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In her writing about motivation, author Susan Fowler observes that Warren Buffett has identified WD-40 as the most competitive brand in America. This is not because of the secrecy of its formula. The company’s real secret formula is the motivation of its workforce. While high motivation can be very good, it can also be dangerous.
Decades ago, my largest client was a retail corporation that was famous for its ability to squeeze the margins of its suppliers until they were desperate, and then to either purchase their companies or move to another source of supply. That same retailer was a pioneer in the development of a profit-sharing plan.
As expected, one consequence of the profit-sharing program was that a high percentage of the employees stayed with the company until they retired or were able to cash in a fully vested profit sharing account.
However an unintended consequence was that these same people were ruthless in dealing with their suppliers. One might conclude that the motivation of profit-sharing was both the retailer’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness.
WD-40’s executive Garry Ridge observes that a primary task for a corporate leader is “to make sure we create an environment where our tribe members wake up each day inspired to go to work, feel safe while they are there, and return home at the end of the day fulfilled by the work they do, feeling that they will learn something new and contribute to something bigger than themselves.” Ridge describes safety as eliminating the fear of failure. “People do not fail at WD-40; they have learning moments. We define a learning moment as a positive or negative outcome of any situation that needs to be shared among the tribe.”
WD-40 focuses on the learning moments, encouraging its people to try new things and learn from their experience. According to Ridge: “It takes dedication to create that safe playing field where people experience a choice by moving from fear to freedom, with confidence gained from learning moments.”
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