From Start-Up to Grown-Up: Mike Michalowicz — Fostering Self-Achievement Within a Company

How do you really solidify for people the business impact of doing this touchy-feely stuff?

One of my favorite stories is Jancoa. So Jancoa is a janitorial firm in, I think it's the Chicago area. I interviewed Mary Miller, the co-founder. I said, I said, tell me about the company. She goes, I'll tell you this, Mike. She goes, no one's ever had the dream of being a janitor one day. She goes, but everyone has a dream. So they started a program called Dream Manager. There's an excellent book by Matthew Kelly called Dream Manager. It's a must read on this space. And she goes, but so they do this similar program of align, vision alignment, collective visioning and so forth. The turnover has dropped serpenti— serpentially. I mean, uh, extraordinary exponentially. That's the word I'm looking for. It's dropped exponentially. You know, in the janitorial space, holding someone for 6 months to a year is an extraordinary, and they have people for 2 or 3 years on average, and they have people there, um, that have been generational. I interviewed one, uh, janitor whose son worked there and now his grandson works there because they love the company so much. The same janitor bought his first house because the company made it. He said, this is my mission. Now here's what's also interesting that Mary Miller told me. She says, if you grant someone's wish, it's, it's a form of entitlement. It's a gift. It's like, here you go. And there's, there's excitement in the moment. But there's no sense of accomplishment when we achieve it ourselves. There's a, there's a pride. There's a, there's, there's a power that we have seen ourselves. We can accomplish so much more when we do it. When he bought this house, he's like, what else am I possible? What else can I achieve?