TWO
Building the Right Culture

TO MAKE A SIGNIFICANT change in something as important as an organization’s performance review system, you first have to focus on the culture. Culture refers to the assumptions, beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors of the organization’s employees, supervisors, and leaders. In other words, culture is “the way we do things around here.”¹ Impacting the WD-40 Company culture I inherited was not a quick fix. It required several steps before I could revamp our performance review system.

At the time I stepped into my leadership role at the company, knowledge was the currency of the kingdom. Those who knew the most about how things worked guarded that knowledge—consciously or unconsciously—knowing that it gave them power. This led to a lot of silos of knowledge, which hurt us, because it hid what was working and what wasn’t. I knew that breaking up these knowledge silos into what I called “fields of learning” would be the first step in creating a culture where learning was valued and shared, and information could move easily.

What keeps people in organizations from wanting to learn? They look at mistakes as career-damaging events rather than opportunities to learn. Therefore, they cover up mistakes in the hope that no one finds out.

What I needed to do was to help people realize that mistakes were inevitable but not necessarily fatal. To do that, I had to redefine the concept of “mistakes.” I needed to teach people not to be afraid to fail. I had to earn their trust by showing that neither I nor any of our managers would take adverse action if someone tried something new and didn’t succeed.

At these times, tribe members and their leaders look at missteps as learning opportunities. They applaud the chance to learn and grow and incorporate new knowledge into their work. This became key in our “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” process. In fact, this is how we get better all the time.

A clear vision must be something that inspires people to do their personal best right now.

Our WD-40 vision is clear: We’re in the squeak, smell, and dirt business. Our products fix squeaks and get rid of smells and dirt. In essence, we are in the quality-of-life business. By fixing squeaks and getting rid of smells and dirt in an almost magical way, we make people’s lives better and, in the process, create positive, lasting memories for our customers.

I often tell the story of Nancy, who works in our mail room. One day as I was leaving the mail room, Nancy, who’s worked there for years, was complaining about the WD-40 supplies she was packing up to go to our new China facility.

The next week I traveled to China to visit that new facility. As I looked out the window I saw a bunch of kids walking to school wearing these lovely uniforms and shoes. And I thought, “I’m sure WD-40 bought some of those shoes, because we employ about forty or fifty people here.”

So I went back to Nancy and said, “Hey, Nancy, if you thought the effort you spent getting WD-40 materials ready to send to China was creating employment there—and, therefore, helping to put a pair of shoes on the feet of a little Chinese girl who now has the opportunity to learn and make a difference in the world—would that mean anything to you?”

She said, “Oh, absolutely.”

I told her that’s what had happened. Her whole attitude changed. What a memory-maker that was for her.

One of the ways we promote fun, lasting memories is to celebrate the creative uses of our products. In fact, our company has a rich folklore around the unique and sometimes just plain weird uses people have found for WD-40. For example, a bus driver in Asia once used WD-40 to remove a python that had coiled itself around the undercarriage of his bus. Another time police officers used WD-40 to remove a naked burglar who was stuck in an air conditioning vent. So in many ways we are in the quality-of-life and making positive, lasting memories business.

1. Doing the right thing

2. Creating positive, lasting memories in all our relationships

3. Making it better than it is today

4. Succeeding as a team while excelling as individuals

5. Owning it and passionately acting on it

6. Sustaining the WD-40 economy

Why is it important for our values to be rank-ordered? Because:

For example, I often tell a story about my daughter, who used to have a job playing Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. I asked her, “What’s your number-one value?” Everyone assumes it’s having fun. It’s not. The number-one value at Disney is safety. When Kate was in character as Mickey Mouse, if she was entertaining little Johnny, and little Susie fell over, Kate didn’t have to think twice. She went to help Susie, even if Johnny cried.

Given the fact that doing the right thing at WD-40 Company is our number-one value, it is unacceptable to create a positive, lasting memory for a customer if what you’re doing is illegal or unethical. Doing the right thing always trumps creating memories. How do people know what is the right thing to do? We think people intuitively know what’s right. Haven’t you heard little kids say, “That’s not fair!” Who told them that? No one. They just know. At WD-40 Company we hire good people and expect them to do the right thing.

Another interesting thing to note in our values is our last value, sustaining the WD-40 economy. I’ve seen a number of companies that never mention financial well-being as a value. When you don’t do that, everyone knows that the values are a joke. Why? Because when finances aren’t going well, a lot of energy gets focused in that direction.

Ranking our financial value last among our other values tells people it’s important—it’s one of our core values—but we will do nothing to make money that compromises any of the other values. Stating the value as sustaining the WD-40 economy is broader than valuing profits. When people see the word “profit” they think, “All they care about is making money.” When we talk about a thriving economy, it implies the well-being of all involved, not just top management.

A value is an underlying reason for how we choose to act and how we make decisions. A value is the “why” behind the “how to.” These are not just words in a book somewhere—we actually try to determine how well we’re living up to these values in our review system. At WD-40 Company, you either demonstrate or visit a value.

For example, caring is an important aspect of creating positive, lasting memories in all our relationships. Alec demonstrates this value if everyone who works with him says that he’s always friendly and respectful to his colleagues throughout the company. This means that when he walks in the back door every day, he’s just as friendly and respectful to the people in the mail room as he is to those in the executive suite.

Let’s suppose that Bruce is nice to two people in the organization, because he knows they can help him accomplish what he wants. But when he walks in the back door every day, he treats the people in the mail room and warehouse as if they’re second-class citizens. Bruce merely visits this company value; he doesn’t demonstrate it.

Timeliness is an aspect of owning it and passionately acting on it. For Jennifer, part of honoring that value means keeping her commitment to share her marketing update by 4 p.m. each Thursday so that important decisions can be made before the end of the week. Jennifer does that once or twice, but on the third Thursday she doesn’t submit her update until Friday morning, because something came up. Eventually, her late updates become a habit. Like Bruce, Jennifer has shown that she merely visits this company value when it is convenient—she doesn’t live it. These two people adopt our values when the values suit them, but the values are not embedded in their behavior. They don’t consistently walk the talk. Unless values are lived and demonstrated in people’s work ethic every day, they have no meaning.

As I stressed in Part One, values are an important ingredient in the “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” performance review philosophy. Let me reiterate that what we ideally want at WD-40 Company are high performers who are also good citizens—people who operate according to our values.

That’s the number-one responsibility of the WD-40 tribe—to share knowledge and encourage ongoing learning. In other words, we need to make learning inclusive and evolutionary. To create a learning culture, open communication is a must. I love what C. Northcotte Parkinson said about communication:

“The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel, and misrepresentation.”

To open up communication, I identified eight other aspects of tribal thinking that I thought were important to integrate into the WD-40 culture.

First, tribes have an identity. People in a tribe feel a sense of belonging to a group for a greater good. One of the most important desires that people have in life is a desire to belong to something. People join tennis clubs and poker clubs to feel a sense of belonging and affinity. I wanted to apply that same concept to WD-40 Company by building a culture that people actually want to belong to.

Second, tribes have folklore or traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices. Folklore in nontribal language is “We’ve always done it that way,” which has a confrontational feel. In a tribe, folklore can be positive and enabling, or restrictive and negative. If it’s restrictive and negative, we can identify it and ceremonially bury it. The whole point of folklore is to give WD-40 tribe members a way to dialogue and socialize instead of being confrontational. Now during meetings our people identify our core practices or beliefs, and they have a fruitful framework in which to discuss whether to alter traditions or leave them alone.

Third, tribes have warriors who are brave and determined to defend each other and the tribe as well as help each other accomplish any agreed-upon goals. At Southwest Airlines, one of the core values is having a warrior spirit—a feeling that people in their company will do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals and serve their customers at the highest level possible. That’s what we expect at WD-40 Company.

Fourth, members of tribes also have individual work. This not only builds personal esteem and a high degree of confidence in the tribe member’s own ability, but it also contributes to the well-being of the entire tribe. Then everyone can make a difference. Why? Because they do meaningful work. One of the important things we have done in our tribe is to come up with a definition of meaningful work:

• It is conducted in a manner that is “good and proper” in all aspects.

• It positively affects our tribe and our communities, giving our work an impact that extends beyond ourselves.

• It provides learning and growth, offers challenges, requires creativity, pushes us to surpass limits, and creates exciting results.

• It provides recognition and rewards for our achievements.

• It allows us to succeed as a team while excelling as individuals.

• It allows us to enjoy the ride, bringing humor and fun into our work.

• It fuels passion!

Fifth, tribes have ceremony, which in an organization translates into recognition and awards as well as orientation or integration ceremonies for new members. We want to catch people doing things right as well as make sure they are on board with our vision and values.

Sixth, tribes are constantly evolving. This means that the tribe doesn’t want to stagnate—they want to make sure they’re not settled next to a lake or pond that dries up.

Constant evolution is a metaphor for making sure that our organization stays adaptive and works toward the future.

Seventh, tribal customs are all about norms and established ways of doing things. Since we are a global company, we have to be aware of the different norms in different countries where we might be operating. Sometimes we have to use different strokes for different folks.

Finally, tribes have a unique culture, or tradition, dress codes, and a unique language. Again, this is an important element for a global company. Creating a learning environment and establishing a clear vision and set of values are core aspects of our tribal culture.

I got excited when I realized that the tribal concept was consistent with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.² According to Maslow, human needs are hierarchical and arrange themselves into five tiers: physiological, safety (security), social (affiliation), esteem (recognition), and self-actualization.

Physiological needs are at the base of the hierarchy because they tend to be dominant until they are somewhat satisfied. These are the basic human needs to sustain life itself—air, water, food, clothing, shelter, and sleep—all elements that people can attain when they have a good job. After physiological needs are met, safety/security needs become predominant. In the world of work, this means having a sense of security about your job and confidence that you will not be treated in an arbitrary way. Most organization structures naturally take care of the first and second needs—but that’s where they stop.

Developing a tribal culture focuses real energy on the last three higher needs. Once physiological and safety needs are well satisfied, social or affiliation needs emerge as dominant. This is where the tribal concept really comes alive, because:

After individuals begin to satisfy their need to belong, they want esteem—both self-esteem and recognition from others. They want to be an important member of their group. In a tribal culture, members are constantly cheering each other on and recognizing each other’s accomplishments.

As soon as esteem needs begin to be adequately satisfied, self-actualization needs become important. Self-actualization is the need to maximize one’s potential, whatever it may be. As Maslow expressed, “What a man can be, he must be.” Thus, self-actualization is a desire to become what one is capable of becoming. This is central to the whole “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” philosophy.

When I first thought of the tribe model, I described it to people wherever I went, and they seemed to quickly embrace the idea. They started saying, “We’re members of the WD-40 tribe.”

As CEO, I continue to spread the tribe idea in every way possible. I personally visit our people around the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and Asia. The fact that WD-40 is now sold in more than 160 nations around the world translates into a lot of time for me in other countries. I look at one of my key roles as fostering corporate well-being, so I am frequently in the field with the tribe members to be a part of their world. I listen to them and let them know I’m there for them. I send weekly e-mails to tribe members that have a personal, quirky feel to them. In the e-mails I recognize tribe members from all over the world and include personal messages, celebrations, and concerns.

As the following illustration suggests, Servant Leadership with an Edge is all about people, products, and passion. It illustrates the steps of “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” as a circular, continuous process beginning with our vision and values, then moving to planning and execution, followed by review and learning, and finally cycling back to vision.

This total process is about creating and enabling leaders to partner for success with their people. First we define with tribe members what an A embodies, and then we create a culture where people can achieve an A. Helping people get an A is servant leadership in action. I hope you understand by now our desire to create an empowerment culture rather than a hierarchical, micromanaging culture. This entails removing fear of failure from the organization so that people can get the help they need to achieve an A.

At first look, traditional top-down “my way or the highway” managers think what we have done with our tribal culture and Servant Leadership with an Edge is too soft, warm, and fuzzy—until they track our results. Then they sit up and begin to take notice. If they bother to take a good, hard look at what we are doing (and we welcome them to do so), they soon realize that we have created a culture that is accountable—to shareholders, other tribe members, customers, and the company as a whole.

I believe WD-40 is a great company. Not only have we gotten great results, but we also have built a great place for people to work. And there’s evidence to support that belief. At WD-40 Company we have our own report card on which tribe members have the option to fill out employee surveys. Every eighteen months the organization measures its performance against the agreed-upon As in terms of both company results and values. Even though the survey is voluntary, in the last round 98 percent of tribe members around the globe participated. Why is that so? I think it goes back to the tribal culture. People feel that they belong to WD-40 Company and that they’re doing meaningful work. In fact, in the 2008 Employee Opinion Survey, 94 percent of tribe members said they were engaged.

In retrospect, I think a key reason our “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” performance review philosophy was effectively implemented was because it grew out of my leadership point of view—my beliefs about leading and motivating people. Because the top managers’ beliefs about leadership are so crucial to effecting successful change, in the next part of the book, I will share my own leadership point of view, in the hope that it will serve as a helpful example.

2. Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: HarperCollins College, 1987).

3. In 1964 Robert K. Greenleaf founded The Greenleaf Center, an international nonprofit organization head-quartered in Westfield, Indiana. Greenleaf’s 1970 essay, “The Servant as Leader,” coined the phrase “servant leader” and launched the modern servant leadership movement. For more information, see www.greenleaf.org.