GARY HAMER
President

I like to think there is balance in the universe: a high to balance every low, a strength to balance every weakness, a joy to balance every sorrow, and a silver lining to balance every tragedy. It’s what gives me the strength to search for the bright side or lesson in every seemingly dark event or mistake in life, and the caution to tread lightly when things seem too good to be true, knowing that when things get too high they sometimes come crashing down. Many people have heard me say that I’m “High on Life,” but I have always tried to steer clear of getting too high on life for the reason just mentioned. Along the same lines, I think that a smartly controlled life leads to the most happy and productive life. So it should be no surprise that I, like many of us at Champion (being in the control business), love to see a well-tuned loop. By this I mean no large oscillations or spikes but rather a steady line that corrects quickly and smoothly when disrupted. It takes good reliable output and feedback to balance a control loop, and I believe the same is true in life.

Different people excel where others falter, but together, everyone’s strengths and weaknesses balance to highlight both the issues to be solved and the skills necessary to solve them, all the while moving society forward. Embracing these different strengths and weaknesses of each person is part of the reason that the United States has been successful all of these years. The fact is that every person excels in something, and the key to individual success comes down to identifying and promoting those qualities. For a company it is the same, but it involves promoting and combining the different strengths of each member to make the whole even stronger.

In a couple of my previous letters, I discussed some of the steps involved in “Doing Everything.” The first step was being around long enough to get everything done by living a healthy and safe life. The second step dealt with prioritization and timing, using techniques from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen and establishing the core values that influence all your decisions. The next steps that I want to discuss involve both balance and cohesion. By getting everyone on the same page, we can work more effectively with others to accomplish both individual and shared goals, which in turn means we can do more things. But being on the same page doesn’t mean everyone doing the same thing; it means everyone agreeing on the plan and contributing their strengths to the outcome.

By this time, the majority of all Champions have participated in the second training session of the Collaborative Way Principles. The two main focuses of that session were Listening Generously and Speaking Straight. Put together, they are the output and feedback in the control loop of life and can have a profound effect on the success of each person as an individual and on our company as a whole.

Understandably, each person has their own set of experiences that have shaped and defined their perspective on the world, and the only way to gain knowledge from their experience is to listen generously without filters and with the willingness to actually be influenced by their perspective. Listening generously is the only way to receive reliable feedback. Often times the people who feel like they don’t need the feedback are the ones who could benefit most from it. Similarly, speaking straight is the only reliable way to control outputs and give feedback. And while it is not a license to accuse or attack, speaking straight will bring any conflicts and barriers of progress to light so that they can be resolved in a positive way, both quickly and collaboratively.

For this reason, I want to encourage each of you to truly practice the skills of Listening Generously and Speaking Straight in your offices and throughout the organization. Every frustrating moment can become a forwarding moment if we handle them correctly. For those of you who believe in this process, I want to thank you deeply. If there are any of you who don’t yet believe this process can help move individuals and the company forward, then please try to speak straight about your thoughts. The rest of the management team and I commit that we will listen generously to your reasoning and see if we can come to a forwarding path that resolves any concerns you may have. I truly believe that together we can balance everyone’s strengths and perspectives to make the best cohesive team possible, which will in turn help us accomplish our vision of using technology to improve the lives of everyone who is working for a better life. Individually, it may help move some of your personal goals forward and get you one step closer to “Doing Everything.”

   Thank You,