Aligning Core Values & Employee Engagement with Garry Ridge

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This is a podcast episode titled, Aligning Core Values & Employee Engagement with Garry Ridge. The summary for this episode is: <p>Garry Ridge, Founder of The Learning Moment joins The Future of Teamwork host Dane Groeneveld for a spirited conversation about both being from Australia, how to reflect the values of an organization by listening to employee voices and improving engagement, and how to build a culture around contributing to a larger goal than oneself. The two also discuss Garry's philosophy that "Life is a gift" and integrating that idea into building personal and organizational values you can be proud of. Lastly, Garry talks about what it was like to run WD-40 for decades as its CEO, and some of his observations on work since COVID.</p><p><br></p><p>Key Takeaways:</p><ul><li>[00:11&nbsp;-&nbsp;01:02] Introduction to Garry, "Life's a gift"</li><li>[01:06&nbsp;-&nbsp;03:37] An Australian in the US, running WD-40 Company as CEO</li><li>[03:41&nbsp;-&nbsp;06:58] A 25-year apprenticeship, happiness and contributing to something larger</li><li>[07:00&nbsp;-&nbsp;08:46] COVID and the numb state</li><li>[08:46&nbsp;-&nbsp;13:02] Employee engagement, empathy, and ego</li><li>[13:21&nbsp;-&nbsp;17:25] Deeper moments and memories, reflecting on the values of an organization</li><li>[17:28&nbsp;-&nbsp;19:46] Core behaviors and sharing, doing the right thing</li><li>[19:59&nbsp;-&nbsp;22:45] Innovation in all aspects of business, not just product</li><li>[23:20&nbsp;-&nbsp;24:19] Ethnology and listening to end users</li><li>[24:21&nbsp;-&nbsp;25:19] Outsourcing, R&amp;D, and collaboration</li><li>[25:22&nbsp;-&nbsp;27:05] Values alignment in collaboration</li><li>[27:17&nbsp;-&nbsp;28:21] Integrating values into quarterly conversations</li><li>[29:34&nbsp;-&nbsp;31:22] Excitement about seeing other companies adopt WD-40's model for success</li><li>[31:29&nbsp;-&nbsp;34:08] The ESG movement and recognizing employee contributions</li><li>[34:12&nbsp;-&nbsp;36:45] What a future with AI looks like, better data processing</li><li>[37:51&nbsp;-&nbsp;40:18] Creating better outcomes in rehabilitation</li><li>[40:41&nbsp;-&nbsp;41:56] Bravery and extinction</li></ul>
Introduction to Garry, "Life's a gift"
00:51 MIN
An Australian in the US, running WD-40 Company as CEO
02:31 MIN
A 25-year apprenticeship, happiness and contributing to something larger
03:16 MIN
COVID and the numb state
01:45 MIN
Employee engagement, empathy, and ego
04:16 MIN
Deeper moments and memories, reflecting on the values of an organization
04:04 MIN
Core behaviors and sharing, doing the right thing
02:18 MIN
Innovation in all aspects of business, not just product
02:45 MIN
Ethnology and listening to end users
00:58 MIN
Outsourcing, R&D, and collaboration
00:58 MIN
Values alignment in collaboration
01:43 MIN
Integrating values into quarterly conversations
01:04 MIN
Excitement about seeing other companies adopt WD-40's model for success
01:47 MIN
The ESG movement and recognizing employee contributions
02:39 MIN
What a future with AI looks like, better data processing
02:33 MIN
Creating better outcomes in rehabilitation
02:27 MIN
Bravery and extinction
01:15 MIN

Dane Groeneveld: Welcome to the Future of Teamwork podcast. My name's Dane Groeneveld, CEO of Huddl3 Group, and today I'm pleased to welcome a fellow Australian onto the show, Garry Ridge. So Garry's the chairman of WD-40, the founder of the Learning Moment, The Culture Coach. He's a busy guy and he's got a great story. So Garry, welcome to the show.

Garry Ridge: G'day Dane. It's great to be with you. And I take that word busy, I don't like that word busy. I say I have an abundance of worthwhile work.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, I see that. I see that in a lot of your postings and that abundance mindset's very evident, lot of passion, a lot of joy that you're bringing to team members and to those that you collaborate in the ecosystem with.

Garry Ridge: Yeah, well, life's a gift. Don't send it back unwrapped.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, I love it. I love it. So tell us, Garry, a little bit more about you as Australian guy running this big company here in the US the last what, 25 years?

Garry Ridge: Yeah. I've been grateful and privileged to be the CEO of WD- 40 Company, which is a US public company for 25 years. One of the publications in Australia that you would know, the Australian Financial Review, wrote an article a little while back and they said that I was the longest serving Australian of a US public company. So I guess that says something, what it is.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: But I was born in Sydney, grew up in a little suburb of Sydney, called Five Dock, went to Drummoyne Boys high school, left school, was interested in retailing, worked for a retailing organization in Australia that was pretty well known back then called Walton's, not in business anymore. I actually have a certificate in modern retailing dated 1972, which I'm sure is quite outdated now. But from there I worked for a wholesaling company in sales and marketing, and eventually ended up working at a company called Hawker Pacific, which was the licensee for WD-40 and Armor All in Australia. And that's how I got to know the people at WD- 40 Company. And back in 1987, the license was coming to an end and the company was really getting curious about building the brand globally. And they invited me to join them, which I did on July 4th, 1987 with a fax machine under my bed. That's how I opened the Australian subsidiary. And I worked for about six months putting the company together and we launched in January 1988, and I worked out of Australia, mostly in Asia from'88 to'94. And then in'94, I was having a conversation with my then boss, who was the president of the company, and I said, " Is there anything else you'd like me to do?" And he said, "Do you want to move to the US?" And I said, " To do what?" And he said, " To help us take the blue and yellow can with little red top to the world." And I thought, " That sounds pretty exciting. When's the next flight?" Well, it wasn't that simple, but I moved over in 1994 and he retired three years later in 1997. And for some reason, the board of directors then of a US public company thought this Aussie guy who'd never been to Wall Street might be okay at leading a US organization. And that's where it all started, and 25 years later, well here we are. It's been quite a journey.

Dane Groeneveld: Congratulations. I mean, it's a great story. And I love, just before the show, you and I were talking and you said, well, that's the 25 year apprenticeship. So tell us a little bit more about the 25 year apprenticeship and where you're focusing your passion and energy now.

Garry Ridge: Yeah. I'm true about that. I feel like the 25 years I've just spent has really put me where I would need to be to make the big difference I think I can make. And I call it the 25 years apprenticeship and leadership. And in fact, just before our call, I was on the phone with my writing partner, we're writing a book called The Learning Moment: The 25 Learning Moments over 25 years.

Dane Groeneveld: Great.

Garry Ridge: And it's going to talk about the experiences and what I call scar tissue that I had along the way because life is just a learning journey. And I was fortunate enough to have that journey. So now I truly believe that business has the biggest opportunity ever to make a positive difference in the world. And I often say, imagine a place where you go to work every day, you make a contribution to something bigger than yourself, you learn something new, you're protected and set free by a compelling set of values, and you go home happy. Happy people create happy families, happy families create happy communities, and happy communities create a happy world. And Dane, I don't think you or anyone would argue with me that a little happier world right now might be a good thing.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: And unfortunately, around us we have all this toxic leadership that creates these cultures that people don't like. And I wrote an article in LinkedIn a few months ago called The Great Escape. There's a lot of talk about the great resignation. This is not the great resignation. People are escaping these toxic cultures where they don't feel like they belong. They're not treated with respect and dignity. There's not an opportunity for continuous learning. It's not a purpose that they feel is bigger than themselves and they feel proud about talking about. And it doesn't have to be that way. And I'm looking forward now to helping leaders identify the elements of culture that they need to pay attention to build cultures where people actually say, " I love going to work here."

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, yeah. No, I'm energized just listening to that. And I was reading on your LinkedIn profile, you had the Aristotle quote there too, which was what, 384 BC I think, " Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." And yeah, you're not wrong. And perfection in the work, as you've just said, allows people to go home happy, allows people to contribute to happy, healthy families, happy healthy communities. Actually play a role in those communities. I think sadly, business over the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years has been kind of a sit on the fence. You come here, your job, boom. We don't really talk politics, we don't talk religion, we don't get involved in what's happening in the world. And there seems to be a bit of a shift happening driven by people. I think people are bringing, naturally, there's a talent shortage, but people are bringing or commanding, I think more time from their employers on what's important to them.

Garry Ridge: Well, I think we all wish COVID wouldn't have happened, but there's been some great learning moments from COVID.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: And the first big learning moment is it gave leaders a slap up the side of the head because people were saying to them. Before COVID, I went to work and we know the dismal employee engagement numbers that have been out there for decades. How many times have we read year after year that 70% of people who go to work every day are either disengaged or actively disengaged? And the amount of damage that does, not only to the people but to the businesses is enormous. And we've just gone, " Oh, okay, yeah, we should do something about that."

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: Well, COVID hit and the 70% of people who were disengaged said, " I can't handle this anymore because my life is disengaged. COVID has sent me into a rollercoaster ride, so something's got to give here." And a lot of them said, " The give is I'm not going to come to work here anymore because I can't do it anymore." And leaders have to wake up to that. And we can fix that in certain ways.

Dane Groeneveld: Can't do it anymore is a very interesting use of language. It's not I don't want to do it anymore, it's I can't do it anymore. And I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think that COVID, like you say, it really threw a lot of people, a lot of communities into a state of shock and survival. And we became, in a survival mode, much more aware of what we could and couldn't do and what the toll was rather than just living in this numb state. So I think it's real. I think people can't do it. You can't engage them with ping pong tables or trips to the beach. You've got to think about why can't they do it and how can we change? So I'm intrigued, if you think about that capacity to do something where you see businesses being able to, with your learning moments, where you see businesses being able to start unlocking that formula so that people can do it and want to do it?

Garry Ridge: So let's think about the four pillars that I think the business need to think about. The first one is care. And care means your ego is being eaten by your empathy. Your empathy isn't being eaten by your ego. And care means not only rewarding and applauding people for doing great work, it's being brave enough to redirect people when they're playing the game but not winning because of the way they're playing. And so often we protect our own comfort zone at the expense of other people's development. Now I know we're both Aussie, so we've got something in common here. We know what rugby is, right?

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: So let's look at this through the eyes of rugby for a minute. Let's assume that we are now the coaches of a great rugby team. So what's the responsibility of the coach? Number one is great coaches don't run onto the field and pick up the ball.

Dane Groeneveld: No.

Garry Ridge: Great coaches don't go to the podium to pick up the prize. What does a great coach do? A great coach spends time on the sideline observing the play with one objective only. That is to be able to advise the players how a different way of playing will help them win the game. Now, let's say one player in that game is not playing the best game. If that coach protects their own comfort zone, by not redirecting that player, who loses? The whole team loses. The whole team loses. So the number one responsibility of a coach in caring is not only to be the cheerleader and okay, maybe a critic, but to redirect play. And that's so important. The second thing is not only staying on the sideline, but great coaches spend a lot of time in the locker room. And what are they doing in the locker room? They're helping, build trust amongst the players. You've probably read that great book Legacy, written many years ago about the All Blacks-

Dane Groeneveld: Oh yeah.

Garry Ridge: And how they used to make them sweep out the locker room and do the things they need to do to make sure they were bonding together. So the first thing is care. Brave enough to love, brave enough to redirect, and also not being selfish, which is protecting your own comfort zone. The second one is candor. No lying, no faking, no hiding. Most people in organizations don't lie. What do they? They fake and hide. Why? Because they're afraid. There's fear of failure. That's why you have to have the power of the learning moment. And what's the power of the learning moment? A positive or negative outcome of any situation that needs to be openly and freely shared with all people. The third pillar is accountability. What are you and I going to hold each other accountable for? And I tell you, most people let people down in life because there's not clarity around what are we holding each other accountable for? So it's important that we know that. And the fourth one is responsibility. Are we brave enough to hold ourselves responsible for what really should happen? So care, candor, accountability, responsibility, four pillars to look at building strong cultures within an organization.

Dane Groeneveld: And those interestingly are all very behavioral. So it doesn't really come down to how you design a job. It comes down to how you agree to operate together first and foremost.

Garry Ridge: Absolutely. Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: And as you said, great culture isn't about popcorn, pizzas, and singing kumbaya on Friday.

Garry Ridge: Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: It's not about that.

Garry Ridge: No.

Dane Groeneveld: It's not about that.

Garry Ridge: No.

Dane Groeneveld: That's also the really hard stuff to achieve because in a sports' environment, you've got a structured... You do have a field, you've got a locker room, you've got competition that plays a game in a certain format. In business, it's never quite as simple as that. So as you think about those four pillars, Garry and the 25 learning moments, not give too much away on the book, but are there any great examples of where you've been able to come in and interject a bit of care or candor into a team or into a business unit or something that really stands out in your mind?

Garry Ridge: Yeah, I think there's also, what language do you have in an organization that gives you the permission to act around those things? And at WD- 40 company, our second value in the company was we value creating positive, lasting memories in all of our relationships. And I can recall a time when I was in a meeting one morning and someone was not creating positive, lasting memories. And it was very out of character for this person. You've probably been in one of those meetings, Dane, where someone sucking the energy out of the room and you don't understand why. So what do you do? Well, the first thing is you do nothing. That's not going to work because you're not going to redirect or be able to encourage the person. The second thing is you act at the time. So you say, " Hey Dane, look, smarten yourself up, mate. That's not the way to behave in this meeting." Well, that don't do that either because everyone else in the room is going, " When am I going to get hit with that brick?"

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: So if you were to reflect on the values in the organization, what would you do? So at the end of the meeting, I said to this person, " Hey, let's go for a walk." So we walked outside that building and I'm looking under a car and in a trash can and behind a tree. And he said, " What the hell are you doing?" I said, " I'm looking for you." He said, " What do you mean?" " The you I know and love was not in that room today. What's on your mind? What's up?" So there's a way of doing that. And let me share another real learning had. When I was back in Australia in high school, many, many, many years ago, of course. I went to a Drummoyne Boys high school and I had a science teacher. And that science teacher one day gave us a Petri dish and they said, " We're going to grow culture in this Petri dish." And I said, and this is a true story, " Well, that's interesting." So what's important? Well the first thing is, what are the ingredients that you put in the Petri dish to grow the culture you want to grow? So my question to the people listening today is, if you're going to grow great culture in the organization, are you very clear what those ingredients should be? And they are things like values, purpose, behaviors. Okay. So then what do you need to do once you've got the ingredients in the Petri dish? You've got to watch that Petri dish every day. And you've got to make sure that you are feeding the good ingredients to grow. But you are also watching very closely for the toxins that could get in the Petri dish that's going to kill the good ingredients very quickly. So again, one of my kind of learning moments is this culture thing is perpetual. It's simple. It's not easy, but there's an algorithm. Culture equals values plus behavior times consistency. And a lot of organizations don't understand that this is about consistency. You don't run in and sprinkle fairy dust over an organization, change the culture and walk away and say, " Good on you, mate. It's all good for the future." It's a day by day by day by day effort.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. And that has to cascade down, not just from the leader, the CEO, you've got to find the ways to build it into each team leader, each team member. Yeah.

Garry Ridge: It's got to be embedded.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: It's got to be embedded in the... And that's why the values in the organization are so important. If you've got to clearly defined a set of hierarchal values, they become the written reminders of the only acceptable behavior in the organization and the way people need to think about making decisions. And those are what you use every day to help you guard the ingredients in the Petri dish.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, no, I love that. And on the way people make decisions every day in the business is that while you might have core values, you might have core behaviors, is there something more structural there from department to department? Does an engineering or a product department have a different way of sharing data, making decisions than say the sales and marketing team?

Garry Ridge: I think the core of making the decisions is the same. It's got to be based on the values in the organization. I'll give you another example, and this will be from purchasing if you will. So our number one value in the company is we value doing the right thing. And our number six value is we value sustaining the WD- 40 economy, which is about profitability. So we have a mandate in the company that says we will have no cancer causing chemicals in any product we make. And that's a mandate. So we could have someone go to our purchasing department and say, " Hey, you know are using chemical X. If you use chemical Y, it's less expensive. You can be more profitable by using this product. Oh, the only thing is you'd have to put a Prop 65 warning on your can." The person in the purchasing department, using our hierarchal values as they guide, has no hesitation saying, " Thank you so much for that suggestion. But we won't be doing that because our number one value is we value doing the right thing and our mandatory says that." Now, if we didn't have those values in place, what would be happening? " Oh, wait a minute, let me call my supervisor. Let's go up the chain.'Hey, we can make...'" This whole debate would happen. Why don't we do this because we can make more money? But because the values are in place, it stops churn. The conversation's over.

Dane Groeneveld: You give them that confidence and that clarity to act.

Garry Ridge: Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: Permission.

Dane Groeneveld: Permission.

Garry Ridge: Remember what I said? I said imagine a place you go to work where you had a set of values that protected people and set them free.

Dane Groeneveld: Yes.

Garry Ridge: Allowed them to make the decisions, empowering them to do what we need to do because the values are guiding them without them having to go quacking up the hierarchy to get some decision.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, I love the set them free. And actually, that reinforces exactly what you meant by that at the opening. And that actually kind of takes us into a different realm, which is innovation. Right now, a lot of companies are looking for innovation, and that's not necessarily product innovation. It might be innovation in the way they run their meetings and the way that they engage with customers manage data. But the more and more you read and you look at where good innovation comes from, it doesn't come from the CEO or a brains trust in the middle of an organization. It comes from people out on the fringes. And I've always observed with WD- 40, the product and the role of the people that are using the product in the field is something that you've always celebrated. Perhaps you could touch on where you've seen some good innovations from your teams because you've had this set of values, this set of behaviors that protects and sets people free to come up with ideas regardless of their role in the team.

Garry Ridge: Well, I'll go back to quoting one of our values. One of our values is we value making it better than it is today. That's one of our values. So we're continuously looking for ways of making it better while living our purpose, which is we exist to create positive, lasting memories, solving problems in factories, homes, and workshops around the world. One of our biggest and most successful innovations has been our delivery system. And years ago, if you bought a can of WD- 40, it had a little red tube attached to the side of the can and you'd have to take the tube and put it into the actuator. And when we talked to our end users, they said, if you could make this easier for us so that we could get our job done quicker, we would really appreciate it and we would value that. So we initially developed our smart straw delivery system, which attaches the straw to the can in its lockdown position. It sprays normally when you flip it up, it locks out and it comes out of the red tube. So a mechanic who's working on a car in a garage that has to get the car in and out, and the quicker he gets it in and out, the more productive he is, now doesn't have to look for the little red tube. And then on top of that, later on we developed the same type of delivery system, but with an eight inch flexible tube on it. So if that same mechanic had a car up on a hoist and he had a bolt that was behind a manifold that he needed to get some penetrant to loosen, now he can do it quickly without waste. Saving time, it's better for him, it's better for the environment, it's better for everybody. So by living our purpose and using our values, our end users tell us how we can deliver better value to them. And then that becomes a win- win for everybody.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, that's a great story actually. I did see one of your videos when you brought out the flexi tube on the can and that was a cool video. It's an interesting theme in teamwork because we had a guest on the team recently called Kian Gohar. And Kian talks about innovation out there in the community and teaming out, which means it's not just your employees. It's your customers, it's your vendors, suppliers. And there's a perfect example of where everyday users are giving feedback to make your product stand out against the rest.

Garry Ridge: Yeah. Well, we do a thing, I think it's called ethnology. I can never pronounce it, but it's where we actually go into the environment where our product's being used, and we watch it being used in real lifetime and identify with the end users ways we can create a better product. Another great example is our WD-40 Spray and Stay Gel. We had our end users tell us, " We love WD-40 but could you help us with a product that doesn't drip. Because we want to get into position in situations where we don't want it to drip after we apply it." We said we think we can do that. Three years later, we come up with a product called WD-40 Spray and Stay Gel. It's the original WD-40, but it's in a format when you spray it on to a hinge, it sticks and now it doesn't drip anymore. Now our end users gave us that vision.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, that's neat. Are there any examples where you had the suppliers downstream being invited into the team? Any of those delivery systems where you're having to bring in people that are not WD- 40 to come up with components?

Garry Ridge: Oh, absolutely. We don't manufacture anything.

Dane Groeneveld: Right.

Garry Ridge: We outsource all our... So all of the technology that had to go in develop, we have our R& D center in New Jersey where I think we have 14 scientists in the tribe globally, but they more are more the orchestrators of the work that needs to be done by outside parties. So we have the top quality engineering firms helping us design what we needed to design to make the dyes that needed to be made for the equipment to all of that. So we rely heavily on the expertise of those outside.

Dane Groeneveld: Neat. So it's interesting, we've had a few guests on, when we talk about teamwork and they talk about the difficulties of teaming up with someone who's not part of your organization. They don't have your values, your behaviors ingrained in the way that they operate. How do you extend that if you're partnering with those folks for engineering and design? Is that part of your onboarding and selection process for those partners? Is it part of your continuous kind of project management effort?

Garry Ridge: Well, one of the first things we do with any organization is we put them through a values alignment, and we can't work with anybody who's not aligned with our values.

Dane Groeneveld: Got it.

Garry Ridge: And the second thing is, there's nothing like the freedom of a tightly defined brief. So we want to make sure that our brief is tightly defined. And whenever we have a RFP, part of the RFP is a values assessment. That's so important. And there's been a couple of times where we failed on something because we didn't do a good job in the initial stages of really making sure that the values of the person or the company we're working with were aligned with and compatible with ours.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. No, that makes total sense. Not easy to do, but if you've got in the first place, your behaviors and your values well said in your corporation, the job's halfway done, I guess.

Garry Ridge: Yeah. I mean a lot of people have trouble aligning values because they're not clear about what their values are. And unfortunately, there's a lot of companies that have values and they frame them and stick them up on a wall and they point at them. But if you were to observe the behavior in the organization, it wouldn't match the values.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, absolutely. I guess while we are just finalizing that sort of theme on values and behavior, we talked about innovation, we talked about a few different things. How do you celebrate those values within the company? Is there anything that you've landed on over the years that really works?

Garry Ridge: So I wrote a book a number of years ago with Dr. Ken Blanchard, the One Minute Manager, and it's called, " Don't Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A." And in that book we talk about how we integrate our values into our quarterly conversations with all of our tribe members. So what does that mean? It means that every quarter when we sit down and have our formal conversation, which is a time when I'm here for you and you are here for me, we ask our tribe members to share with us how they've lived our values in the last 90 days. And we only have two measurements of that. You either lived them or you visit them. And we don't want a lot of visitors, we want a lot of people who live them. So people talk about how they've actually lived these certain things in our organization.

Dane Groeneveld: That's cool. Living and visiting. So visiting is just not being there enough?

Garry Ridge: It's randomly using them.

Dane Groeneveld: Got it, got it. No, that makes sense. And any particular sort of awards? We just did our culture circle, which we do once a year when we bring all of our Huddl3 Group companies together and we recognize people's contributions where they have lived a value or a behavior. Did you find that that was a part of the story?

Garry Ridge: Absolutely. We have a number of awards within the company, whether it be the CEO Coin of Values, driving behavior to Our People's Choice Awards to a number of different things that we do within the organization. So yeah, we reward and applaud people for living our values.

Dane Groeneveld: I love the applaud adding that in because that's probably the bigger part. The reward's nice, but it's when they see all of their colleagues stand up and recognize them, it gives them the high fives, the pat on the back, the cuddle. That's a winner.

Garry Ridge: That's it.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: Yeah. Public recognition of great behavior.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, So as you move forward now, Garry, the new book, obviously all of this technology that we've seen infiltrating the way that we work, particularly post COVID, what are your hopes, what is it that excites you about helping other companies kind of emulate some of the successes that you were able to design and deliver at WD- 40?

Garry Ridge: What excites me is we've proven at WD- 40 company over 25 years that by adopting a principle around having a highly engaged workforce with a culture with a competitive advantage, it benefits the people in the organization. 98% of our people globally say they love to tell people they work at WD- 40 company. And we operate in 17 countries around the world. We have a 93% employee engagement. 97% of people say they trust their coach, which is their boss. So we've proven that we can not only positively impact people's lives by having them work in an organization where they're respected and rewarded, but as a company, it's beneficial to the company because we've had a compounded annual growth rate of total shareholder return over 25 years of 14%. Our market caps gone from 300 million to 2. 5 billion. And during that time, we've taken our revenue from plus or minus a 100 million to way over 500 million.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, that's huge. They're big numbers. And compound annual growth at 14% through those peaks and troughs is pretty outstanding.

Garry Ridge: Yeah. And it's all about the people.

Dane Groeneveld: All about the people. So it's interesting you've achieved that at WD-40. People are excited about it. We do a lot of work in the hydrocarbons industry and a lot of our customers come and talk to us about, we're losing mid- career talent like never before. If you are a traditional oil and gas company and you're not investing in renewables asset portfolio, that there's this social burden on the people. When you start to think about those companies that are... There's some great companies, great balance sheets, good leaders in place, but they're fairly entrenched in markets that are getting a lot of disruption right now because of the environmental focus, the ESG movement. Where do those companies begin so that they can start getting their employees to feel excited and proud and not hiding that they work at a refinery or a place that may not carry the same public recognition as some other products or industries?

Garry Ridge: Well, I think the whole question of ESG is interesting. And as Larry Thinker said, this is not going from brown to green. This is a series of changing colors along the way. So I think the first thing is the organizations have clarity around this is where we are and that's reality. And this is where we're going and we're proud. We're going to be proactive and proud about our journey along the way. But not everything is going to be in this world. If we want to get back to zero, zero, zero, well let's go and live like I'm the cavemen. So there's variations of this. But I think what's important is it's such an important topic that we're paying more and more attention to so we will progressively make the world a better place if we're all doing our bit to do that.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. And I think, as you say, owning it up front, " This is where we are, this is where we're going," It's probably something that's not being said that's silent in a lot of organizations right now.

Garry Ridge: I mean, be honest, " This is where we are and okay, we're here and we admit it. But more importantly, this is where we're going."

Dane Groeneveld: And that probably hits all four of your pillars. I was just looking back over that. It's care, it's candor, it's accountability, it's responsibility, it's all four.

Garry Ridge: Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: So you're giving them the playbook.

Garry Ridge: Excellent.

Dane Groeneveld: And on the technology piece, as you start to see more technology, more AI, more machine learning coming into organizations, have you got any views on how people and machines start to play roles together? I mean, you've seen a fair bit of technology advancement in your time at WD-40. Is there anything to take anecdotally there that might point towards the future?

Garry Ridge: And you just reminded me, I remembered early in my days when I was living in Australia and traveling up to Asia, I'd get on my flight and I'd land in Hong Kong. And I'd get out of the plane and I'd get into my hotel and I'd arrive and there'd be a bunch of faxes and I'd have to read all the faxes. I'd have to write out my answers of the faxes. I'd take it down to the business center, I'd stand in line in the business center, I'd wait to send this, and off it would go, and then I'd go get a glass of wine. With technology today, the plane lands and by the time you're at the gate, you've answered all those questions and you just go get a glass of wine. So I think what it is that technology is empowering us to gather knowledge. The thing that I'm worried about a little bit is the addiction to what is real. There was a great book written called Who Moved My Cheese and a follow on to that book is called Out of the Maze. And in Out of the Maze, they talk about him and her who were the two mice that were caught in this maze. And they talk about how they escape from the maze. But one of the key messages is in that book is notice your beliefs and ask yourself this question, " Why do I believe what I believe?" And I think in technology, and particularly in information sharing these days, we need to really question ourselves around that. Why do we believe what we believe? On the other side, AI is going to give us better data quicker that we're going to be able to analyze better, to make better decisions. So I think it's pretty exciting when you think about it. I remember my old dad, he was an engineer. He worked for one company for 50 years, and I remember when fax... So he was a pretty smart guy, and this goes back hundreds, tens of years ago when he was alive and fax machines came out and we were having a conversation and he said, "How do they get the paper through the wires?" Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: And it's like, yeah, okay. Look how things have changed.

Dane Groeneveld: It is amazing. And I like the way that you described that arriving in Hong Kong story, because we were at a conference recently, we had a speaker, keynote speaker, Heather McGowan talking to us and she was saying that we're moving into this human value era. Because the technology allows us to take humans out of the reams of paper and responding when they're in a market, when they could be spending time with customers and team members, whether that's over a wine or out on a plant walk down. So it does create more opportunity for humans to do what we're best at, which is connecting really.

Garry Ridge: Which is to be with other humans. We're social animals. Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. No, that's both an optimistic view and a necessarily concerning view on the data and where people's beliefs and positions are coming from. That's really neat. And if you think about this next chapter, the book, the Founder, the Learning Moment, what are the types of organizations that you're most looking forward to working with? Is it a particular industry segment or are you very agnostic to who you get out there and support?

Garry Ridge: I want to work with successful leaders who want to get better. I'm not in the business of doing rehabilitation. And I want to work with organizations that truly believe that having a high will of the people in their organization will create a better outcome. And let me just put that in simplistic terms. We can all write a great strategic plan, Dane, right?

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: Let's write the plan. Let's take it over to Harvard somewhere and give it to a really smart professor and say, " Mark up my strategic plan." He says, " Very fine. Very fine strategic plan there, Dane. You get 60 out of a 100 for your strategic plan. Most of them are 50- 50, you've got 60." You say, " Thank you. I'm going to do work on that." So you take the strategic plan back to your organization. However, only 30% of your people who come to work every day are engaged, which means they are going to work towards that purpose. 30 times 60 I think is what about 1800?

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: What about if 80% of your people were engaged and came to work every day and they were enthusiastically dedicating themselves to a purpose bigger than themselves. They were learning something new, they were being set free and protected by compelling set of values and worked went out happy. I think 80 times 60 is much bigger than 30 times 60. So it all comes back to the fact it's all about the will of the people. And as Aristotle said, pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. I really like the maths, particularly for the engineers that are listening in and saying, " Oh yeah, I get that." Because a lot of people talk about HR and employees and they find that it's fluffy. But there's a formula that's pretty clear.

Garry Ridge: Simple. If you have more people more enthusiastic about achieving what you want to achieve, you are going to have a better outcome. Duh.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. And I think I've been talking to a few different people, engagement unfortunately, it's been such a buzzword for a while, it has got too associated with pizzas and ping pong tables. I've been using a word a lot and I'm seeing a word out there in the press a lot more about empowerment. And I think that comes back to your four pillars. And I heard you use the word bravery a few times. Bravery to care. Bravery to be candid, bravery to be accountable, bravery to be responsible. It's going to take brave leaders because traditionally the power's been held in the center, and we haven't invited many people into the business to have a real role, if we're really honest with ourselves. And I think there's a lot of companies out there... I liked how you said you don't want to help people with rehab. There's a lot of companies out there that are not comfortable and may not get comfortable with inviting their employees into an honest way of how we're going to run the business and grow and how we want to hear from them and how we want them to make decisions out in the fringes. So I sense that that's probably going to be the biggest kind of force on which companies are going to be successful in the future of teamwork and which companies aren't. Who's brave enough to embrace the high will of the people?

Garry Ridge: Well they will go extinct.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: They're dinosaur companies. And that's why I call it the will of the people. Empowerment is a great word too. Engagement. But it is, what's the outcome? Creating high will of the people.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. No, I love that. I think that's a really strong note to end on, Garry. It's been a wonderful conversation and thank you for taking the time to share your story and your experiences. It's a very successful and I'm excited for the next chapter. And perhaps if people do want to reach out to you, those successful leaders that are looking to go and keep building on success, how do they best reach you?

Garry Ridge: So you can go to my website, www. thelearningmoment. net.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Garry Ridge: You can email me at harry @ thelearningmoment. net. That's G- A- R-R- Y, two Rs at thelearningmoment. net. Or please, follow me on LinkedIn. Because I share a lot of my scar tissue on LinkedIn, so please just search me on LinkedIn and follow me on LinkedIn. And I get messages and I always answer my messages.

Dane Groeneveld: No, that's neat Garry. And thanks again for using the word scar tissue because I love it when you get successful leaders on the show that talk in a very candid way about how they got here and what they've gone through and that it's normal to have these learning moments along the way.

Garry Ridge: That's life, man. That's exactly life. Always great to be with another Aussie.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, likewise. Makes me feel a little homesick seeing the Sydney Harbor Bridge in the background.

Garry Ridge: There it is, yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: Oh, that's awesome.

DESCRIPTION

Garry Ridge, Founder of The Learning Moment joins The Future of Teamwork host Dane Groeneveld for a spirited conversation about both being from Australia, how to reflect the values of an organization by listening to employee voices and improving engagement, and how to build a culture around contributing to a larger goal than oneself. The two also discuss Garry's philosophy that "Life is a gift" and integrating that idea into building personal and organizational values you can be proud of. Lastly, Garry talks about what it was like to run WD-40 for decades as its CEO, and some of his observations on work since COVID.

Today's Host

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Dane Groeneveld

|HUDDL3 Group CEO

Today's Guests

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Garry Ridge

|Founder of The Learning Moment