Lessons From The Best: Leading Change - W.L. Gore
As we prepare for the release of our new eBook Lead Where You Are which will be coming out right after the first of the year, we will be exploring how organizations rated as a Best Place to Work create dynamic, highly engaged workforces delivering sustained results by leveraging many of the concepts we highlight in the book.
Week 1 (Oct. 10) - Leading with Purpose
Week 2 (Oct. 17) - Leading Change
Week 3 (Oct. 24) - Leading Accountability
Week 4 (Oct. 30) - Leading Performance
Leading Change - W.L. Gore
W.L. Gore was founded in 1958 by Wilbert (“Bill”) Gore, a former chemical engineer at Dupont. Bill Gore challenged all traditional management practices and created a company that would enable human imagination and employee freedom and engagement. W.L. Gore has been on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list consecutively over the last 20 years.
In 1969, Bob Gore discovered that rapidly stretching PTFE (Teflon) did not break the material but made it strong, highly porous and extremely versatile. This new polymer was the first step towards Gore-Tex, the waterproof and breathable fabric that made the company famous. W.L. Gore now holds more than 2000 patents worldwide ranging from fabrics, electronics, medical devices, consumer products, pharmaceutical and polymer processing.
Obviously, Gore is very successful both commercially and culturally. One lesson we all can learn from Gore is their passion and commitment to leading with and cultivating innovation and change in everyone.
Anyone Can Be an Innovator
All associates throughout Gore are encouraged to spent 10% of their work pursuing change and innovation, it is called “dabble” time. Associates compete for discretionary time with other talented individuals who are passionate about working on something new and exciting and want to be part of a promising project. Assembling a self-motivated / self-directed team gives ownership to people who want to contribute. A project won’t go anywhere if people aren’t motivated to take it on. At any given time, Gore has hundreds of projects at various stages of development. All are focused projects that are employee-led, purpose driven and rooted in Gore’s knowledge and competitive leadership in ePTFE. Ideas die if associates don’t sign up to be part of the project. Product champions give the gift of opportunity, and in return, other associates donate their talent, experience and commitment. You can see why the organization is so successful and continually on the leading edge of change and innovation.
Of course, not all of our organizations will commit to this level of innovation and change. And if this is indeed the case in your organization, a lesson learned that we all can take away is for us to be a leader of change no matter what the environment is around us. All we have to do is step up and lead change, seeing possibilities for change where others around you see obstacles and barriers. Think differently and disruptively, this type of thinking at Gore has led to commercial product successes like Glide dental floss and developing the leading selling brand of acoustic guitar strings (Elixir) in the United States. Once we think differently, we create options and recommendations and then act with urgency, don’t let the status quo rule the day any longer. And lastly, don’t stop, be the catalyst for leading change in your organization. You never know, you might be the start of something really special. Look at what that type of thinking has done for W.L. Gore, a Fortune Best 100 Company to Work For, now for over two decades running.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
