Johnson - Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve

Play to Their Strengths and
Lead Them Up the Learning Curve

WHITNEY JOHNSON

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

Boston, Massachusetts

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Copyright 2018 Whitney Johnson

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ISBN: 978-1-63369-364-7

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To my A-team:

Roger, David, and Miranda

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In San Diego, California, in 1953, a new startup set its sights on the Space Age. The Rocket Chemical Company had a small lab and just three people, but they could see a major opportunity in front of them. The aerospace industry was producing incredible new technologymissiles and rockets that could fly farther than any had beforebut that technology had a major weakness: it was all made of metal, and metal rusts.

Norm Larsen, the chief chemist, had an idea. He thought he could come up with a chemical compound that would keep the newly invented rockets and missiles from rusting. The secret would be to find a substance that would simply displace the water: stop water from clinging to the metal surfaces of the rockets so it would roll harmlessly away, like water off a ducks back. In his one-room lab, Norm and his two cofounders tried again and again to find a compound that would work. They tried ten times. They tried twenty times. They tried thirty times. Finally, on the fortieth try, Larsen and his team found a successful formula. They were soon producing the product for Convair, a division of General Dynamics and maker of NASAs Atlas missile.

Then something funny happened. The product worked so well that workers at General Dynamics started sneaking it home to use around the house as a protectant, solvent, and all-purpose lubricant. By 1955, Larsen realized he might have a market for his compound that was broader than the aerospace and defense industry. He went back to the lab and started a new set of experiments aimed at finding a way to put his special formula into an aerosol can. In 1959, the first spray cans of the product hit the market, and the world met WD-40.

The products name comes from water displacement, fortieth attempt. Not a lot

How does a company stay at the top of its game for over sixty years, making and selling a single product whose formula has only been tweaked once? (In the early 1960s, they tried to improve the smell.) How can a company be successful when its product strategy flies in the face of everything the business establishment normally preaches, like segment your market and diversify? Id argue they do it by taking a radical approach to managing their people.

Nationally, only 33 percent of employees are engaged in their work, according to Gallup. Worldwide, those numbers are even worse: just 15 percent of employees say theyre engaged. Why the difference?

Because WD-40 practices a human resources strategy that I call personal disruption. A strategy that is centered around learning: you start as a beginner, embracing the confusion that comes with being a novice; you experience a state of deep engagement as you learn, grow, and gain traction; and you feel the joy of mastery once you get to the top of your learning curve. But thencruciallyyou find a new challenge to tackle and the cycle starts over; human beings are wired to learn and change, not to stay in one place, doing the same thing over and over again.

Hear an interview with Garry Ridge at the Disrupt Yourself podcast.

At WD-40, this means that employees have an identifiable career path inside the company and that managers help their employees get from point A to points B, C, and D. WD-40 wants to keep people in house, not chained to their roles. They encourage employees to learn, leap to new roles, and learn and leap again. Because management encourages leaps to new learning curves, many people have been there for ten to twenty-five years and longer. As CEO Garry Ridge told me, I get so much joy out of seeing people who are coming through the company and stepping into new roles. Theyre standing on the edge and I say Jump! Dont worry. Theres a net

No wonder 60 percent of WD-40 employees believe they can satisfy their career objectives without ever leaving the company. Three senior leaders began their careers there in the role of receptionist. Our brand manager for our key brand started in a part-time position [as receptionist], says Ridge. We pushed her and pushed her and she jumped and she jumped, and now shes brand manager of WD-40. Thats what we love.

WD-40 exemplifies the practice of developing people

Most of us are not excited about our work. In one survey, 84 percent of employees

Ive heard these complaints firsthand. In 2015 I published Disrupt Yourself, a guide to radically reinventing your own career. But as Ive traveled in the subsequent months, delivering keynotes, consulting with organizations, and coaching executives on personal disruption, two questions come up more than any others: How can I get my people to disrupt themselves? and How can I get my boss to let me disrupt my self? Its ironic and even sad: both employees and their managers want to experience the growth that can come with disruption, but its not happening. No wonder true engagement is so rare.

Change, not stasis, is the natural mode of human life. Change promotes growth; stasis results in decline. Whether they are the manager of a small team or the head honcho overseeing thousands of people across several business units, proactive managers get this. They cultivate environments that keep the work experience fresh. They encourage and facilitate personal disruptions. They recognize that the best reward they can give their peoplethe thing that motivates and engages beyond money or praiseis learning. Its what makes each of us more productive. Its what turns our organizations into talent magnets.