasleaders hurting people. And I
didn't understand why they weredoing that I didn't have the
answer. And at the same time, Iread a statement of Aristotle,
(22:47):
where he said pleasure in thejob puts perfection in the work.
And I thought to myself, Okay,if we were able to create a
culture where we didn't hurtpeople, we actually helped them
and they'd liked what they'redoing. My simplistic brain said,
I think that's a good thing. ButI didn't know how to do it. So I
(23:08):
looked around. And I fortunatelyfell on to this program at the
University of San Diego, whichwas a master of science and
executive leadership. And itwasn't your typical MBA, I
didn't need an MBA, I knew mostof what I knew. But this, Ken
Blanchard, who was one of thearchitects of the program, made
this statement, he said, mostMBA programs, get people in the
(23:30):
head, we got to start gettingpeople in the heart. And I
thought, I think I like that. SoI applied and I was submitted,
and I did that master's program.
And you know, Ken, who's a dearfriend of mine, I ended up being
on his board for 10 years afterwe got to know each other. I
wrote a book with him, as youprobably know, he's my he was my
(23:52):
mentor. And you know, he's the,he's the guru of servant
leadership. And I just took alot of what he and the program
taught. And I started to playwith it in the organization. And
it started to work. And that'swhere it all came together.
Chellie Phillips (24:09):
So you've kind of continued that, that same
thought pattern from what I've,from what I've by creating your
own internal leadership academy.
Is that Yeah, can you explain alittle bit about how that works?
Garry Ridge (24:20):
Yeah, it's called Tribology. Interestingly enough,
tribe-ology is actually thescientific study of friction.
But we liked the word because itapplied to the product or the
stop friction with our products.
Tribe-ology- we call ourselves atribe. It was kind of cute. And
what we've basically done istaken from the MBA from the
sorry, master's program I did,we've sent 30 plus people
(24:45):
through the same program. So 30people in the organization have
drunk that same Kool Aid havemaster's degrees in leadership
from the University of San Diegoor something equivalent there
where we found that so we'vewe've embedded that in the lead
worship team and one of therequirements of doing have been
granted that scholarship fromthe company is you will become a
faculty member of our tribologyleadership lab as we call it on
(25:10):
graduation. And then we takeelements of the program that are
appropriate. And we teach itright through the organization
in different classes, differentways. It's, it's evolved over
time. Now, of course, a lot ofits hybrid and virtual, but it's
really become very much part ofwhat we do in the organization.
I read
Chellie Phillips (25:30):
somewhere that one of the big focuses of that
is accountability. Andaccountability seems to be one
of the hardest pieces whenyou're putting together these
programs, because everybodyassumes that there. In your
case, their coach, or theirsupervisor was the one who's
actually accountable. While theymight have a chore to do, the
ultimate outcome falls onsomeone else. So how do you go
(25:51):
about shifting that mindsetinside an organization where
each person becomes accountablefor their own piece of
Garry Ridge (25:58):
it? Well, first thing is to define what they're
accountable for most people letpeople down, because we haven't
been clear around defining whatwe're gonna hold each other
accountable for. And it was thebook that I wrote with Ken
Blanchard, which is calledHelping people win at work. The
timeline is a businessphilosophy around not marking
people's papers, but helpingthem get an A. And the first
(26:19):
definition is what is an ad looklike? So one of the things
that's very important in ourorganization is that we define
A's. So if I'm your coach, we'llsit down at the beginning of the
year. And we'll say, let's lookat you know, your role, what
your key components of your roleare, what are the three to five
most important and what isn't alook like if they walked in the
(26:41):
room today? What would it looklike, and my job as your coach
is to help you get that A. So ifyou think of a great coach,
great coaches don't run on thefield, great coaches spend time
on the sideline, observing theplay, they never go in and grab
the ball, they never kick theball, and they never go to the
podium. And they also spend alot of time in the locker room
(27:04):
building trust and culturearound the team. So if you're a
coach at our company, numberone, A is a very clearly defined
with those that you coach, theresponsibility of getting that A
is the player, your job is toshow them areas where in their
play, they prove their play tohelp show help them get that I
(27:25):
and to work with them in thelocker room, if you will, to
build that trust around thosethat they work with.
Chellie Phillips (27:33):
I love a coach analogy. And that is so true is
you know like everybody havingthat that clear expectation from
the from the get go from theonset of the program. We talked
a little bit about measures, youtalked about that you'd do
employee engagement surveys,different things like that, what
are the top five things that youthink people should measure
(27:54):
inside their organization?
Garry Ridge (27:55):
Well, maybe I would put these in more themes, trust
between the groups that theywork in, in levels of openness
to learning, alignment withvalues, clear clarity around
purpose, those come to mind,
Chellie Phillips (28:11):
all good things. And I know we're running
short, because I wanted, Ipromised I would keep you at 30
minutes, because I know you'rebusy. But one piece of advice
that you would give anorganization who was beginning
to do digesting what's happeninginside their organization and
looking at building theirculture. Is there a piece of
takeaway advice that you wouldgive someone, it's all
Garry Ridge (28:31):
about the people, it's really you've got to start
there. It's all about your it'sall about the people? What are
you going to do? How are yougoing to behave? To make sure
that people go home happy?
Chellie Phillips (28:42):
Anyway, do that? Pretty much in life, we
get that right?
Garry Ridge (28:46):
Well, the other reason why it's so rewarding if
you think of if you extend thatout a little bit happy people,
paid happy families, happyfamilies, create happy
communities, happy communities,create a happy world. And by
golly, we need a happy world. Sobusiness has a huge opportunity
(29:07):
to make a positive difference inthe world today. If we just
create cultures that treatpeople with respect and dignity,
that give them the opportunityto learn that they feel like
they belong. We have a hugeopportunity to make a positive
difference in the world. Andit's our responsibility. We
better do it
Chellie Phillips (29:26):
couldn't agree more. And so, Mr. Garry, I
really appreciate you takingyour time today and talking with
me, and truly appreciate theeffort. And if nothing else, I
hope they get the takeaway thatpeople are what matters.
Garry Ridge (29:39):
Thank you. It's been my pleasure. Anytime reach
out anytime.
Chellie Phillips (29:42):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks
for listening to this episode ofthe culture secret podcast.
Garry was full of advice andinformation, but he hit on two
points that I think are reallyimportant. A feeling of
belonging is so very key. Peoplewant to feel like they're going
someplace everyday where they'recontributing. into something
bigger than themselves. Theyalso want to trust that the
(30:03):
company and leadership havetheir back and care about them
as people. If you're interestedin learning more about the
secrets you can use to build astrong people centered culture
in the workplace. Join thewaitlist for my book, culture
secrets at WWW dot Chelliephillips.com backslash waitlist.
You'll be notified when it'savailable at your favorite
bookseller is scheduled toarrive on April 29 2023. If
(30:26):
you're listening to this afterthat date, go ahead and check me
out on Amazon and grab your copynow. If you have comments or
questions, please feel free toreach out to me on LinkedIn,
Facebook or Twitter. If you likewhat you heard, I'd love it if
you'd subscribe, drop me arating and share a link with a
friend. I'm currently bookingfor corporate training and
workshop presentations. I'd lovethe chance to work with you and
(30:46):
your company. If you'reinterested, please visit my
website at WWW dot Chelliephillips.com That's ch E L L I E
P h i ll IP s.com. And remember,building a value culture is your
competitive advantage and thebackbone of any successful
(31:06):
organization.
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