Why Think Team Matters

The tock test is that industrial manufacturing products satellite heroes that keep America right. I'm going to close the first creator. And on the top test, we did not discover the latest features and benefits of products that come to market. Instead, we focused on light and insight from the automotive industry. Because people and ideas will become America remaining number one in manufacturing in the world. Welcome to Eco Ask Why. I'm your host, Chris Granger. I'm looking forward to spending some time with you today. And we're continuing our celebration of 100, you heard that right, 100 years at Electrical Equipment Company. For the last several months on the podcast, we've been walking through our cultural beliefs. We've talked about achieving results, delighting customers, straight talk, it's mine. Value everyone. And now we get to our sixth cultural belief, and it's Think Team. Okay, so it's really important cultural belief for us, particularly as we're celebrating 100 years to Think Team, because we're one eco moving together. And again, if you haven't had a chance to listen to the previous cultural beliefs, highly encourage you to go back and check those out. So we're going to have a lot of fun today. A 100-year legacy is really never built just by one person or one department or even a generation. Just think about that. 100 years is a long time. It's built when the people with different responsibilities and perspectives and areas of expertise learn how to move towards the same goal together. And that kind of alignment just doesn't happen overnight. It's definitely not automatic. It requires trust, humility, and communication and a willingness to sometimes put aside the easy path, right? And instead do what's best for the team. So we

One Company Through The Customer’s Eyes

taught, we call this think team. And really the core, the definition is I put the needs of the team first because we're one eco. That's it. There's an important distinction in that statement. Because thinking team does not mean individual performance is not important. No, strong teams need people who take ownership and develop expertise and can make decisions and ultimately deliver results. Just think back to achieve results in our earlier cultural beliefs. But rather, individual excellence reaches its greatest value when it contributes to something larger. So the goal is to not simply succeed in your role, the goal is to help the company succeed overall. And that's a mindset shift. And it changes how we communicate and how we work together and how we talk to our customers and how we engage and even how we define a win. So one eco means the customer sees one company. Because organizations naturally create boundaries. Okay. Different locations serve different markets. Departments develop their own processes. Specialists become deeply focused on their areas of expertise. Then you have sales and operations and engineering and finance and IT and all on all, right? Distribution, warehousing, everything. They all have different responsibilities. And those differences are necessary. And the problem begins when necessary specialization becomes isolation. We have to be careful here because a customer does not experience eco through an org chart. No, they don't care which department owns a particular step in the process or which location normally handles a certain responsibility. They experience the combined result of everything that we do. So a salesperson, they may create an outstanding customer relationship. That is so crucial. But that relationship can still be damaged by what? Missing a shipment. Something as simple as that. And operations may execute perfectly, but the customer can get frustrated if communication is breaking down. They're not getting updates. Or maybe engineering and product management can design the right solution, but the project still depends on what? Purchasing and logistics and invoicing and implementation support. So every handoff matters because every handoff impacts the customer. And that's what we talk about when eco. It has to be just more than a phrase. It means recognizing that departments and locations are not separate islands that are competing for attention or resources. That's how we used to do business. Now they're connected and they're parts of the same customer experience. And when something crosses from one department to another or one location to another, the responsibility doesn't disappear. It just changes hands. But the outcome is still collectively ours together. So

How Silos Form And Spread

breaking down silos, and we start thinking about this, it really requires more of that communication. Because silos are often discussed as communication problems. So think about how that's typically talked about in business, right? But usually it goes deeper than that. Okay. A silo forms when people start protecting what they what they hold value to, right? Their department, their goals, their information, or their way of just simply doing things instead of focusing on the overall outcome. And sometimes it may sound like, you know what, that that's someone else's job. Or that that's another department. Or that that's not my responsibility. And other times it may be less obvious, you know. Sometimes the information just isn't shared soon enough. Or someone hesitates to ask someone else for help, you know, or that they a department, they start optimizing its own processes, even though it creates difficult difficulty further downstream. So see that what happens if people begin measuring success only by whether their portion of the job is complete. And the think team mindset challenges that way of coming to work. Because instead of asking, did my department do this? The stronger question is, did we accomplish what needed to happen? And see, it's subtle, but that shift matters because it encourages people to understand what happens before and after their portion of the process occurs. And it causes the team to think carefully about the quality of their handoffs, right? And it creates a lot more curiosity about how decisions affect everyone else within the organization. And that type of culture, when you have that, internal teams begin treating one another with the same level of responsiveness and care when you serve your external customers. So the warehouse depends on accurate information from sales, sales depends on responsive support from specialists, finance reports depends rather on clean documentation, right? Customers depend on everything working together. And

Expertise Over Ego

when one part of the chain becomes stronger, everybody benefits. Because expertise that man is so much more than ego. Because one of the clearest signs of a strong team is knowing when to lead and when to pass it, right? I mean, think about the sport of basketball. It helps kind of provide an image for us. Because you have a great point guard out there. And the great point guard is not measured by success. We don't define them as being successful by the number of points that they personally score, right? No. Their responsibility is to understand the floor, to recognize where the opportunities exist, and to get the ball into the hands of a person who is in the best position to make the play. And that principle is applying throughout eco. So an account manager doesn't have to personally solve every technical problem. That would be just a massive undertaking. And a specialist at the same time doesn't have to necessarily know every little ins and out details of a customer relationship. And engineering doesn't have to become the expertise in logistics, right? So if we understand this, thinking team, that means knowing your strengths and understanding what they are, and knowing the strengths of the people around you. And sometimes the greatest contribution that you can make is to recognize that someone else is just better equipped to solve the problem. And then what does that require? A lot of humility. Yeah, it's not thinking less of yourself, just thinking of yourself less because that creates healthy teamwork. And there's less concern about who gets the credit and more concerned about whether a customer gets the right result. And the strong organizations out there like Eco are not filled with people trying to prove that they can do everything. They're filled with people trying to understand how their expertise connects with the expertise of others. And when that happens consistently over and over and over again, customers gain access to something so much more powerful than a single salesperson or technician or branch could ever offer. They gain access to the collective knowledge and capability of one eco. And I'm telling you, this is so important. I'm so glad

Pressure Reveals Real Teamwork

that they put we put this as one of our cultural beliefs. And pressure reveals whether we really think team or not, right? It looks, it can look good on a on a you know board or in a discussion, but when we really think about it, teamwork, it's easy to talk about when things are rocking and rolling. You know, things are going well and everything is moving, no friction. But the real test, let's think, let's just be honest, it comes with something that doesn't go as we as we would hope, right? And and and that is something that we need to think about. Like maybe there's a critical shipment that gets delayed, or uh a customer maybe experiences an unexpected shutdown. Or project deadlines, we've seen this happen before, or project deadlines, we thought it was this day, uh-uh, we need it sooner, so it gets bumped forward. And all of a sudden, that creates a lot of just distress on the whole situation, right? Well, maybe there's a technical uh problem that's uh that's showing up and it's raising its head pretty late in the process. And when when someone is overwhelmed and other other departments may be already stretched, then this is where you know all of a sudden the the the friction can occur. And those moments reveal whether think team is essentially just a cultural statement or something we actually believe. So in a highly individual environment, people are just gonna protect their boundaries. They are. They compete, they complete their responsibilities, and then they just back off, right? And and and the the first question is like whose problem is this now? No. But a team first culture, it's a different approach. It really is. Well, wait a minute now. What can I do to help? Now that doesn't mean we're gonna ignore roles or expertise or accountability, no. In fact, strong teamwork does require clear responsibilities. And at the same time, it means understanding that unusual situations may require unusual levels of cooperation. That's it. And across eco, across eco, we we can look sometimes like a salesperson helping operations or product specialists stepping in to help urgent customer situations, right? Or engineering, collaborating across different disciplines, or teams adjusting the schedules and priorities when a customer's operation is on the line. Because some of ECO's strongest moments have occurred, and I've personally witnessed this, when people move beyond their normal boundaries of their roles because the situation required it. And they require us to pull together. And those moments build something deeper than just operational efficiency. I mean, that's important, but what it builds is trust. Trust. You learn who will answer a phone when things get difficult, you learn who's gonna stay engaged when the solution is not obvious. And you learn when the pressure rises that you are not in this pressure cooker by yourself. And that's this teamer if we're talking about at eco, and also this kind of has some ties into some older cultural beliefs that we talked

Disagree Well And Stay Aligned

about. But having the hard conversations, because this doesn't mean thinking team does not mean avoiding disagreement. Okay, let's just clear that up. Because strong teams, we're gonna disagree. Because good people, and we have good people, but good people bring different experiences and expertise and perspectives to the table. And in fact, a healthy disagreement can protect an organization from poor decisions. It can. The difference is how that disagreement is handled. If winning an argument becomes more important than finding the best answer, the teamwork is going to erode. Departments will start defending the territory, right? Building those silos, people will stop listening, decisions become personal, but on the other side. When a team shares a common goal, disagreements can actually become productive. Because someone can challenge an idea without feeling like personally attacking the one presenting it. And when you get to that dynamic, man, things really get fun. Because maybe a specialist can point out a technical risk without fear of like completely just destroying a project, or operations can explain why the solution that they have will create problems downstreams, or finance may as well, they may raise concerns that we may not even have thought about. See, all this stuff is where several of equal of ecos, cultural beliefs start to come together. Because straight talk, we talked about that one before, that allows difficult conversation to happen, right? Then the personal ownership right here starts starts getting people involved in solving the problem, the problem, like it's mud. Then valuing everyone ensures different perspectives are respected. And this think team that we're talking about today brings all those perspectives together around the same table, around the same shared outcome. And culture comes strongest when these beliefs reinforce one another rather than just operating independently. That's really what it's

Celebrate Wins And Make Work Matter

all about. And these shared wins, they create a stronger team. Because there's there's something that we really gets missed in business a lot, but we do a good job of this at Eco, and it's worth sharing because maybe this is an oversight from where you're working or your operations. But there's something powerful when a team celebrates together. I've had so many of these instances at Eco. Some of the most fond memories of the company happened when uh when the team did something pretty cool and we took the time to just just get together and have fellowship. Maybe it's a big order that's been won, or a difficult startup is completed, or emergency gets resolved, and the customer they recognize there's just you guys want to buff beyond. And when that happens, it's usually far more people behind that results than maybe the names visible that are that are getting any recognition. And um, because just think about it, a major project could have months and months of effort across sales and product specialists and product management and purchasing and warehousing and logistics, finance, everything. And someone, you know, may have discovered the initial opportunity, right, which is great. But there takes a lot of people to help turn that opportunity into a successful outcome. And recognizing those contributions that matters. And when people understand how their work connects to a larger mission, routine tasks begin to carry greater meaning. Okay. The employee preparing a shipment is not just moving a product from out of the warehouse into a truck. No, they're helping fulfilling a customer commitment. And the person correcting an invoice is protecting a relationship. Uh, engineering, answering a late question, may help keep the manufacturing line running. And people want to know that what they do matters. And a strong team continually reinforces

Seeing The Real-World Impact

that connection. Yeah, I did this one time at Eco back when we were doing motor repairs. We actually we paused operations for a day in one of our locations. We went to one of the customer locations that we serve, we served a lot of, uh we did a lot of them their motor repair for. It was great. I was I asked the customer, could we bring the team out there? Because I was trying to get them to see how the work that they were doing with their hands, because all they could see typically was their workstation, and then they would see a you know a one broken asset come in and a fixed asset going out the door, and they would see the entire process from there. But that was pretty much it. So what we were able to do is we were we had a field trip, and and I wanted them to make the connection. That was really my hopes of making the connection of how the work that they're doing with their hands and how the work that they're doing inside that shop really makes a big impact in the real world. And it was really neat walking through that plant to see how eyes were lighting up and smiles and laughing were happening and occurring when they saw those assets that they had repaired in operation at the plant, and how that was creating product. And how that product, we got to see within this one customer, they had a map of where all their products went, and it literally was all over the world. So that was a really cool moment where man, yeah, uh I'm working in my station, I'm doing my work in this department, but that work, when I do it correctly, you know, when I do it just for uh what to the best of my ability, it's pretty neat to see how that that impact is is the ripple effects just is massive. Now it's pretty cool. And uh, and again, it's just that seeing that connection with the team was really fun. So

AI Is Coming Teamwork Stays

uh as we move forward as one eco, uh the industrial world that we serve is changing every day. You know, technologies are evolving, you have auto uh artificial intelligence that's just changing the game big time, customer expectations are shifting, right? Markets themselves are are are are starting to to shift as well. And and the solutions that we provide 10 years from now may look very differently than the ones we deliver today. I don't know. But what cannot change, hands down, is the ability of our people to work together. You know, technical expertise will remain important. Operational excellence will has to be at the forefront of what we do. Individual performance. We have to hire the best of the best to serve the best. But none of those things will ever reach their full potential operating independently. And that's where the real strength of the ego comes into play and what what happens when those capabilities really come together. This whole concept of think team means recognizing that someone else, their success does not diminish yours at all. It really means sharing knowledge and not just trying to protect it and asking for help and and not and asking for help instead of struggling, those type of opportunities are going to put us in the best position to lead and serve. And most importantly, it means remembering that the customer does not need the best department in eco. No, they need the best of eco, period. And after 100 years of trying to figure this stuff out, we've we've come a long way. And this is a very important lesson for us to learn. And again, strong individuals can man, we've seen them, they can they can accomplish remarkable things, but enduring organizations, what hundred-year-old organizations, are built by people who understand that they are part of something larger than themselves, and that's what it means to thank team, and that's what it means to operate as Monica. So I really enjoyed sharing this thought around this cultural belief. And again, this is not just a bunch of words that we put down and make our people read through. We genuinely walk this out. And I'm so thankful, you know, 100 years I've been able to meet with some of our the family members of our founders. And the common thread that I keep running into with the conversations that I'm having is just a passion. Just a passion for people, a passion for the solutions we bring to the market, and just for just a uh uh a resolve to do the right thing and to build a team that matters. And look, this company has gone through, think about it, 100 years, it's gone through the Great Depression and different wars. And I mean, there's several things that the company has survived. And now we're on the threshold of this AI development and all the changing technologies. You know what? I think we're in one of the best positions ever because we have a strong leadership team and a strong team across the board that walks out this idea of think team. As long as we keep that central of everything that we do, now there's some bright roads ahead. So hopefully you've enjoyed this one. Really hope you enjoy Eco As Why. I've enjoyed doing these. And we have one more cultural belief. We'll share that with this with you in our next episode. And then again, we have so this has been a just a fun year of just reflecting and sharing stories and talking with people and just celebrating 100 years at Electrical

Share The Show And Closing

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