Best Workplaces

Last night was the gala dinner for BC's Best Companies to work for.

It was our first year entering our company and we were excited to see where we stood against some of the

past winners like Nurse Next Door and HootSuite. The process actually starts in May with in depth executive interviews and surveys of the company employees and culture.

The entries are verified and graded for best practices and the highest scores are announced at the gala.

For a first try we did great I thought - Placing 4th overall in our category and 2nd specifically on culture.

Next year we'll shoot for #1.

Cheers,

Calvin

Filling an invisible bucket

Today when I asked my 6 year old boy how his day was, he told me he had filled 2 peoples "buckets."

I wasn't sure what he was talking about so I asked him to explain and he blew me away with his answer.

He said he thinks people have an invisible bucket filled with "good stuff" and sometimes when a persons bucket gets low he likes to help people fill theirs back up.

I had never head him talk about this before and it wasn't something we taught him. It was just the way he saw the world and other people and it made my heart melt.

I asked him how he filled other peoples buckets and he said with hugs or helping people pick up things they dropped. He is such an inspiration and our family will definitely use the "bucket" idea to make sure everyone we come in contact with is topped up.

Such a simple and yet impactful idea of how to spread a little happiness in the world. Sometimes letting ourselves think more like a child creates the best ideas.

Cheers

Calvin

Sailing Away

Shawn Nabil and I are flying home today after being on an executive team building retreat for the past 2 weeks in the British Virgin Islands. Although entirely my idea, the guys jumped at the chance to build on our strong management team camaraderie and exercise our core values of living a remarkable life.

I know it will be hard for people to believe we could actually do any work in this environment, but it really is an amazing experience to live in close quarters and manage all the duties and responsibilities of cooking, planning and sailing a large boat together. Tasks like anchoring or pulling the sails takes team work and we couldn't help but come out of the experience as a well oiled management machine, relaxed, in sync, and raring to blast off when we get back.

I would love to take other staff on similar team building adventures in the future. Nabil and I have contacts in Africa who drill water wells and build schools and are looking into December 2013 as a possible trip date for 4-6 staff or possibly customers too. Anyone interested in expanding their remarkable life experiences??

Cheers

Calvin