Every month, Seth Anderson (Weifield’s CEO) pens a new ‘CEO Connection’ column for our company’s monthly newsletter, WiredIn — each addressing a different relevant issue that Seth wishes to expand on for the month.
We are excited to post the second of Seth’s 2019 columns, here, for February, 2019 — on the topic of adapting to our growth.
AS WE GROW
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin
I remember when I was first starting out, coming from a small town in Minnesota meant that I didn’t have a lot to worry about as far as ‘stuff’ goes. So, when I went off to college, I really only had my clothes. As I kept growing as a person I discovered I needed more things. Along the way I added a computer, a few tools to work on my car, an air compressor, and so on. Each time I grew, I had to adjust the things around me — like my living space, new furniture, or the addition of a garage.
Now I have all kinds of stuff and find myself replacing, changing, or adding things to keep up with my growing family. When I added kids I needed a bigger house, when I added an extra vehicle I needed a bigger garage, when I found out that things break around the house, I added new tools. I think you get the picture…if we are growing, we find ourselves needing to adjust and change. Things that work when our families were smaller and younger might not work as well, now.
As a company, we have experienced some fantastic growth — from starting out in Pete’s basement to moving to the cubicles, then finally moving into our first official office space. Next, we had to add the warehouse space. When we outgrew our first warehouse we bought our first buildings, which had a bigger office and warehouse. Finally, after moving around enough, we decided the next building we bought would need enough space to expand into, so we bought something for our future growth.
As a company, we are constantly looking at ways to continually get better while adding new opportunities for people to grow. We found when establishing the 2019 goals (which include — 1) Show Up, 2) Divide and Conquer, and 3) Stay Together, that we may need to adjust and change our structure in order to truly have an impact on making these goals happen and provide the ‘bones’ to help our company to grow. In 2018, we accomplished many items we had on the 1000-day plan, but we fell short on moving the bar on some of the goals. After discussing the missed goals as a strategic planning group, in the Council meetings, and finally in the Board of Advisor group, we decided we need some outside help to make sure we are set up for our future as a company. With People being our top value, we want to make sure that Weifield avoids some of the pitfalls other contractors have hit when they grow or expand.
According to bestselling author on change in the workplace, Bob Miglani, one of the best things we can do when we face times of change is to accept it. Bob says: “Change is not something that happens to us. Change is something that is happening all the time. We see change happening all around us but often fail to notice it because we are wrapped in the day to day. By learning to ACCEPT that change as a natural law of life, we can begin to adapt more quickly as it creeps into our workplace. Acceptance gives our mind certainty that we often crave during times of turbulence.”
Over the coming months we are looking to add positions, hire a group to take a scrub through our structure, look at all our functions and make sure we strengthen any of our weak areas. Sometimes when building such a great team of people, it is hard to see the things that we may need to improve. We are excited as a team to have this opportunity to continually strength the core group and set ourselves up to living our mission statement, which is to continually grow our relationship, people, and processes in our to impact our industry and community.
We could not be in this spot if it wasn’t for all you wonderful people. Go forth and be fruitful and multiply! Thank you and God Bless!
