Kip Tindell, Chairman and CEO of The Container Store has a system of onboarding that is revolutionary.
Tindell is author of Uncontainable, How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives. Training is a large part of The Container Store’s onboarding process, where new employees receive nearly 300 hours of education and training, compared to a retail industry average of 8 hours. As a result of the investment, The Container Store has a following of devoted customers who love to shop there, and who tell others of their experience.
Most companies don’t want to incur the expense. (Think INVESTMENT). They would rather put new employees to work to leverage the payroll expense. It is a misguided perception of cost / benefit. Tindell’s principle behind such an investment is based on a quote he read by author and journalist Roy Rowan, quoted in a 1986 edition of Boardroom Reports.
“Intuition Does Not Come to An Unprepared Mind. You Need to Train Before It Happens.”
Breakthrough thinking (Strategy Thinking) comes often in a moment of inspiration, but only when we are prepared.
Kip Tindell’s example is the inspiration Einstein had sitting on a train that was not moving, and being passed by another giving him a sense of going backwards. This experience was the seed for his famous theory of relativity. Einstein would not have been so inspired had he not spent his life studying physics and mathematics.
If we can prepare our people to think, and become inspired through constant exposure to new thoughts and ideas, they will help us create remarkable companies, but we must commit to making the investment.
“A wise person once said that intuition is the sum total of one’s life experience.” Kip Tindell asks “so why would you leave that at home when you come to work in the morning?”
Training employees at this level creates what Tindell refers to as ‘Radical Empowerment”. Check out Kip Tindell’s talk on this subject.
