Thank you Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)

An open letter to all the National and Chapter staff of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).

As our country and industry go through these troubling times, I couldn’t be more thankful for my membership in ABC. Our dues investment has paid off several times over.

Today would have been the day all the national committees would have gotten together in advance of our annual convention. Thinking about not being in Nashville made me think about how thankful I am about being a member of this great association. I think a thank you is in order.

As a small business owner, the only thing I have done during the last two weeks is work on COVID-19 related items. Trying to maintain the ability to provide my coworkers here at Willmar Electric a chance to earn a paycheck, so they can feed their families and pay the mortgage.

I don’t have time to lobby the federal government about the need to make sure the relief bills help the people who need help without putting crippling burdens on my small business. So ABC is helping me out.

I don’t have time to research and back down the impact of every new piece of guideline the various department and agencies are sending out. It is hard for me to know where to go for answers. Thankfully at both the national and chapter levels, ABC is leading the way in giving me advice and links to the place I need to go to get help.

The webinars ABC has almost daily at both the National and State levels are critical. They help me sort out the facts from the fiction I am being bombarded with from moment to moment as I try to move forward.

I belong to several organizations, and they are all trying to stay on top of things, but none are staying as current or getting me new information as well as ABC.

Thank you. I couldn’t do my job without you. You’re helping me continue to provide jobs.
#meritshopproud.

Talking about My Generations

People love to talk about generations. My coworkers at Willmar Electric are no exception.

Baby Boomers vs. Millennials seem to be the hottest divide right now.

The term Baby Boomers wasn't developed because a certain group of people shared a certain way of life, but because from 1944 until 1964, the United States experienced a boom in the number of babies being born. So people don’t debate who is and who isn’t a Baby Boomer.

On the other hand, the makeup of the Millennials generation isn’t as clear. According to the dictionary, the term Millennial means people who reached young adulthood in the early 21st century. But if you look online, you will get several different answers for the boundaries. Most say people born between 1981-1996 are Millennials.

I have a more specific answer. September 25, 1981, until February 20, 1997. Those dates happen to the birthdays of two coworkers. Neither of them like my limits and would prefer I left out of the Millennial generation.

Last week at lunch, we asked the latest guy to join the team, Nick, when he was born. He told us on April 25, 1997. Outside my limits. Then we discussed changing my limits to accommodate our new co-worker. Ultimately, we didn’t because we want to have a symbol for Generation Z.

Then the conversation got fun. The room started to talk about how generational labels aren’t very effective in describing individual people.

I spoke up and said, “it seems 40-year-old people have hated 20-year-old people long before Millennials came along.” The recently turned 40-year-old sitting next to me quickly said: “I don’t hate you, Nick.” We all laughed because, of course, we don’t hate him.

Yesterday it happened again. Another co-worker, Tayrah, refused to tell somebody what year she was born. Even went so far as to say she wasn’t a Millennial, which of course, was a tip-off we had another person who didn’t want to be associated with the label. She quickly pointed out how silly it was to link her to somebody who was 15 years younger than her. She’s right. Why should she be considered the contemporary of somebody born 15 years apart while two people born only two months apart are in different generations?

Silliness. It is all silliness.

At Willmar Electric, we laugh and joke about who’s in what generation, but at the end of the day, our goal is to get to know the individual and treat them as such.

Get Out of My Way

Have you ever had somebody get in your way?

Of course, you have. We all have.

It is very annoying.

I am an impatient person. When somebody is in my way, I tend to want to push or prod them. When I resist the urge to push or prod them out of my way, I don’t wait very long before I find a way around them.

In some very rare cases, I give up and find something else to do. For example, if I want to buy something but the lines at the store are long, I will skip the purchase.

I understand I am less patient than about 95% of the population. But everybody has a breaking point, even at Disneyworld. Depending on the person, especially at Disneyworld.

Lately, I have been noticing the same thing in the business world.

At Willmar Electric, we are in an industry with strict laws regarding licensing. I am not going to bore you with a breakdown of electrical licensing laws. Instead, I am going to relate how, and when we all work together for the advancement of a coworker, it helps everybody at Willmar Electric.

In the electrical contracting business, the first person on a project must be a licensed Journeyperson. After you have a journeyperson on-site, you are allowed to place apprentices with the Journeyperson. After four years in an apprenticeship program, you can take your Journeyperson's exam.

Passing the exam comes with not only a large raise. It allows you to advance to the next level of the trade. Passing the exam also allows one of the other apprentices to move into your role next to the journeyperson. It gives the journeyperson you were working alongside a chance to become a foreperson. The more forepersons a firm has, the more you need to move people into positions like estimating and general superintendent.

One person passing the exam can lead to the need to hire two to three new apprentices. Adding two to three new journeypersons leads to needing to promote a new foreperson. Adding two to three new forepersons leads to needing to promote a new general superintendent.

If apprentices don’t move up the ladder, everybody has something in the way of their advancement.

I love how our industry has this system. The systems give us all incentive to help each other move ahead. One promotion helps the entire team have a chance to advance in their careers. We are all motivated to help each other grow.

It helps with my impatience. There is always somebody I can help pull up rather than push aside.

Meeting Customers' Needs by Being Approachable

Yesterday I got some great feedback from our customer on the Lincoln Christian School remodel project.

The Development Director, Mark Powell, says everybody from Willmar Electric has been great to work with on the project. Mark said Humberto makes a point to say hello every time he sees him.

What is the big deal about saying hello to somebody? It must mean something or our customer would not bring it up. Humberto’s warm greetings stand out, and Mark likes it.

One of our core values is Meeting Customer Needs.

Meeting Customer Needs goes beyond saying hello, of course. We shined well beyond our morning greetings. The completion day for the project is today, and today the school is moving into the new space.

We had a short window to complete the project, and we worked with the general contractor and other trades to meet this need. It is a very satisfying feeling knowing we accomplished this goal while maintaining positive relationships with the customer. Meeting deadlines can become contentious, but we try to stay approachable even under the stress of a hard deadline.

We had dozens of people work on the project. Having a customer tell us every one of them was great to work with this summer drives home an important point. We are trying to have a culture where each individual naturally lives out our core values of:

• Treat others the way you want to be treated
• Merit Shop
• Thrifty
• Meet customer needs

Thank you to everybody involved in the Lincoln Christian School project.

Red Dirt, Twang and Genuine People

I know George Jones is dead. I realize it was reported widely on April 26, 2013, when he died. I remember because I spent the day listening to his songs on Spotify. However, when he did not show up last night, I became 100% convinced. I am now sure of it. Why? Let me explain.

Willmar Electric has an office in Lawton, OK, every summer the crew has a picnic at Bryan Gilland’s house. I had heard about the party and wanted to see why everybody bragged about it. So I bought an airline ticket and headed out.

Let me set the scene.

The temperature reached 103. I have no idea what the heat index was, in fact, at the party, several of us discussed how we thought the whole idea of heat index was a joke. Let us face it 103 is hot. Figuring out how to make it sound even hotter is an unnecessary exercise. According to the weatherman was day two of two weeks of 100 plus temperatures.
Welcome to an Oklahoma August.

The wind was about 20 mph. Earlier in the day, one of the people had commented on how at least it was not windy. Late in the party when the wind “died down” to about 15 mph people noted it was getting calmer!!! Although technically correct I would say, the word calm was the right word to use. They still had heavy objects on the plates and napkins. To keep them from blowing away. (This is a Midwestern tradition; it is not a party until you have chased down a paper plate blowing in the wind.)

The good news was the wind was coming from the south, and the house was on the south side of the gravel road. Speaking of which the directions to the party should have been, take the paved county road without a shoulder six miles until it curves at the county line. Then take a right on to the next gravel road. When you get there swerve to miss the wild boar in the road and take another right at the next gravel road. Then the house is the first house on the left. Please park in the ditch.
The house was not only the ranch style. It was a ranch. Cattle in the back. Very small ranch, only 80 head of cattle. When I owner of the cattle talked to me about working the ranch, he joked. “It’s hard work taking care of the cattle. Until about 9:30 am, and then I wonder what I should do for the rest of the day.” (Please insert rim shot.)

I am going to waste some of your time by letting you know we had a BBQ. Cooked by our host. If I need to know what the side dishes were, I do not know if we can be friends. (Baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, and peach cobbler).

Over the speakers, they played country music. I mean real country music, David Allen Coe and Chris Stapleton country, not Oliva Newton-John and Luke Bryan.
There was red dirt as far as you can see. Red like Reba’s hair. Dry red dirt. Each step of Drew Janz’s cowboy boots sent a plume of powder into the air. I made a lot of fun of Drew for being an “old man” and wearing jeans and boots to pool party, but part of me wishes I had done the same. Half the party dressed like Drew and, to be honest, they fit the scene; the other half dressed in shorts like me and fit the weather. Drew’s wife said, “He only wears shorts when we camp.” No, wonder he likes to go camping.

Forget George Jones I should have been expecting Henry Fonda’s Tom Joad from Grapes of Wrath to show up.

By now, you must be wondering what my point is. What is the big deal about the scene you are setting?

I will explain it.

I would say everything about the party was similar to a scene out of a Hollywood motion picture except Hollywood would not understand or be able to recreate this scene.

I like genuine people. My biggest turn off is phony people. Hate is a strong word, but it is safe to say I hate pretentious people. I cannot stand phoniness or pretention.

I struggle when I am around them.

I work at a company whose purpose statement is “People Making a Difference for People.” I had spent the prior two days going around one by one shaking the hands of each of my Oklahoma coworkers. Nearly every one of them had told me the thing they love most about their job is the people. The people they work with, the people they work around.

As the partygoers sat in the chairs, they brought with them to the party and talked or played yard games they put on no pretensions. They enjoyed each other for being each other, no small talk needed because these people genuinely cared for each other.

The food was fantastic. The music was awesome. The weather was predictable. But it was the people who made the difference.

As the party ended, Mike Frakes asked if I was going to say something. I told Mike I was not. He seemed surprised. I did not give him a reason, but I will let you in on a secret. I had two reasons. Either I would have wrecked the moment by talking, or I would have started to cry in public. Neither is a good idea. Therefore, I stayed quiet, enjoyed the moment, and drove away a happy man.

I hope I am not giving you the impression I think I am some country guy. I am a city slicker through and through. I own and wear cowboy boots because they are comfortable. I listen to classic country music because it reminds me of visiting my grandparents on their farm, and I miss my grandparents. I am more comfortable downtown or at a sporting event full of people. This event’s greatness was not a matter of meeting my preferred style. This party’s greatness was the people who put it on and the people who came to enjoy each other.

If they have another party at Bryan’s, I will encourage more people around the company to join me.

Planning Leads to Organization

I recently lived out an example of why being organized matters.

Over the winter my wife, Sue and I decided we wanted to take a short trip this summer to one of our favorite places to visit, Kansas City. We have been there numerous times and decided to have Sue’s parents, Chuck and Karen Stern, join us. We thought they would enjoy many of the places we wanted to visit.

So like most things in our lives, Sue and I started by making a plan. The first step to having a good plan is to have a purpose.

So, we made a list of things we wanted to do. The reason I wanted to go on the trip was to see the National World War I museum, and for Sue, it was to revisit the Hallmark Headquarters, which is also a museum but of love and thoughtfulness. We also wanted to eat at Sue’s favorite place, The Plaza III, and stay at the Raphael Hotel on the Plaza. Because we were taking Sue’s parents, we added Union Station, Model Train Display, the Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and a barbeque joint. I also wanted to see the Negro League Hall of Fame potentially, and Sue was curious about the Arabia Steamboat Museum. We also were willing to go to the American Jazz Museum if Chuck and Karen wanted to check it out.

(Secret is Sue’s parents are good musicians who often still get out their saxophone and clarinet. In fact, at 76, Sue’s dad is adding saxophone to his list of talents. Why not, as we found out this weekend at Hallmark Grandma Moses started her 23-year painting career at 78.)

Next, we found out all the hours of operation and locations for each place and came up with a plan of action. Hallmark had to be done on the first day because it was not open on Sundays.

Now we had a plan — time for the trip.

Our first stop would be going to a BBQ joint, knowing this was what Chuck was most looking forward to we needed to get this right. If you been to Kansas City, you know, it is easy to find a great place to get Barbeque. We went with Jack Stack’s Freight House location because it was near Union Stations. (If you prefer Gates, Arthur Bryant’s, or Oklahoma Joes, please forgive us, but Jacks is good, and the location was perfect). Chuck loved it.

Then Union Station, the model trains and Hallmark. They are all very close to each other. However, things were going so smoothly we had extra time. But because we had a plan, we could quickly decide we had time to go to the Truman Library!!! Again, everybody loved it.

We found out where we originally wanted to have dinner had moved so despite having reservations we changed course and found another place to eat on the plaza. Again, a very easy task. We had made it easier because we had a plan.

Before we went to bed, we reviewed our plan for the next day mentally. Breakfast at Gram and Dun then the WWI Museum. If the Museum wasn’t as great as people said it was, we would be done early and could hit some of the other “maybes” on our list.

The WWI Museum was awesome if you are into history and haven’t been to it, you need to schedule a trip. We didn’t get done early. All the things on the maybe list would need to wait for another trip.

It didn’t go as planned, but because we had a plan, the trip was a success. We met our purpose and hit all of our goals. It was completely stress-free.

The example above is personal, but it reinforces why Willmar Electric has Organized as part of our brand promise.

(If the Kansas City tourism board needs a spokesperson, Karen Stern is the gal for you.)

Elmo and Frank Chapin, Millennials at Heart? Doubtful.

I get frequently told how today’s young people are concerned with sustainability and using our natural resources wisely. I hear people tell me all the time about how millennials want to know; their employers are socially conscious and not wasteful.
Good. Glad young people are concerned. However, hopefully, they don’t think they invited the idea.

I’m fifty. During my fifty years, the two people who did the most to conserve precious resources are my Grandpa, Elmo Chapin, and my Great Uncle, Frank Chapin. They would be in their mid to late nineties if they were still alive today. The only influence either had on today’s young people is they raised nine people, mostly baby boomers, who became the grandparents to several dozen millennials.

Elmo and Frank ran a company, Willmar Electric, with the core value of Thrifty. By thrifty I, the textbook definition of “using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully.” I’m not talking about being cheap.

My Grandpa and Great Uncle also looked out for the environment in direct ways. They picked up trash when they saw it on the ground. They shut off the lights when they left the room. They walked when possible.
The best example of thrifty at Willmar Electric throughout our history is Pillsbury paper. This movement was brought on by my father, John.

The Pillsbury Company was a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought out by General Mills in 2001. My dad got us access to large amounts of paper Pillsbury was getting rid of because the promotions they were using the paper was for had run their course. To them, the paper was waste. To us, because the back side of the paper was still blank, it was only half used.

We stocked our copiers and fax machines with this still usable resource. All internal documents got put on the back side “Pillsbury” paper from the late 70s into this millennium. Our stock of paper outlasted Pillsbury itself!

In 2019 being Thrifty means sending tools, we no longer need but are in good working condition to mission organizations who can put to the tools to use serving a high calling.

What does all this mean in the big picture? It means I don’t like having people telling me the world is going to end if we don’t force everybody to change their behaviors.

Two quotes I think make this point well.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
― Rumi

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy

Elmo and Frank Chapin lived a life devoted to using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully. On a personal level, they raised their children to do the same, and those children raised a couple dozen or so grandchildren to do likewise. Then we took it to the next level with dozens more. I’m sure my children’s generation will do the same regardless of what others are doing, not because of peer pressure but because it is the right thing to do. On a professional level, the same generational movement happened within Willmar Electric because My Grandpa and Great Uncle lead by example and it’s making a big impact.

So let’s start with ourselves and see where it leads.