In detailing the process involved in laying the foundation for any kind of building, I mentioned being assigned to the crew doing that work because I lacked the fine tuned skills to be proficient in the plumbing, electrical, or trim work. In addition to the rough carpentry skills I did have, the one other skill I had developed at just fifteen years old was my work ethic. As I said before, laying the foundation and installing the roof system are the most physical stages I’ve experienced in building a home. Without a strong work ethic, I can’t picture many teenagers sticking it out for the entire summer - especially if they’re riding a bicycle to and from work while trying to keep up with men who have worked in that trade for most of their lives. Although there’s little excitement involved with digging or pouring footers, mixing mud and laying cinder block, setting trusses or nailing down asphalt shingles (all by hand in those days), the simple steps involved with each are hard - and each must be completed effectively, consistently. Even the slightest shortcut to make the work easier could have a tremendous negative impact years down the road.

As leaders, modeling the values that will serve as our organization’s foundation requires the same hard, consistent effort. Developing a system for making each behavior that exemplifies one of our values part of our everyday routine, especially if we can design that system around our individual behavioral style, can be the difference between getting a strong start and actually sustaining it over the long haul. I heard the phrase, “Work smarter, not harder” over and over while learning to pour concrete. I was trying to muscle my way through the process and at 130 pounds, there wasn’t much muscle to use! The guys I was working with made it seem almost effortless - because they had developed systems for doing that incredibly hard work. Teaching me their systems may have been almost as difficult as working with the concrete. Getting our team members to follow suit in modeling our values can seem just as hard early on, which makes it even more important to keep things as simple as we possibly can.

Laying a Foundation is Hard Work!

My first full time gig in construction started about a month after I turned fifteen. Earlier that spring, my dad asked if I planned to get a car when I was old enough to drive. “Of course I do!” was my immediate response, and he went on to let me know that I’d probably want to consider making some money so I could pay for it… He connected me with a guy he knew who owned a residential contracting business nearby and the rest, as they say, is history! His crew was building close to where I lived so I was able to ride my bicycle to and from work the entire summer. Before getting back to how important a strong foundation is for even a modest home, I want you to picture a fifteen year old kid, weighing no more than 130 pounds, carrying a lunchbox and water jug on opposite sides of the handlebars with at least 25 pounds of tools in the nail apron around his waist, riding just a half mile home after trying to keep up with grown men all day in 100 degree heat. Let’s call that a life-shaping experience!

Leading up to that summer, I had helped my dad and his friends with small home improvement projects; vinyl siding, shingle roofs, and some replacement windows. In transparency, about all they allowed me to do was keep the worksite cleaned up, some basic measuring, and occasional cutting. Every now and then, I climbed onto a roof with them so I could at least feel like I had made a real contribution. All said, even that limited exposure helped me develop the basic skills necessary to perform adequately in this new full time (summer) job - but I was most definitely not prepared for the physical demands.

While I had some decent carpentry skills, I wasn’t close to being capable of the precision necessary for really any of the finish work. That landed me with the guys starting the projects and doing the framing, and just like those skyscrapers, the start to even a basic home is the foundation. I was quickly trained to operate a shovel while digging footers; no, not a piece of excavating equipment - a shovel like you dig holes with! I was the guy in the footers, cleaning out the loose dirt left behind by the backhoe. I also became very familiar with a sledge hammer, driving the grade stakes for pouring the concrete to the appropriate depth. I had the privilege of working at the dumb end of the transit - meaning I held the stick, attempting to adjust the height of those stakes without driving them too deep and having to start over.

In a best-case-scenario, we were able to get the inspection done and the concrete poured before a heavy thunderstorm passed through. That wasn’t always the case though. On the days we got to the jobsite after a hard rain, any footers that had been dug but not poured were usually filled with water. That water had to be removed before inspection or concrete, so guess who was typically given that task… As you may imagine, a lot of rain on red clay (especially down in those footers) made for a slimy mess. Even in dry conditions, footers are hard work. Add an inch or so of rain to the mix, throw in that red mud for good measure, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a downright miserable day!

As difficult as that could be, I think the worst part of it all was realizing very few people would ever know what went into the process. Similarly, identifying and beginning to model our core business values can seem like it’s going unnoticed early on - and maybe even for years. With the possible exception of setting trusses and installing the roof system, laying the foundation for a home is by far the most difficult and physically demanding part of the entire process. Being the first, and often only, person to exemplify the core values we’ve defined for our company can feel equally demanding! And just like dipping the water out of those footers, feeling like no one sees the work we’re putting into living out our values can be hard to overcome.

It’s no big secret that Cindy is much smarter than me. I realize that’s not a very high bar, but she’s nothing short of amazing. Through all my pontification about why I didn’t want to connect the term coaching to our business model, she politely listened. After seeing several outstanding folks work through courses with us but struggle to stick with the action steps they hoped to put in place afterward, she gently suggested that we begin including one-on-one packages to work directly with these participants after they completed a course, helping them implement, tweak, and sustain what they had learned - and do it in a way we could help them measure improvements in productivity and profitability - in cases where their managers or owners just didn’t have the time to do that themselves. We weren’t coming up with the action steps, we were simply supporting them as they built these new behaviors into their daily routines. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, we were indeed coaching, but in a way that made a positive impact on each organization’s bottom line.

So here’s the reality: taking action on anything new for the first time is hard enough. Building that new approach into our routine in a way that we can sustain over time can be nearly impossible when we’re already spinning all the plates that come with leading a team of any size. All too often, the latest and greatest flavors of the month get huge attention. If I’m being honest, I roll my eyes nearly every time someone tells me about the wonders of EOS - but not because I think there’s anything wrong with that approach. When I read Gino Wickman’s book, Traction, it was basically a recap of what I had learned in my 20s and 30s through the principles involved with Lean Manufacturing. But even then, Lean wasn’t anything new; it was just the catch phrase at the time, W. Edward Deming attempted to roll the same ideas out to US auto-makers in the 1940s.

Make no mistake, I’m not bashing any particular approach to process improvement. I’m just making the case that new and flashy may draw immediate attention but doesn’t always equate to earth-shattering results. Simple sticks. The question Cindy and I ask anyone we “coach” as they share the action steps they plan to implement following lessons they’ve worked through with us is, “What would I see you doing differently if I report to you?” When we’re able to help them detail the specific behavior involved in applying their idea, we then work with them to ensure it’s as simple as it can possibly be so they can easily build it into their routine. Doing something a few times may be nice, but sustaining it will be what delivers a long term return.

Starting off simple in modeling our core organizational values won’t likely draw a lot of immediate attention. We inevitably have to fight the urge to add some flare (picture Office Space) to make what we’re doing stand out. That flash and flare may get attention when things are going smoothly, but it will also be tough to stick with when stuff hits the fan - and that’s when exemplifying our values will matter the most. With that in mind, let’s look at how simple routines for living out our values consistently can provide us with additional bandwidth when that stuff hits the fan…

Strong Habits Create Capacity for Adjustments

I was able to observe most of the practices while our son wrestled. It was interesting to watch how the best coaches had those kids go through new moves again and again, slowly, until each movement was almost natural. During the few times I’ve dropped by my friend’s mixed martial arts gym, I’ve noticed him applying the same approach in how he teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. The way Cindy and I prepare for delivering a keynote presentation isn’t wildly different, aside from the fact that our prep work isn’t full contact. We do, however, work through the material we’ll be presenting over and over and over again!

In each of these examples, developing “muscle memory” plays a tremendous role in game time performance. The more we practice something we’ve learned, the better chance we have of sustaining that over time. Keeping things simple definitely helps it stick. Make no mistake though, I’m not suggesting that practice alone will lead to perfect execution; that’s nonsense! Therein lies the importance of getting a second set of eyes on how we’re taking action, and continuously improving our technique - be that in sports, in making a presentation, or in basically any role. Whether it’s from our manager or a trusted coach, refining how we practice a new behavior has an ongoing impact on the results we achieve. And when our manager or coach is focused on helping us achieve the best results we’re capable of, they’ll also emphasize the value of simplicity over flashiness.

All this ties directly to something I learned through my time in behavior-based safety: the majority of what we do each day is based on our habits. Those habits, the routine things we do throughout our day with little or no thought, account for a significant amount of the total results we achieve - good or bad. The longer we’ve performed each task a certain way, the more difficult it can be to make a change initially. Sustaining that change requires creating a new habit. Statistically, that involves sticking with a new behavioral pattern for 21 to 30 days without reverting back to what we had done previously. 

Practicing a new technique slowly in any type of combat sport is completely different from being able to execute it in a match. The work Cindy and I do in our respective offices to prepare for a keynote presentation is a world apart from delivering that message once we’re mic’d up in front of hundreds of people. A friend serving in the United States Army once told me that “even the best battle plan goes to hell with the first shot fired down range.” In battle, in combat sports, when delivering a presentation, AND even when we’re working to lay a foundation on our company’s core values, developing habits for how we perform each behavior involved provides us with additional bandwidth to make any necessary adjustment when that first shot goes down range. When we know exactly what exemplifying that behavior looks like and we’ve practiced enough to execute it without thinking about it, we have the capacity to make slight adjustments based on the situation we’re in at the time.

I watched Matt develop the ability to perform moves (and counter-moves) intuitively while wrestling, once he had built that muscle memory. The more fluid Cindy and I can be in the material we’re sharing with a group, the more we’re able to tailor every word to the people in each audience - even when we’ve just met them moments before we begin the presentation. Becoming crystal-clear about the behaviors we’ll need to practice while modeling our core values, then repeating those behaviors over and over and over again, is exactly how we create the habits we’ll need to ensure those values are a visible part of what our teams see in our daily routine. Creating these habits will not be flashy; we’ve got to keep things simple. But that most certainly won’t be easy, and it will likely be boring so we’ll look at how we can fight through that soon…