So Jim asked us to write “a few paragraphs” about the culture here at Garman. You see, Iʼm no wordsmith and my creative writing skills pretty much plateaued soon after my 5th grade book report on some Hardy Boys mystery novel. My initial reaction was that conquering “a few paragraphs” about anything will stretch my limits as a writer. But truth be told, after giving the topic a little thought, I have no intentions of keeping this brief. And Iʼm sorry that Iʼm not sorry.
Well culture is a weird thing. A “culture” seems like it should be able to be defined and labeled as a nice, neat little box of practices or ideologies that exist within a group. That would make sense, I mean “culture” is a noun after all.
But the strange thing is, at Garman the culture (G-culture) is so intangible and innate that itʼs super difficult to try to extract out the soul of the company and put into a neat little box of labels and expect someone to grasp it as it truly exists. But, this is what all those book reports prepared me for, so here goes...
Sometimes, when you want to get the clearest picture of something, to get the “Ah ha!” or “Now I get it!” or “That makes sense!” lightbulb, you have to put it next to something else to see the similarities. An old x-ray next to a new one, a blue paint swatch next to a pink one, a pick-up truck next to a Prius. What youʼre really seeing though, are the differences; What youʼre seeing is contrast. And a lot of times, seeing those differences allows you to discover what you didnʼt know existed and place value on what you believe really matters now that you know it does.
Much like my co-Garmaners (Garmanites? Garmanians? Not sure.), I came here from another home builder. On the surface, that company did the same thing that we do. People ask me all the time “How do you like it over there at Garman?”, How is it different from where you were?”. Aside from small talk, what they think theyʼre asking for is a comparison. But sometimes, what theyʼre really asking is “Is there anything
special over there that I should know about?”
The answer is YES!!!!!!! Yes, you are missing out on something special and hereʼs what qualifies me to say so:
After working elsewhere, it would seem easy to compare companies. But the reality is that all that exists is contrast. And thatʼs great because that contrast highlights how special G-culture really is! The stark differences have allowed me to discover a culture that I never knew existed (or even could exist) and put value into it because I see how much it matters.
Our culture is a culture of belief. When you and the people beside you believe in each other and in what youʼre doing, it releases a flood of core values that canʼt exist with out it. Values like: Caring, Excitement, Creativity, Growth, Encouragement, Humility, Thoughtfulness, Passion, Learning, Service and most of all Genuineness.
As individuals, none of us have ever been around a group of people who are more genuine and true to themselves. The neat part is, none of us has ever been more genuine and true to themselves as individuals than we are here as a group.
That is special.
And our culture saturates and pervades (thanks thesaurus) through our relationships with our customers, vendors, sub-contractors, families, and friends. You donʼt have to “buy in” to it. Our culture promotes belief in us because our culture is about believing.
It breeds an atmosphere where you can say what you never thought youʼd say to others at work:
- I forgot
- I dropped the ball
- You ROCK!!!
- Iʼm sorry
It encourages an environment that allows you to partake in things you never thought you would:
- Build Like a Girl
- Drive a piece of heavy equipment
- Blog
- Write more than a few paragraphs about anything
Most of all, it champions an excitement and passion to
- Serve our customers
- Celebrate each other
- Be better
When a group of people are genuine, and they believe in each other and in the vision of service that the company embraces, you get a mind-blowing culture that creates mind- blowing values that yields mind-blowing results and has mind-blowing potential.
Whew! I did it! I hope that despite my firm grasp on the art of procrastination (this is seriously close to being overdue), coupled with my poor proofreading skills, added with my lack of ability, motivation and experience penning letters, non-fiction, and/or manuscripts of any kind, has not diluted what is truly something special.
If it has, please accept my apologies with an invitation to just simply come around. Allow yourself to get close to the orbit of G-culture and youʼll be sucked in. Believe it.
Brian Russo
Rock Star since April 18, 2011
PS. Editors Note: Brian also sent me this email and an audio file...listen to his G-Rap
JG,I was working on my culture book entry (this is NOT it) and took a shower break and this little nugget rolled off the tongue. Haha, corney but maybe has a place in the Garman Culture Book on tape. LOL
