June 25th, 1876

The battle of Little Bighorn, or the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

Here’s the story in my own words… General Custer and his 700 men were bold, cocky, and confident.

Supremely undertrained, soldiers took 6 target practice shots before being declared soldiers.

No matter, they were going to defeat the Indians once and for all.

(This blog isn’t about the Native Americans vs. the United States. That would be another perspective. For years General Custer and his men were considered war heroes. Thankfully, we now have new perspectives. Those Native Americans just fighting for their FREEDOM. Just such a horrible thing. Anywhos…)

There was a ridge, they could of went and scouted, but no, they went over it… to find 2,000 aligned, pissed and war-trained WARRIORS. They were SLAUGHTERED. It was CUSTER’S LAST STAND.

Takeaways.

1. Train your people. Not on the fly. Formally. The best-trained people tend to win.

2. Be Humble. Never underestimate what you don’t know.

3. Have patience. In a hurry for victory, they plowed through the mountain.

4. Have perspective. If they would have looked around the ridge, they would have seen their objectives. Maybe we don’t have physical boundaries but we certainly have mental. Do you engage with your team before you make a decision? Do you try to look at things from others’ eyes? Are you empowering your team and customers to ask them what they think?

Peace,

Joel

TGIM!

This simple quote stayed rent-free in my head for days.

3 times this week I ran into this situation.

Let me explain.

One time it was what I call “secret inventory.” It’s old, stinky, and no one really knows what’s going on with it. So we asked the specialist that ordered it. Like they know. They ordered it on monday.com. This would be like asking an operational puller why there are so many returns because they pulled the load. We all know this is a QB function. We then give the QB A WEEK TO RESPOND. Why? We are intimidated, bullied, and scared of the reaction. How incredibly sad.

Second, we made a delivery in a basement in an existing home. We don’t do that. Everyone knows that. It is not safe, we are liable for damage, we are a free delivery service and don’t build that in and don’t charge for that. Our team members are told we don’t do that. But we do. And if we ask why we did on that load it is because QB PERSON SAID SO and then we go “OH.” Bullied, scared, intimidated.

Third, a long e-mail thread in which any human knows a google meet or face-to-face is going to be way better. et, we know designers are busy, we are scared to ruffle feathers and just reply, reply, reply, reply. We know it’s wrong but we do it.

How belittling it is to do something you know is wrong because someone told you to. Shameful. Surely not supplying happiness.

Normally because we are afraid to say NO, OR because we USED TO DO IT. Just because we USED TO DO IT, doesn’t mean it was THE BEST WAY. 20 years ago, we were in many ways a shit show, don’t let history think we were so good… we do things for a reason.

It’s my fault. I let people do things outside the rules because SALES WIN. They don’t. That’s a cop out. Deep down we all know that.

If you go past a pile of trash you are ALLOWING IT. If you don’t have time to fix, just say, hey gang, that is wrong, we don’t have time to fix, but that is unacceptable.

THE HIGHEST STANDARDS. INCREDIBLY HARD ON STANDARDS. SOFT ON PEOPLE.

So now what?

Leaders, ALL OF YOU, must HOLD PEOPLE TO OUR STANDARDS AND REFUSE TO BE PRESSURED.

It what makes our company different and better.

And those that bully… must be put back in there place with great love, but with great toughness.

Do not waver.

Will you do that this week?

Lead with love. Then be tough. To protect our culture.

Peace,

Joel