I think it's tragic. I don't believe in work life balance, we hear believe in work life harmony. And that sort of is in alignment with the story or the message in the book about not expecting people to cut off their nerve endings at the office door, which makes me giggle. But it's so true. And I think that when people are doing meaningful work that they enjoy...I think it was Watson Wyatt's report on trust. And what we're talking about here, maximizes productivity, creativity, and delivers a 42% higher shareholder return in an environment that fosters trust in servant leadership.

Garry Ridge

Absolutely true. You know, and I don't have a job, I have a purpose. You know, I'm the luckiest guy in the world, I have the best job in the world. I wake up every morning, to help people create positive, lasting memories. The most exciting part of that is finding all the different ways to do it. And people often say, "you're busy" I say "I'm not busy, I have an abundance of worthwhile work." So, that's the way I look at it, you know, I have a purpose and I have an abundance of worthwhile work and if the work is not worthwhile, I won't do it. You know, I had the opportunity over the COVID period to be involved in some of the daily question sessions with Marshall Goldsmith. And Marshall has these questions—Did I do my best to... and it's not 'Did I do my best' but did I do my best to...? So in other words, was the effort there and one of them is 'Did I do my best to find meaning today?' And interestingly enough, what kept coming into my head is what is meaningful? What is meaningful. And I actually wrote a definition for myself...which is results of what I am doing matters to me and helps others. And if I put things through that lens, then they're meaningful, and then I'll do it. Now, the reason we're chatting today, not only did we meet each other many years ago, and I really admire the work that you do, you asked me to be here. So yeah, I'll be happy to chat. Because this is meaningful work, if we can share with leaders, how they can change people's lives, by just changing the way they lead, you know, and happy people create happy families, happy families create happy communities, happy communities created a happy world, and we need a happy world. And as leaders, we have the opportunity to do that.

Maureen Farmer

In your book, you say people are social beings and have a need to belong and be accepted by people important to them. And that's the tribe versus the team concept. And that resonates with me very, very deeply. Because as children, it's a fundamental  human need to be appreciated and to be accepted by people who are important to you. And it goes kind of back to the family unit, doesn't it? Whatever that looks like for you.

Garry Ridge

Absolutely. And, you know, during the COVID roller coaster, you know, it became very clear to us that our tribal promise, which is a group of people that come together to protect and feed each other, really, really was a motivator. And if you think about a family, what is a family, a group of people that come together to protect and feed each other, and they love each other. And, you know, I don't know what it would have been like...well, I'm glad I don't know what it would have been like, is what I should say, to try and lead an organization through the COVID roller coaster, with a very low engagement, and with a lot of toxic culture. In it, I think that must have been so so tough. It was challenging enough, having a culture where we have 93% employee engagement, and where 98% of the people say they love to tell people they work, but it was still challenging. But my goodness, you know, we got through it. And interestingly enough, we measure employee engagement on a regular basis, we've been doing that since 2000. And in the middle of COVID, our last kind of official measurement was in March, just before COVID hit, and the scores were as high as they had ever been...there are always areas for opportunity, for improvement, of course, but halfway through the next January, I said you know, we need to go and, and just do a check in to make sure we're not losing, you know, cultural equity, make sure our tribal equity is not not draining out, you know, are we still connecting, as well as we can be in all these things we had to learn. And when we did the check in survey, the results were as good as, and there was a couple that were better. And one that blew me away, was 98% of our tribe globally said they're excited about the company's future. It went up four percentage points. And, and I went Wow, here we are in the middle of the most uncertain times that we will ever probably hopefully get to see, and our tribe is more excited about the future than before. So, I'm asking why, hmm. And the reason being...if we can get through this, we can get through anything.

Maureen Farmer

Well, that's remarkable. And how often do you do the employee engagement survey? I'm sorry, I missed that.

Garry Ridge

We do every two years. We used to do it every year, up until a few years ago, and you know, when our numbers, when we get up in the 90% mark, it takes a little longer to move from 92% to 94%, than it did to move from 70% to 90%. So, we said let's widen the gap to give us more opportunity to be able to move the needle.

Maureen Farmer

That makes sense. I know a lot of people are very curious about (including me)...really curious about your internal journey at the WD-40 company, as you moved along to assume the role as CEO and then later as chairman of the board. So, I'm curious whether you knew when you started with WD-40 company, if it was your plan to go on and lead the company or how did that work for you? Did you have a mentor inside the organization that helped you? I'd love to know a little bit about that.

Garry Ridge

Never, ever, ever, you know if you would have asked me in 1987 when I was given the opportunity in Australia, which is where I started...when I added the Australian subsidiary of WD 40, with a fax machine under my bed I might add...if you said, Hey, one day, you're going to move to the United States, and you're going to be CEO of this global publicly listed company, I would have said, there is no way that I'm going to do that. I was very happy. You know, I was, I had a great life in Australia, a couple of young kids, you know, I have a very strong family and network of friends. And here, I was managing director of WD-40 company Australia, looking after the Australian and the Asian market, and that was a bunch of fun, you know, we were building the business. Everything's great. And then one day, you know, seven years later, in a call with the then president of WD-40, in the US, who was my boss, in a conversation, he says, you know, would you like to move to the United States? And I said, to do what? And he said, well, you know, we really believe that the brand has huge opportunities outside of the United States. You know, you've done, we've done great stuff in Australia, starting to build it in some of the Asian countries. There's opportunities all around the world, we haven't really focused on it as we should, why don't you come over here and help us lead our global international expansion? All right, well, that's kind of interesting. And I said, Okay. So we, you know, we did this big pivot, we disrupted ourselves, which I really, you know, on reflection, I find it really interesting, Whitney Johnson, you know, who wrote a book about the S curve of disrupting yourself, and how if you disrupt yourself, big opportunities open. Well, looking back, that was a huge disruption, you know, I can still remember my mom who was alive at that time, saying to me, you're taking my two grandchildren to the United States...

Maureen Farmer

Oh no! Yes, I can imagine!

Garry Ridge

What do you think you were doing? And my mates saying to me, are you crazy...maybe I am, but I'm going to give it a shot. So, I moved here. And three years later, he retired and they asked me if I would like to lead the company. And I thought, why? Why would this Board want an Aussie who's never been to Wall Street to lead a US Corporation? And I guess the reason was that I had a dream. And the dream was to take the blue and yellow can the rest of the world. And back then we were about $100 million in revenue and 80% of our business was in the United States. Today, were up in the high $400 million worth of revenue, and 70% of our business is outside the United States. So, but when I got the opportunity to lead, it became very clear to me that I was incompetent, I couldn't do it. So I had to find a way. And that's why I went back to school. And I really, really understood the power of getting people engaged in what they do. I learned the three most powerful words I've ever learned in my life. And they are "I don't know", and I got really comfortable with them. And the rest is kind of the journey.

Maureen Farmer

I remember not that long ago, I heard a podcast that you were on...Capital Association? I can't remember the exact name, but you were talking about how you were in a board room one time, and there was a consultant giving a presentation. And, you know, you were looking around the room and you didn't know what the person was talking about. And you had the courage to speak up and say so. And I think that that was just such a simple thing to do, but kind of risky.

Garry Ridge

Yeah, I can sill clearly remember. Yeah, I hadn't been here that long and this person was giving a presentation and I remember thinking I had no clue what this person is talking about. And looking around the room, I could see distraction in people's eyes. So I don't think they knew either. So I just put up my hand, I said excuse me, not long in this country but I have no clue what you're talking about. And everybody in the room went "ahhhhhhh" because they didn't know either.  That was a really interesting moment for me. I don't care if people think I'm stupid, but I prefer, they think I'm stupid, then to waste my time not understanding something. So I got really comfortable with, you know, I don't know. And that's okay. I mean, I don't know how to fly an aeroplane. That's okay.

Maureen Farmer

That's pure confidence Garry. I mean, to be able to sit in front of a group of peers and, you know, make that exclamation. I think that's such a powerful voice of confidence. Really.

Garry Ridge

Yeah, it was good. Yeah.

Maureen Farmer

So I have a question for you around the program that you took at the University of San Diego. How did you come to that decision to take that program? It looks like a fascinating program. I've read a lot about Ken Blanchard in his his programs. And I'm just curious out of all of the programs that are available in the market today, what made you decide to take that one?

Garry Ridge

I looked around and and in fact, the the program that I took, it was its first year, and I read something that was written about it. I was actually hoping for an MBA. And Ken said, most MBAs get people in their head. We want to get people in the heart as well. Then I read some more about it. And this program...it has the core elements of the MBA unit. So you know, you do a class, or a couple of classes on accounting and finance, and statistics and marketing, etc, most of which I've been exposed to. But then the other half of the program is all about leadership. You know, the first week you spend with two of the most wonderful people in the world, Tracy Gaby, and Susan Fowler. It's really about understanding who you are. Because if you don't know who you are, you can't lead others. And then there are other classes around team leadership. And in fact, in the book that I wrote with Ken, I share my leadership point of view, which was an outcome, a deliverable of the class that I did in that area. So as you said, I now teach. I've been teaching a class in that program now for I think 15 years. And the company (WD-40) have sponsored 34 people through that program. So we have probably, for those that haven't retired, we probably have 30 people now in the company that have master's degrees in leadership from that program.

Maureen Farmer

Excellent. That's fantastic.

So the principles that you talk about in the book...I'm curious about how you...I know how you measure your employees, because I've read the book several times, and I use a lot of the principles in it, which is fantastic for anyone listening, it's a really, really great performance measurement tool that's done in a very, very humanistic way, which I absolutely love. When you consider things like companies outside your organization, the supply chain, for example, do also measure your decision to work with them based on those principles?

Garry Ridge

Well, we certainly have them embedded in the review we do we, we talk to everybody about our values. And if you were to go on our career site, and look at the career items we have, the first thing that shows up are our values. And it basically says if these don't align with you don't call us. Because you won't be happy here. So you know, we use our values to make every decision we make. A beautiful example of that is we've just put together a philosophy called "work from where" as we were going through COVID, and everyone's talking about wanting to work from home. We said that people don't work from home, they work from somewhere. It could be a hotel room, an aeroplane, could be sitting on the beach, could be anywhere. So let's not put up work from home policy together—policy meaning, you know, I'm going to go back up to my boss and ask you, is it okay and will you judge me that I can work from home? Why don't we put a philosophy together that uses our values to help our tribe members make their own decisions around where they want to work. I have an example of this actually working the other day, the second value we have in the company is we value creating positive, lasting memories and all of our relationships that would be with our tribe members, with our customers, with our users, and even with our competitors. So, someone the other day was kind of deliberating on whether they should attend a meeting or not. And I said, well, you know, look at our work from where philosophy, second value, creating positive lasting memories, do you believe that you will be able to create the positive lasting memory you want to create? If you are not in person at that meeting? I said, you made your decision. On the other side of that, you know, one of our values is we value sustaining the WD-40 economy. So, someone gets an invite to attend a marketing symposium in Spain. And we said to them, well, you know, if you go in person, it's going to be $25,000. If you attended virtually, it's going to be $1,000. And you're going to gain five days of your life. Do you think you would get the same benefit out of it going virtually? And will it sustain the WD-40 economy? They say no, I think I can get exactly what I want out of it by just going virtually. So there you go. You made your own decision. If they wanted to make the other one. That's okay, too. I mean, it's up to you.

Maureen Farmer

Right. So you're really living those values and everything that you do. It's the filter for everything that you do...that is so brilliant. There's another quote here, where is it? Only 10% of companies globally, have clearly written values published. 

Garry Ridge

Yeah, I guess. Well, and, in fact, a lot that do, unfortunately, have them framed and hanging in their lobby. And that's about as much influence as they have.

Maureen Farmer

So walk me through a day in the WD-40 organization. When you're having a management meeting, do you start with your values when you have these meetings? Or how do you incorporate or integrate those in your daily meetings and things like that?

Garry Ridge

Well, we don't have to start with them, because they're always there. But it would not be unusual for them to be referred to in many occasions during those meetings or those conversations, you know, particularly the number one value—just doing the right thing. We would say 'are we doing the right thing?'

Maureen Farmer

Right, right. So if you come up with a problem, for example, and you're deliberating over a decision that you need to make, you can use the values as a decision making tool.

Garry Ridge

I say that anybody in the company can make any decision they want, anywhere, anytime, as long as they use our values as the guiding star. That's all we ask them to do is use our values as your decision making tool, if you will.

Maureen Farmer

That's wonderful. I have a story to tell you.

Garry Ridge

Go ahead. I love stories. 

Maureen Farmer

In March 2019, I got to meet you in person in San Diego. And I remember that very clearly. And I wanted to let you know that the business that I had back then was called something different. And as a result of my visit to you, I changed the name and rebranded our company. It's called Westgate. You know why it's called Westgate?

Garry Ridge

Why?

Maureen Farmer

Because that's the name of the hotel that you recommended.

Garry Ridge

Oh, really?

Maureen Farmer

Yeah, because I was there for a conference. And the reason is that at that moment, at that time, I was there for a career management, career leadership conference. And I was really struggling about you know, about the business and where I was going to take it and how we were going to be sustainable. And then...I say we, it was only me at the time, and now I have a small team...but it occurred to me sitting in the Westgate hotel with a colleague of mine, that we needed to rebrand. And we had been told that by a number of organizations and people, including my husband, we needed to rebrand and we did and we went through this process and came up with Westgate. And so that's how we rebranded and why.

Garry Ridge

Isn't that interesting...you know, you mentioned earlier on the lady that I used to deliver papers to. And it's amazing how your mind works because as soon as you mentioned her, I could see the white gate that was on her fence. And I could see in my mind, her porch that I used to walk up to, to deliver her paper to. And it was, it was a really little special moment. Thank you for reminding me of that again. You know, the dry cleaner, Jack, that I worked for, Mr Lambert, the sports store, or Knox who had the hardware store...I didn't realize that then they were so giving because they were helping me, you know, understand and learn. One of the things I think I talked about it in the book is Mr. Lambert, who owns a sports store.

The sports store, he used to repair tennis rackets. And in those days, you know, you would, he would use like a nylon string and pull it through the racket. And he'd have to put a stopper in to hold it and he'd pull it real tight. And I can still remember the calluses on his fingers from doing that. And I remember one day, I walked out to the back room of the sports store, where he used to do the repair work. And he was really working hard on this tennis racket. And I said to him, "Mr. Lambert, is that your tennis racket?" And he said, "No". I said, "so why are you working so hard on?" And he said, "well, because someone is depending on me." And I said, "What do you mean?" And he said, "Well, this tennis racket belongs to so and so. And they're playing in a very, very important match tomorrow. And if I don't do my best to help them win their game, then I haven't really served them well." And in fact, he was stringing the racket for one of Australia's top tennis players. And I have never forgotten that. In my learning from just that one interaction with Mr. Lambert was, you know, we have to help people, it's not about his hands and the calluses, it's about, you know, he's doing that because without his help, this person maybe will not win tomorrow.

Maureen Farmer

And that's pure service. That's pure servant leadership, pure service to to another person. It's a very, very touching story, for sure. So Garry, it's been such a pleasure having you here on the podcast, I have a last question. What has surprised you most, so far in your career?

Garry Ridge

I don't know if it surprised me, what's become clear to me is, the more you serve others, the more you appreciate what you do. And, you know, way back in the beginning of my career, you know, it's kind of like be brief, be bright, be gone. But you know, as I've learned over time when empathy eats ego, instead of ego eating empathy, you really get to enjoy life.

Maureen Farmer

In the book, I think it was in the book you mentioned about, I forget how you put it, but rather than doing more, just being more like, for example, spending time with people, rather than just doing busy work to get things done. I don't know if I articulated that correctly. But it was a message I took from the book.

Garry Ridge

Yeah, I guess we call it "dwell time these days." The first question, you know, in any coaching interaction should be what's on your mind, and one of your, an Ozzy that actually lives in Canada, Michael Bungay Stanier wrote a great book called The Coaching Habit. And his first question is, what's on your mind? And the second question is, and what else? It's amazing how far that conversation goes. It's a great book on coaching if any of your listeners want seven simple questions on how to be a great one on one coach, Michael Bungay Stanier book, The Coaching Habit is the best. 

Maureen

Coaching Habit...I'll make note of that...I've not read it but I love "and what else"—that opens up so much for exploration. I said that I had one more question, but I do have a final question. So, the next time our listener or me or anyone else is in San Diego, can you recommend maybe a favorite restaurant or group of restaurants or a highlight of visiting your wonderful city?

Garry Ridge

Wow, that's a big question. Yeah. The first thing that came into my mind is—it all depends what sort of food, but you know I love the Little Italy area in San Diego on India street. There are a whole bunch of great restaurants from Italian to Mexican to steak houses in that street in Little Italy. So, that's probably one of my favorite places.

Maureen Farmer

Fantastic, San Diego is such a beautiful, beautiful city. I enjoyed my time there for sure. Hope to get back there again before too long!

Well, Garry, it was such a pleasure, your a class acrt and thank you for being on the podcast.

Garry Ridge

My absolute delight. Let's make a difference in the world. Life is a gift, don't send it back unwrapped.

Maureen Farmer

Love it. Thank you, Garry.