June, 2018 | Lorne Rubis

Think and Be BIG!

See the previous entries for the continuing series on values in modern companies, by using ATB Financial’s 10 ATBs as a reference.

Story: The seventh leadership principle of “The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company” is:

Think Big. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Inspirational leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for new and better ways.

Amazon’s vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. This very intentional, BIG thinking and aspirational purpose was declared early at Amazon. And holy cow, it has been something to see it come into fruition. It’s important to have big dreams for your future, both personally and as an organization. If you can’t think big about your future, you’re not going to have a very BIG outcome. Big, of course, means a dream that takes you WAY further than where you are today. So much of this is a mindset. The following is an expert from an Inc. interview with the founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos:

“…‘What does your heart say?’

And for me, the best way to think about it was to project myself forward to age 80 and say, ‘Look, when I’m 80 years old, I want to have minimized the number of regrets that I have.’ I don’t want to be 80 years old and in a quiet moment of reflection, thinking back over my life, and cataloguing a bunch of major regrets.

In most cases our biggest regrets turn out to be acts of omission. It’s paths not taken and they haunt us. We wonder what would have happened. I knew that when I’m 80, I would never regret trying this thing (quitting a good job to start Amazon) that I was super excited about and it failing.

If it failed, fine. I would be very proud of the fact when I’m 80 that I tried. And I also knew that it would always haunt me if I didn’t try. And so that would be a regret, it would be 100 percent chance of regret if I didn’t try and basically a 0 percent chance of regret if I tried and failed. That’s a useful metric for any important life decision.’”

Key Point: Be fearless and think Big. If it’s in your heart, and you can clearly visualize it, you likely can make huge progress in that direction. Why think small or settle for slightly better than sameness? Really, when you totally settle in, with the understanding that we have a very short life overall, why not not try to be remarkable or extraordinary? Think friggin’ Big! Be BIG! And as Bezos notes, there is basically a zero percent chance of regret if you try and fail.

At ATB, “Think Big and Make it Happen”, is one of our 10 ATBs. We hate sameness or trying to be just 10 percent better. And we detest being slaves to benchmarking. Our experience is that it often limits one’s ability to truly reimagine and reinvent!

Personal Leadership Moves:

Read The Magic of Thinking Big. The book has been around for a while, has sold millions of copies, and is still timely.
Regardless of where you’re at in your career, think BIG, start small, and begin now. You will become BIG.

BIG in Personal Leadership,

Lorne

One Millennial View: Sometimes we Millennials need to take a deep breath and look around. We constantly evaluate different success levels of our peers, friends, family members, and others. It’s often easier to “think current,” or “think realistically,” because that’s safer. But, what really separates you from thinking Big enough to become Big? Why can’t you too? Truthfully, it is a mindset, and a tough one. But if you start by breaking down the barriers that prevent you from thinking Big, maybe that’s the biggest thing you can do.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Serious Fun

Abundance

See the previous entries for the continuing series on values in modern companies, by using ATB Financial’s 10 ATBs as a reference.

Story: I was the CEO of a software company, discussing a merger with an infrastructure organization that would have helped us strategically. Our two teams met in a small eastern Washington town to establish the principles that might make the deal work. We worked hard all day, and went out to the local western themed bar for well-earned burgers and beer. The CEO of the other company, after a few “pops,” claimed he was the leg wrestling champion of Washington state. I skeptically disputed the claim, and before you know it, the challenge was on. Tables cleared, and a couple hundred Thursday night crowd patrons wildly cheered on two idiots (I was one of them), on our backs, ready for the best-of-three leg dual. I still remember my VP of engineering’s crazed look standing over me, after each combatant had won one match, demanding that I prevail in the final. The place was rambunctious, and I fondly remember wandering arm-and-arm with my team, laughing our way back to hotel, with the sheer joy of our togetherness and just having so much fun. (P.S., I flukily won the leg wrestling scrap. And the deal, for mostly unrelated reasons, never went through).

Key Point: We have an explicit value at ATB that exhorts each of us to “have fun every day.” When you think about it, why would you spend time anywhere if you’re not having fun? Negative, downer environments suck the life out of us. While it is disingenuous and unworkable to force fun as a value, it is also reasonable and even necessary to establish an atmosphere where people have fun all the time. Laughter echoing throughout the hallways or on digital meetings should be a way of life. Yes, banking is serious business, but it’s not life or death. Yet, speaking of that theme, my father was in a palliative care unit of a hospital for three months before passing, and there was still time for laughter between the care staff, family and patients. The way daily fun becomes a true value is when people can fully, freely, and safely contribute. That includes much spontaneous laughter, celebrations after milestones, tributes, recognitions, appreciations, and much more. People wanting to come to work and have fun while doing serious business, is a condition that is fostered by confident leadership.

Personal Leadership Moves:

Do you set a tone for having fun everyday? Is laughter prevalent? How about during your meetings?
What are your intentional milestone celebrations? How does that happen with consistency?
How often do you give recognitions to folks? How do you do that?

Laughing and serious fun in Personal Leadership,

Lorne

One Millennial View: This is too true, and too important. There’s a reason why sales floors at companies like Yelp (and more) are a ruckus, with upbeat music blaring. High energy is key. The workplace is generally not a library, and I’ve always been apprehensive about organizations that expect a shush-shush environment. After all, if you’re not enjoying your work day, how is anything positive being completed? Yes, serious business needs to be conducted, but you shouldn’t be wrestling with an un-fun atmosphere. Instead, you should be occasionally leg-wrestling after a hard day’s work.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

The Spirit of GSD!

Accountability

This is another blog on our company values (from our 10 ATBs), a series underscoring a more modern look at value driven organizations.

Story: Getting Sh*t Done/Getting Stuff Done. Urban Dictionary defines GSD this way: “When you’re through with complaining about all the work you have and you just plow through it because it needs to happen. Can occur as a day, a certain block of time, a week, etc.” More importantly, some companies have embraced this behavior as a constant state of being for competitive advantage.

The successful Silicon Valley based cloud company, Box, is known for its ability to get sh*t done (or GSD). At Box, every laptop screen saver flashes this three letter call to action. Posters, t-shirts, and other communication vehicles also exhort this rallying cry. Their CEO, Aaron Levie, notes what this value means to Box: “One competitive advantage is the speed at which you can achieve. You cannot achieve by doing nothing. You cannot achieve by only talking about what you are going to do one day. You must get sh*t done. And you must surround yourself with other people who get sh*t done. We have done this by promoting an execution-oriented culture at Box. It’s a dynamic culture built on doing and improving. At Box we get shit done. And we do it well.”

Key Point: At our company, we have declared the value of: Find a Way to Get Things Done (although we have also informally abbreviated it to GSD). Too often, people talk a good story, are deft at describing issues, complain about stuff, etc. They fail to act. This way of thinking has the unfortunate outcome of less than desirable urgency, and little when it comes to real innovation. One piece of evidence is when pain causing problems to employees or customers remain unchanged year after year. In this case, one has to seriously question whether a culture really embraces GSD. Frequently, organizations can become literally complacent and even lazy. If things have not materially improved this year over last, I doubt if you’re serious about GSD.

Personal Leadership Moves:

Measure the value you bring each day by the impact you’ve had, rather than just the amount of activity you’ve undertaken.
Connect and continue activity to the extent you get desired results. When you do that, you can really execute; more desirable activity leads to more desirable results. Many times, people just measure activity and describe how “busy” they are, and forget to answer if it really led to sustainable results. This is NOT GSD.
GSD! (Which doesn’t mean you can just be a whirlwind without using good judgment). Be known as someone who really gets stuff done.

GSD in Personal Leadership,

– Lorne

One Millennial View: I had the opportunity to actually grow up attending the same high school as Aaron Levie, and a couple other key players at Box. Whether it was an impressive magic display at a middle school talent show, or literally directing and premiering his own full feature movie as a high schooler, Aaron has always GSD’d. That’s just him. That said, it can always be learned, practiced and implemented by all.

– Garrett Rubis

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis