Summer Staff Fun!

As our company grows and we add more staff, it's important to allow us all time to connect and build relationships with each other outside the daily work. My role as Chief Energizing Officer is something I'm enjoying more and more, now that we have a very capable senior management team in place.

A few of my favorite times with staff this summer has been "Boating Fridays". The long hot August evenings allowed us time to boat up Indian Arm with a handful of staff. Once we stopped in Deep Cove for Sushi and a free open air Jazz Fest.

I am so happy to see how staff from all departments and ages have bonded. It makes work fun when you are creating a business with friends.

Cheers,

Calvin

Todd's The Man

Culture is everything at Costless Express. We strive to build relationships across all staff and departments but that can be a very difficult thing to actually achieve.

We have several departments from sales to drivers and warehouse night shifts. So it was awesome to see Todd our call center manager receive this note from Malcolm one of our night order processors. They only see each other a few times a year at company parties yet the bond is there.

 It really goes back to the book Tribal Leadership and the mantra "It's all about WE." Something everyone at Costless Express understands.

Cheers
Calvin

Hell Yeah or No

I subscribe to over 200 blogs and news letters, thinking till now "I need to be in touch with what's happening".

Today I read an article by Derek Sivers, or actually it was a short animated video called Hell Ya - or NO!

It really got me thinking about how I plan my day and my projects. People would say I am always leaning way out into the future and starting the first 10% of projects. Some are fantastic, like our new website build, being the first carbon neutral office supply company in Canada or the ecoYIKE, while other projects were just a bit trivial and didn't really get me jazzed. And most important, if there is nobody behind me to carry to project forward, it can just die.

Sometimes it's best to say no and make room for the "Hell Ya, I love it!" projects.

Have a look at some of Derek's videos: Hell Ya is #92. I also really like A Real Person - A Lot Like You (#93)

Cheers

Calvin

Does all your STUFF really make you happy?

I have been a long time fan of Annie Leonard and The Story of STUFF Project.

Annie has spent nearly two decades investigating and organizing on environmental health and justice issues. She has traveled to 40 countries, visiting literally hundreds of factories where our stuff is made and dumps where our stuff is dumped. Witnessing first hand the horrendous impacts of both over- and under- consumption around the world, Annie is fiercely dedicated to reclaiming and transforming our industrial and economic systems so they serve, rather than undermine, ecological sustainability and social equity.

Watch this video  and give some thought to her claims facts and data. It really made me think about all the stuff (most of it crap - I call it) that I purchase each year. Where is it a year later? Annie is right, most of it is in the trash. From this point forward I have made a new policy (first of many I hope) that if I do need to purchase hard goods like a stapler or a shovel - I will purchase the best quality I can find. Yes, it will cost more, BUT it will last many many years, I hope, instead of choosing the cheap "toss away" version.

At Costless we sell staplers for $5.00 and ones for $40.00, and I can tell you the $5.00 staplers are made to throw away. Investing is the word to think of when spending $40.00 on a stapler. Investing in quality, useability and the environment.

Have a look at the video and make your own judgements.  

Cheers,

Calvin