I love how our stores all embody the same Core Values, leading to a general culture of empowerment, fun, creativity and friendship; yet each store has its own style, its own take on that culture and how it embodies the Core Values. Each store team uses that empowerment to do their own thing, to better the experience for themselves and for our customers, in their own way. If you work in a place with intentional culture, then this may still seem remarkable, but also understandable and even commonplace. However, if you have had experience with unintentional, unempowering or even negative company culture this might just blow your mind: The Willow Glen team decided to run this contest all on their own. It's not something the corporate team or the owner said to do. It's not something any of the other stores are doing. It's not something ACE suggested doing.
It's just a great idea that Willow Glen came up with on their own and implemented. They made a raffle jar out of an old paint can (Innovation!), showcased some of our chalk paint, wrote our core values on the can and put it out there.
The thing that makes my heart sing about this is that at Hassett Hardware we know we have an entire company full of innovators and makers, and we act like it. I don't know the whole story behind how this particular great idea came into being, but my educated guess is that someone said to the store manager, "Hey, I think this would work," and the store manager probably said, "Great, let's try it." It's completely possible (and not unusual) that the person who thought of it may have just gone ahead and done it.
We believe in each other and everybody knows it. What's the best thing that could happen? They try it. What's the worst thing that could happen? They try it. The best and worst are one in the same, because someone took an idea they had and implemented it. They experimented. They trusted themselves and the process and the fact that their idea was totally in line with the core values. Whether it works or not, is secondary. When the core values are used as the cornerstones for how we all act, we are each our own boss, navigating by a compass that always points in the right direction.
