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Barry-Wehmiller – Another Great Participation Age Company

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They’re Everywhere.

Participation Age companies make higher profits, are more stable, have more cross-trained people, exponentially higher Stakeholder satisfaction and retention, and great longevity. Are you looking to join one, or become one? Here’s another great example:

Most companies are still mired in the front-office business practices of the Industrial Age. But the Participation Age is a tidal wave breaking over the workplace. Those that embrace it will thrive. Those that don’t will be left behind.

Hallmarks of most Participation Age Companies:
1) Leaders, not managers. Stakeholders, not employees.
2) PARTICIPATION in building a great company. SHARING in the rewards.
3) Decisions made by those who will carry them out.
4) Results-based (not the traditional time-based workplace)
5) Profit-sharing (includes time-sharing – extra time off for good results)

Barry-Wehmiller – Embracing The Participation Age and Thriving
Company Name: Barry-Wehmiller
Industry: Diversified manufacturing technology and consulting
Revenue: $1.7 billion a year
Headquarters: St. Louis, MO
Founded: 1885
Growth: 20% compound growth every year since 1987
Ownership: Privately Held

Key Culture Belief
Leaders shouldn’t manage people; they should steward them. Who in your life do you “manage”? Your spouse? Your children? No, you care for them. You acknowledge the deep responsibility you have for them. They wanted to be sure Truly Human Leadership becomes permanently embedded in their culture. So they taught leaders to become good stewards of the lives entrusted to them.

Key Leadership Practice
THL – Truly Human Leadership

Key Moment
1997 – Bob Chapman, CEO, had “an epiphany” while visiting a company B-W had acquired. He was hanging out in the kitchen before work watching people have fun talking, but noticing the closer it got to the start of the workday, you could see the “joy went out of their bodies.” He asked himself, “Why should people have to leave work to have fun?” And that was the beginning of a new way of doing business at B-W.

Key Mindset
Bob Chapman decided and the company’s Guiding Principles of Leadership cultural vision statement needed to be lived out, not in employee handbooks or on posters – “we’re going to put this in people’s heads and hearts, not just on the walls.”

Key Participation Age Practices
(an extension of their Key Beliefs (no managing):
1) No managers, just leaders who seek how to make others successful
2) No timecards, even in their manufacturing area
3) Free phones for line workers to call out any time
4) Take breaks when needed, not at prescribed times
5) A multitude of other things based on the principle of de-emphasizing hierarchy and elevating equal voices in building a great company
6) Results-based rewards: “Measurables allow individuals and teams to relate their contribution to the realization of the vision”
7) A deep commitment to their Stakeholders personal growth

Key Results
1) Exponential revenue growth (20% compounded annually since 1987) and overall company expansion
2) 88% of employees of Industrial Age companies feel they work for an organization that doesn’t care for them. At Barry-Wehmiller, 79% surveyed by an outside organization said they believe BW cares about them – 180 degrees from “normal”.

One Fun Thing They Do
Guiding Principles of Leadership SSR Award Program. Team members nominate their peers as great examples of leadership in our culture, celebrating the everyday greatness in those that they work with day in and day out.

The entire organization gathers for elaborately planned celebrations designed to make the winner feel honored for his or her contributions to our culture. Winners are awarded the keys to a unique sports car, which they can drive for a week. Unlike a plaque for your desk, winners get the chance to drive their “trophy” for a week, inviting questions from family, friends and neighbors about why they have this unusual car.

They’re Everywhere
Companies of every size, in every industry, are embracing the Participation Age to be more successful. If you are a Stakeholder and want to Make Meaning, not just money, leave your Industrial Age company and go find one (see other examples on this blog). If you’re looking to build one, read Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea

Story confirmed with Barry-Wehmiller. Click here for more information on Barry-Wehmiller’s Participation Age culture

Why Correcting Stakeholders Can Make Things Worse

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Mistakes vs. Patterns

Too often we correct or admonish people when we shouldn’t, and plenty of times we let things slide when we should jump right in. Here’s a very simple principle for figuring out when to get involved.

When someone does something we consider close-but-no-cigar, not close, or downright goofy, we usually do one of two things, depending on our own tolerance for confrontation.

1) We jump right in – and either a) walk them gently through the right way, b) blow them up with quick anger, or c) something in between. or

2) We ignore it.

In most cases, the surprisingly right thing to do is #2 – ignore it.

The simple question we forgot to ask ourselves before we jumped in can be one of the most valuable leadership questions we never ask:

“Was this a mistake or a pattern?”

A Mistake
A mistake is something we do once and learn from, so we don’t do it again. The only way we all got to where we could recognize other people’s mistakes is because we made them first.

A Pattern
A pattern is a habit of doing the same lackluster, lame or outrageously stupid thing regularly. We do these things over and over because we’re not learning from them. Every leader has good patterns and bad patterns. And so does every Stakeholder who works in our company.

Know the Difference
Most managers never ask which is which, they just jump in so they can show they “add value” (which is partly why they are managers, not leaders). Great leaders will always ask the question first, “Is this a mistake or a pattern”?

And honestly, if it’s a mistake, does it really help for me to jump in, either gently or angrily, and tell you all about it?

Jump in when…
The ONLY time we should jump in is:
1) if it is blatantly obvious that the person will never be able to figure it out themselves, and wants to, or
2) It is clearly a pattern and they can’t or won’t deal with it.

Patterns of doing things less then great or just plain wrong always need our attention. But mistakes almost always need to be ignored. If you hired right, your Stakeholders want to do great work. And one of the best ways for them to get there is the same way you did, by learning from their mistakes. Beating them up or fawning over them and “coaching” them every time they do something less than great simply makes them feel like children.

Never Ignore The Patterns
Ignore the mistakes until they become patterns. But never ignore the patterns – they will sink the Stakeholder, if not your business.

Managers correct everybody for everything. Leaders take the time to figure out if they are dealing with a one-off mistake or a pattern, and then they help people with the patterns and ignore the mistakes.

Stop managing and be a Leader – ignore the mistakes and address the patterns.