Stuck? Try WD-40

Today I awoke thinking about WD-40.  That miraculous product in the blue and yellow can that we all have stuffed in the back of some tool box or home repair shelf. I read a profile yesterday about the CEO’s efforts to transform the company by turning it into a culture of learning and experimentation. (Here’s the link for anyone interested in more…)

About ten years ago, WD-40 was a single product company with a cult-like following of mechanics and do-it-yourselfers with sales only in the US.  A small, good company but basically a one trick pony with not much juice left. Today, WD-40 sells more than forty different consumer products in 176 countries.  Its employees are engaged, its stock is at record highs, and everyone wants to know how they did it.

They’ve embraced a culture of learning.  The CEO challenged everyone to become more curious about what was possible for the company, its products and its markets and with that he emphasized the absolute requirement to try and fail, to improvise, and to experiment.  Everyone is expected to ask questions, investigate things they don’t understand, research, and share what they’ve learned.  There’s even a mandatory employee pledge which is basically says (I’m paraphrasing here) “Figure out what you don’t know and share what you do.”  Get unsettled by not knowing, get uncomfortable if you’ve been coasting too long and get into action learning something new.  The CEO closes his emails with the phrase Michelangelo is reported to have used regularly, ancora imparo — Italian for “I am still learning.”  Although I generally frown upon those plithy phrases included on the footer of emails, even I’ll admit that is a pretty good one.

When’s the last time I did something I’ve never done before?  It’s probably been a while.  I go through bursts of creativity around where I go, who I meet and trying new things, but then, inevitably, I fall back into the same routines.  So this week I’m going to challenge myself to do something I’ve never done before every day — meet a new person, go to an interesting event or lecture, listen to new music, explore somewhere new, read something different, just turn life into a classroom overflowing with new things to explore.  Look at the excitement on the faces of these kids in a classroom in Haiti.  I want more of that.

In the meantime, you tell me, “When’s the last time you did something you’ve never done before?”