Culture Shock
“The fairy-tale picture I painted wasn’t even good enough.”
Relationships are built at their own pace. There’s an inevitability that both frustrates us, and also becomes something we can rely on. “When the time is right” seems to be Newton’s unspoken law of relationship development. It’s a frustrating component in over-corporatized business models, the fact is concrete, timelines become scrambled by the need for relational development to take its own sweet time. But when you make it the core, the focus, you find a level of flexibility that more naturally adapts to the organic pace of friendship. It just takes time to know people.
Two and half years after we met Mike O’Connell, he wears the Navy and Gold Optimum locknut to work. His story perfectly illustrates the pace we’re describing, and we wouldn’t have had him a moment sooner or later, the timing has been nearly perfect in every way.
First Pass
Mike had observed Optimum from afar, and upon the recommendation of a friend who happened to be an Optimum subcontractor, Mike reached out and introduced himself. Don’t despise the day of small-beginnings. “My motive for coming to Maine was to be a healthier person. For the first 2 years I was clawing to make it, I had no freedom, and no time with my family.” From what he could tell at a distance, Optimum recognizes and honors the humanity in people.
So he met Kendrick. At the time, Optimum needed to hire people with different experience, but the door was left open, Kendrick invited Mike to read a few core books on construction management and follow-up with questions. He also told Mike that he could probably get a job inside his company that would give him the specific hands-on experience he would need to judge if construction management at Optimum was really a direction worth pursuing. Years passed, Mike would ask questions, Kendrick would take the time to answer them thoughtfully. Mike remembered, “They invested time in me way before I ever made the company money. I wanted to work here even more.” During this time, Mike took some large steps professionally, gaining experience and developing himself for the potential role at Optimum.
Learning by Contrast
“You can always learn from what you’re doing, even if it’s a style that you don’t like.” Mike's observations revealed the limitations of an overly bureaucratic model. Heavy involvement from unions prohibited him from helping his team in tangible ways, or of expressing gratitude in any way beyond a brief “thank you”. The job was to do your job and only speak up to say that it was finished. If an issue manifested, there was no invitation to bring it to the team to try to solve it together. Everyone worked isolated in their own silo. People didn’t engage one another, and especially not on any human level “I had told a manager I needed time off to be with my wife for our baby’s arrival, when I came back a couple weeks later, that manager was surprised to learn that I had kids, he completely forgot why I was gone.”
The Right Time
Years passed, then Optimum posted a job for hire, Mike applied, still as eager as he was at their first meeting, if not even more convinced that this was the place for him.
“Immediately, I began feeling actively supported.”
Welcome Mike! You have got people around you who care about you, who want to see you, Mike O’Connell, growing and becoming the kind of person you’ve wanted to be. We want your fingerprints on our company, you said it yourself! “You want to be surrounded by good people, so you have to be one.” You’re our kind of person! Welcome!
“It’s been six months, and I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop,” Mike said. “It’s all true! From the ‘No assholes’ policy to the ‘Shared Success/Family Success’ value. Maybe I have just had a lot of unhealthy working environments, but this is sweet, it’s real!”
We soft-mentioned this in our last Blog about Marc Rainsford, but let’s go ahead and put a finer point on it; your significant other is the be-all-end all indicator of your work-life. If your job isn’t a fit, that person will hold no punches. So when we asked Mike what his nuclear accountability courtroom had issued for a verdict on Optimum, we really want to know! His family recognizes new vitality in Mike, “I’m less jaded at the end of the day. I enjoy waking up, I have breakfast with my kids and fiancee every morning. I spent years leaving the house at 4am and never seeing them! People who knew me before I had this job, knew it would be a good fit. It’s exciting to have the affirmation!”
Our work should serve everyone involved, from the seen to the unseen relationships. From the subcontractor we worked with that recommended Mike to us in the first place, to his mother who has always cared about his life. Won’t that serve everyone well? Who do you want building your building? Overstressed, scared, intimidated people, or folks who are backed by their families, rested, invigorated and happy to be on the job.
The Difference
“I am always being checked-on, Ryan is there as a resource for the means and methods, McLaughlin is there as a collaborator and friend, Kendrick is following up with me on ways to help me grow personally. Really, everyone is excited for the future of me as a person.” Not that the Mike of today isn’t wonderful! But how can we come together and dream and grow and develop? Stagnant lives feel like backward living, and here, there is a vitality and growth that everyone can share in. Mike is ever-invited to impact this business, here, he’s actively supported in sharing his unique perspective and his care and service of the team.
What it means to be in an actively growing company
For Mike, “I could put my fingerprints on this in a helpful way.” You see, because he’s feeling actively supported, he can then turn around and give back to everyone else. Most recently, it was a request to pull other supers from their job for a day just to get some help, and in-turn, show up on their job when they need an extra pair of hands. Not only does the work get done quicker, it allows for camaraderie and a chance to really learn from the team mates around you. “At a 100 year old company, they don’t want or need you to change anything, here, there’s so much that I can be a part of shaping.” This energy feels exciting, it feels like everyone is really valued because each person’s contribution helps to create something that may not have existed before.
“We all work very hard, but they invest in us having a fun time at the same time!” Because if we’re all too serious, then we're adding stress to stress. And last we looked, stress overdoses inhibit good decision-making. Keep folks lighthearted and you’ll be using as much of their brain as possible. This isn’t brain science as much as it’s just plain common sense! Who wouldn’t want to be working in a company where your peers make you feel better? “One day I just dropped by Marc’s job site with the sole intention of making him laugh, he was under stress, needed a lift, then we got to work!” That’s the Optimum way, that’s real shared success.
Finally, it means that when there’s a problem (and we’ve touched on this many times before) you’re motivated to speak up quickly. Your team’s not there to beat you down or shame you for having to overcome an issue, “That’s all construction is, uncovering and fixing problems.” In six months, he’s already had to raise his hand for help a lot, and everyone is there to help find or offer a solution. The team at Optimum does not want someone struggling in a silo, ever, the team is there to create an environment that respects and enables people to be overcomers!
“The secret to my job is that all I do is help facilitate what people need and help them communicate with one another. I can push people forward by showing them respect and then telling them, out of that respect, that I need them to do a certain job.”
You’ve got it Mike! That's using the power of good relationships to build better buildings. We’re glad you like it here, we’re glad to have you and your family with us, we want to be right in step, always, and invest in you. We hope for this “fairy tale” to be something that serves you well for a long time because we’re both growing at a similar rate, that’s exciting, to wonder where we will be in 20 years! We are going to be somewhere.