Moderator: Our story begins with two old friends saying good-bye. Andy is in a hospital bed and knows the end is near. Peggy Sinclair, Plant Manager of Walton Works # 2, owes Andy for her success at turning a failing plant facing closure around and saving the jobs of 1500 employees. How Andy and Peggy worked together to create one of the nation’s finest workplaces is what our skit is all about. Listen closely and you, too, can learn the Spirit of the Squirrel, the Way of the Beaver and the Gift of the Goose……
Peggy Sinclair: I felt like I’d been set up. I should have realized the excitement of getting my own plant blinded me to what had been obvious to everyone else. Walton Works # 2 had the worst production record out of the thirty two plants….it was the worst in the system and would be closed in six months to a year. That is ….if I didn’t turn it around.
I arrived at the plant at 8 a.m. and it didn’t take long to see why productivity was so low. The company treated the raw material in the yard better than it treated the employees. As I met with the management team I found only one bright spot; the 150 person finishing department. No other department in the whole thirty-two plant system was so efficient. Then I met with the Division Manager.
Division Manager: Good afternoon, Ms. Sinclair. You’ve had a day to look around….what do you think?
Peggy Sinclair: I think there is a lot of work to do, but at least we have the finishing department productivity as an example!
Division Manager: Yes and no. Yes it is a great department, but you’ll want to get rid of the operations manager and it will be even better.
Peggy Sinclair: Tell me more? What this about the operations manager?
Division Manager: Andy Longclaw is bad news. Indian guy…now I’ve got nothing against Native Americans and this one’s a bright brave…..even has an MBA, but he’s a troublemaker. Indians………..the department will be even better once he’s gone!
Peggy Sinclair: I didn’t know if Andy Longclaw was a troublemaker or not. But I did know this Division Manager wasn’t going to last long with his attitude.
After our meeting there was still a little daylight left and I decided to take a walk downtown. As I walked across the street, I noticed a park bench which faced back at the plant. It was occupied on one end by an older gentleman who stared across the street at Walton Works #2. As I sat down the man asked me how it was going. When I replied; I’d had better days…………he replied……….
Andy Longclaw: Me, too. I work over there at the plant across the street and the word is out I’m going to be fired. My boss, the Division Manager, doesn’t much care for me….only he hasn’t got the guts to tell me so. I’m guessing he’s going to let the new Plant Manager do his dirty work.
Peggy Sinclair: What department are you in?
Andy Longclaw: I’m group leader in the finishing department.
Peggy Sinclair: You’re kidding….that is about you being fired? You run the best department I’ve got.
Andy: Wish I was! (Long pause…………………). So you’re the new lady, Plant Manager of Walton Works #2. Pardon, me; sometimes I talk too much.
Peggy: Tell me: that finishing department of yours seems to run like a clock in midst of disaster. How come?
Andy: Gung Ho. We’re all Gung Ho.
Peggy: Gung Ho. You mean excited? Turned on? And are you responsible for that?
Andy: Not me. My grandfather.
Peggy: He works in the plant?
Andy: No way. He never even saw the inside of the plant. But when I became head of the finishing department two years before he died he taught me Gung Ho. And I teach it to the guys and women, too………so we’re all Gung Ho.
Peggy: Could you teach to the rest of the plant?
Andy: Absolutely. Just one problem; took me five years to the finishing department Gung Ho and I figure you’ve got about six months to, maybe, a year before they close the doors.
Peggy: You’re right about that, but since you’ve done it once, couldn’t you teach me how to do it faster the second time around?
Andy: Who knows? Beats being fired, I guess; we could give it a try.
Peggy: Gung Ho, Andy Longclaw. I’m Peggy Sinclair. From that time on, whenever we met or parted, the salutation was always the same….Gung Ho, friend. Well, if we’re going to Gung Ho that place……….how do we start?
Andy: Spirit of the Squirrel. It all begins with the Spirit of the Squirrel. Later comes Way of the Beaver and Gift of the Goose. I’m off shift at 3:30 tomorrow; meet me at the main gate. Wear slacks; we’ll be going out into the country. Gung Ho, friend.
Peggy: Gung Ho………I replied. Years later someone once suggested that our friendship was cemented because we were both underdogs in society. I was a woman. Andy an Indian. I’m not sure I knew who I was back then, but Andy…..Andy knew who he was. There was nothing underdog about Andy. He once told me his grandfather liked to say, “If you’re not lead dog the scenery never changes.” Andy was lead dog all the way!
Moderator: It was a strange start to a productive friendship that eventually led Peggy and Andy to the Rose Garden at the White House and an award for their Gung Ho efforts.
Peggy: The next morning I walked the plant floor just before midnight and at 8 a.m. I had the foreman repeat the tour. Because I’d worked the floor when I was putting myself through college………I knew the process inside out. The foreman I could tell were good, knowledgeable people………..they just didn’t much care. They were genuinely relieved when I suggested we go back to the office. But before that, with my least favorite Division Manager at my side we entered the finishing department.
Up on the walls I saw Gung Ho signs, most of the machines had Gung Ho stickers on them. When I asked the Division Manager what this Gung Ho business was….he peered at some of the signs with surprise.
Division Manager: I don’t know. Probably some subversive Indian slogan!
Peggy: This really was a department like no other in the plant. It was spotlessly clean. The workers were in bright, clean uniforms and the work in progress was organized in a neat, orderly fashion. There were charts and graphs and record boards reporting the progress by all sorts of different measures. Most of all…….I noticed the atmosphere. People were happy….optimism was everywhere.
The first of order of business when I returned the office wasn’t a pleasant one; with a generous severance package I parted company with one of the eighteen Division Managers. I believe anyone can grow and change, but I didn’t have enough time to work with this person. The remaining seventeen Division Managers got the message and they filed out of the office. Their morning shock was escalated only by the bewilderment they felt that afternoon when I rode out the plants main gate perched precariously on the back of Andy Longclaw’s Harley Davidson……………….
……………………THE WAY OF THE SQUIRREL………………………………
Peggy: I judged we were about 15 miles outside of town when Andy turned the motorcycle off onto a dirt driveway and stopped in a clearing about five feet from the country road. I began to walk slowly toward a small log cabin with a wide front porch and a fieldstone chimney. “It’s wonderful,” I said as I let my senses take in the truly magical place.
Andy: Time to discover the Spirit of the Squirrel. You watch squirrels and I’m going to take a nap. Tell me what you’ve learned when I wake up.
Peggy: This was the most self-assured person I’d ever met or absolutely crazy! He said it all began with the Spirit of the Squirrel. Andy was right about squirrels….they were all over the place. They would fill their cheeks with seeds and head back to the forest. I began timing the squirrels and recognized they made roughly sixteen round trips an hour.
Andy: Well, what have you learned?
Peggy: I’m not sure I’ve learned the Spirit of the Squirrel, but if people at Walton Works #2 worked anything like these squirrels, the factory would be booming. So how do we do that?
Andy: They work hard because they are motivated……..because they have a goal.
And why does that motivate them………..
Peggy: Because if they don’t store up food they won’t survive the winter and they will die.
Andy: Now, you’re beginning to understand the Spirit of the Squirrel. THE POINT IS:
There’s more to the squirrel’s work than just moving seed…..they are motivated because their work is important. THEIR WORK GOES BEYOND IMPORTANT; IT’S WORTHWHILE!
Peggy: The first secret that had turned the finishing department into a Gung Ho team……
the Secret of the Squirrel………WORTHWHILE WORK.
Andy: Squirrels work hard because their work is worthwhile. It works for people, too. Worthwhile goes beyond important…….it covers more territory than important.
- First, the work has to be understood as important.
- Second, it has to lead to a well-understood and shared goal.
- Third, values have to guide all plans, decisions, and actions.
But it starts with important………..if you want people to be Gung Ho, to work with the Spirit of the Squirrel, they must first of all understand why they are needed. Why their work makes the world a better place!
Peggy: The impact of Andy’s words made me tingle with excitement. People have to understand how what they do contributes to the well-being of humankind and makes a difference in their own patch of the forest.
Andy: We’ve all been trained to think that units dealt with is the reason we work. Units started, units finished, units sold or units whatever. BUT it takes a different mindset…to go beyond that. You have to see how what you’ve done has helped others.
Peggy: I see……….it all depends on how you look at you’re job. As a leader you’re job is to see your colleagues feel their job is worthwhile……..and this gets people Gung Ho.
Andy: What we’re really talking about is one of the most powerful human emotions. It ranks right up there with love and hate. It’s called self-esteem.
Peggy: The Spirit of the Squirrel is just what we need, Andy. Gung Ho here we come!
Andy: Hold your horses……..not so quick. Goal setting is a big problem in most organizations. The managers think because they print a goal or announce it….it is shared.
Peggy: I guess most people get mixed up between shared support and shared awareness.
Andy: That’s right…Importance and goals get people going, but it’s values that sustain the effort. Values are management’s unique responsibility. Values guide your behavior!
Peggy: So values are set by leaders. If, as leaders, you don’t have values ……… goals won’t get you anywhere. Values are lived. Values are the rocks you can count on!
Andy: Now you’ve got it! A leader’s job is to impose respect for values. The closer you get to Gung Ho the higher the trust level must be. Trust doesn’t happen over night and the place to begin is ……TO TELL THE TRUTH to those who work for you. IF you want your team to be Gung Ho, you have to tell the whole truth and that means information belongs to everyone.
Peggy: OK ….. I’ll work on the Spirit of the Squirrel! When do I learn the Way of the Beaver?
Andy: First big rain!
Peggy: Andy dropped me off at the plant a short ride later………Gung Ho, my Friend!
Andy: Gung Ho, Friend
………………………….THE WAY OF THE BEAVER…………………………….
Peggy: It was a cool September morning when I hopped aboard Andy’s motorcycle. The big rain had finally come the night before. After arriving at the cabin in the woods, we were soon headed off down an old abandoned logging road which eventually led to the edge of a pond circled by a narrow trail.
Andy: Here we are! Let’s go up there.
Peggy: Up there turned out to be a platform halfway up a large tree. We had a perfect perch to see a beaver dam damaged by the heavy rain. Water was spilling over a 15 ft. section that had lost its top two feet of twigs, trees and mud. We sat down and Andy handed me a pair of binoculars.
Andy: Normally beavers do dam maintenance at night, but this break is major. They’ll be working on it in the daylight. The entrance is underwater. The floor inside is above water but the water protects the doorway. It’s critical they control the water level.
Peggy: It wasn’t long before I felt a pull at my sleeve. Three beavers had appeared on
surface of the water.
Andy: The Spirit of the Squirrel leads to Gung Ho only when it is matched with the Way of the Beaver. The Way of the Beaver answers the question: Who is in charge here?
Peggy: I’m sorry, Andy, but I can’t tell. It doesn’t look like anyone’s in charge.
Andy: And if no one’s in charge, who tells each beaver what to do next and how to do it?
Peggy: I guess they tell themselves.
Andy: You’ve got it! …………. The Way of the Beaver is being “IN CONTROL OF ACHIEVING THE GOAL.” ….. Each beaver has a large measure of control over its own destiny. They decide how the work is going to be done. They operate as independent contractors.
Peggy: I think I understand……..” if everybody has the Spirit of the Squirrel, but management makes the workers do everything by management’s book, that organization won’t be Gung Ho. Chances are management’s way won’t be the worker’s way and so the workers won’t be able to produce as well.
Andy: These beavers don’t achieve engineering marvels because some other beaver is ordering them around. It’s up to each of them how the dam gets repaired. If they want to work at one end, fine. If they want to bring small branches, that’s great. They exercise their own best judgment. The Way of the Beaver means team members must control achieving their goal.
Peggy: Don’t I get a say in where we’re going? Sounds to me like you’re telling me to turn the factory over to the workers, except we call them team members, and that’s it.
Andy: Not at all. Your job as General Manager is the same as any true leader’s: let people know the work is worthwhile. Decide where you’re going and make sure the
team shares the goal. Help set values. Get the resources in place. Hold the rule makers in check. Ensure you’ve got the support you need both inside and outside the organization. Keep your eye on the future to ward off trouble and be ready to change direction………………As for the team; you have to let the people who really do the work DO THE WORK! ………… It’s your job as leader to know where the plant is going. It’s the team members’ job to get you there.
By setting the key goals and values, you define the playing field and the rules of the game. You decide who plays what position. Then you have to get off the field and let the players mover the ball. The goals and the values are the sidelines. The players have to know that as long as they follow the rules they can go anywhere within the lines. It’s a bit of a paradox; when I set limits on how far people can go I also give them the freedom to move.
Peggy: The real secret of successful management is discovering what people do naturally and then figuring out how to adapt the organization to take advantage of natural behavior.
It sounds like it should be natural, but I have a feeling it’s still going to be tough.
Andy: The Way of the Beaver describes the individual’s relationship to the organization. And once you know that, you really know the other side as well……..the organization’s relationship to the individual.
Peggy: Which is?
Andy: Think about it. How is each beaver treated by the others? Do they mess with another beaver’s work?
Peggy: No……..if one beaver puts a branch in place the others leave it.
Andy: Right again! Beavers respect each other. You can’t be in control if everything you do gets ripped apart. And one beaver doesn’t hide a good tree from the other beavers. Remember: people who are truly in control … work for organizations that value them as persons. Their thoughts, feelings, needs, and dreams are respected, listened to, and acted upon.
Peggy: What you’re really saying is …..The Way of the Beaver requires work that is possible. You can’t expect to achieve production beyond the worker’s reasonable capacity or skills beyond their training.
Andy: Ha………your right! It might be good for you to take a hard look at what is actually happening back at the factory. The production norms sometimes expect ten hours of output for eight hours of time and pay. The plant also has the reverse problem
………we got some production norms which can be met by noon on a bad day. When you undershoot, you won’t make people happy. You insult them! Nothing drains self-esteem faster than knowing you’re ripping off the system.
It’s the same story for skill levels……..every time you expect work from people who aren’t properly trained for it …you sabotage Gung Ho.
Peggy: So what’s the answer? Even if we do proper training, apparently I’ll insult people when I expect to little. And you say demanding too much is near as bad. How do I find the middle?
Andy: There’s not an easy answer, but as Plant Manager you have to give them work that demands their best and allows them to learn and move ahead into uncharted territory.
Peggy: That makes sense…I’m always happiest when I’ve got a challenging problem to work on………yet one I believe I can do.
We completed the walk back to the cabin with little further talk. I was already planning a new poster. The Way of the Beaver: IN CONTROL OF ACHIEVING THE GOAL… I wondered if the Gift of the Goose would help speed things up……..we were running out of time. Andy must have read my mind……….
Andy: Attitude you can control and your attitude will be reflected by everyone else. You have to give a performance when ever you walk that factory floor. Remember your on stage……lots of days when I was Gung Ho’ing the finishing department I didn’t want to get out of bed things were so awful. But I had to put on my best face and plunge right in every day.
Peggy: As Andy pulled the motorcycle to a stop in front of my house I was beginning to realize what Andy had just given me was a pep talk. Although Andy didn’t say so, it was clear I was now part of the Gung Ho chain. I hoped off the bike…….slapped Andy on the back and said “Gotcha Andy……Gung Ho.
Andy: Gung Ho, friend!
……………………………THE GIFT OF THE GOOSE……………………………
Moderator: It was a cold late Fall morning when Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw climbed into the canoe at the Hutchison Marsh Conservation Area just outside the town of Walton. Andy paddled quietly out to where the grass ended and they were in open water and began to set out goose decoys. The decoys set…..Andy slipped the canoe back into the reeds.
Peggy: Let me guess, Andy. You’re going to have a rest and I’m going to watch geese?
Andy: You’ve got it, but this time your job is easy…….lots more geese than squirrels or beaver. And Gift of the Goose is all over the place.
Peggy: Is it here right now?
Andy: Absolutely! The Gift of the Goose brings enthusiasm to Spirit of the Squirrel and Way of the Beaver.
Peggy: Aren’t they incredible? They really are huge and what a noise.
Andy: So what’s all the honking about? Who are the geese honking at?
Peggy: Suddenly I realized we weren’t just having a pleasant conversation. We were zeroing in on Gift of the Goose……… Each other?
Andy: Correct! And why are they honking? What’s the message?
Peggy: (with hesitation in her voice) That everything is going well?
Andy: Even better………that everything is going great! Fantastic! Terrific!
Peggy: Of course……they are cheering each other on. Just listen to them.
Andy: Here it is…….the third secret to Gung Ho….the Gift of the Goose ….
is…….CHEERING EACH OTHER ON……
Peggy: I sat there stunned by the Gift of the Goose……It was so simple, so obvious,
so powerful. Andy if we start cheering people on….if we start giving encouragement
if we really get in there and do it…..
Andy: It is like throwing gasoline on a fire……..I wondered if you’d pick up on that.
Peggy: Andy all the geese honk! It isn’t just the lead goose honking………It doesn’t have to be just the managers cheering the team members, does it? We can get everyone cheering each other!
Andy: It’s how you make a mission come alive. People who set out to accomplish something that they believe is important and worthwhile……..that’s right work….need to make a contribution to the way that work is done….that’s right way. Put those two together and you’ve got a mission and a reason for doing the work and then all you do is provide them a reward. Gung Ho people do right work…..the right way for the right reward.
Peggy: Then Andy told me something that rated a poster on my office wall.
Andy: Einstein put it best……E=mc2 ………only Einstein was a bit mixed up about exactly what C squared meant. Try this on…..Enthusiasm equals mission times cash and congratulations……. It reminds us that both cash and congratulations are important. Cash come first. You need to feed the person’s material needs first, food and clothing, etc., before you can feed the spirit with congratulations.
Peggy: What do I do if there just isn’t anything to congratulate someone for?
Andy: First, there is always something. You have to practice finding the positive. Second, when you can’t outright congratulate someone….you can always encourage them.
Peggy: Andy was right. Congratulations did feed the spirit……….and boost enthusiasm, but what about the cash. Any manager has only so much cash for payroll.
Andy: Naturally money becomes a first concern, so we start by focusing on that and get so focused it is tough to move on. We’re falling into the same trap……….here we are talking about cash, the easy C, when we should be paying attention to the other C, congratulations. You can’t overdo congratulations if they are true congratulations. True
congratulations are powerful………so powerful, in fact, some managers think they can get away with substituting them for cash. ………..First and foremost you have to pay people fairly, but once you do you will be a lot further ahead heaping on the congratulations.
Peggy: I’m sure I will be! Gift of the Goose is going to make more of a difference than Spirit of the Squirrel or Way of the Beaver did, I bet.
Moderator: As soon as Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw arrived back in Walton….
Peggy headed for the plant. She knew they had a full crew in over the weekend and she needed some practice. And an amazing thing happened…………….as Peggy Sinclair, the not so new plant manager walked the shop floor honking out praise and congratulating workers on a job well done……….team members began honking back.
“Good to see you here”……they shouted.
“Miss Sinclair, you’re doing a great job. We’re all behind you!”
Peggy: I’d gone into bolster them and they were bolstering me! These people were really beginning to edge into the Gung Ho. They were responding to the Spirit of the Squirrel, the Way of the Beaver and now the Gift of the Goose.
Well, the rest is history………………once we set the fire of Worthwhile Work burning it kept rolling….From time to time we had to push or pull, but along with people being in Control of Achieving the Goal and Cheering Each Other On…………..there was no stopping us.
Success, I’ve decided is all about attitude, energy, balance and connecting with others. Best of all, once you get a taste of it, you start to spread it around. Today I try to spread Gung Ho and the recipe for success wherever I go…….. It’s more fun than my former role of policeman at Walton Works.
How did it happen? How did people change? It was just like Andy said….Trust, Telling the Truth, Building self-esteem, Rewarding People, Setting stretching goals, Training, Training and more Training and finally cheering. Lots and lots of cheering……..
That’s essentially how we did it and do it now and you can too.
Gung Ho, friends………..Gung Ho!
