New business takes Team Concept to greater heights

BUSINESS PROFILE
New business takes Team Concept to greater heights
Evergreen Team Concepts shows others how to do the sameBy Elisa Claassen
HOW MANY COMPANIES in Bellingham – or the region – offer unlimited possibilities for education and growth for employees, have an easily accessible CEO, print up a page full of core values developed by the team of nine employees – and offer toys for adults to play with in the workplace?
How many companies have half of their workforce turn in surveys stating how much they enjoy the workplace – when it has only been open less than a month?
Evergreen Team Concepts (ETC), a corporate training and consulting firm, heavily promoted the concept of team building internally before showing others how to do it themselves as a firm specializing in providing training, consulting and seminars. When founder and CEO Henry Beeland established ETC's headquarters on Meridian Street in Bellingham, he found a site with easy access to I-5, adjacent free parking for employees and clients, and found one of his financing partners, Vern Platt.
An initial financial backer wasn't able to get the funding and Beeland found himself telling Platt, his landlord and a retired executive with 37 years at Hughes Aircraft Company, a bit about the situation and his goals and dreams for ETC. Platt decided to extend his role beyond landlord to investing partner. (He has since been joined by Lilly Yang in the ownership team.)
Beeland, whose background includes corporate management and various aspects of human resources and safety oversight, said he had seen things that had worked well and others that hadn't, and knew that a number of small companies couldn't afford internal training. He saw a need to be filled for companies to stay competitive and yet keep their
“We challenge our employees to lead where they are.”Henry Beeland,Evergreen Team Concepts
training at 40- to 50-percent lower than other competitive training programs, which average $150 to $300 a day, amounting to around 20 cents per employee per day.
Training takes various shapes: national on-site training, professional public seminars, Web solutions video and audio training, mini modules customized to business, industry specific programs and interactive computer lab training. Topics include software proficiency, sharpening customer service skills, lean leadership and inspiring the workforce to be more excited and energized.
“We've leveled the playing field,” Beeland said concisely. He said a national trend is for employees to stay less than two years in a job. “It's becoming an epidemic in the U.S. … it takes time and energy to believe in employees.” Yet, he said, employers who invest in their employees can save a tremendous amount of money in the long run. At the core of this is lack of innovation and creativity in the workplace as too many employees and employers exist in a status quo of quietly doing things as they always have.
Beeland has three ways employers can create a positive workplace and retain employees: to motivate by compassion and not just bottom-line figures, show respect and not micromanage competent staff, and to “hamflap.” Hamflapping, something that Beeland said he invented, is to “Have as Much Fun and Laughter as Possible.” He says it is a necessity since employees spend more time at work than they often do at home and that going to work should have more benefits than merely getting a paycheck.
While he explained that he makes time for one-on-one meetings weekly with each employee, even brief ones if time is limited, so that employees can catch him up, tell him new ideas or vent (“We care about them as individuals.”). He also reiterated that he can't separate his employees' personal and professional lives; that if an employee is having a personal problem that is unresolved, it can affect professional performance. If they have an interest in furthering themselves, he encourages his employees to take advantage of their educational programs, whether they pertain directly to the employee's tasks or even topics such as stress management, if they have an interest.
Even making mistakes, which might be cause in many firms for a write-up or dismissal, he said he sees as learning opportunities and as an investment in building a stronger employee.
“Plato says to ‘Be kind,'” he said. “We challenge our employees to lead where they are,” a principle that applies not only to management level staff but to administrative assistants as well. Respect, he says, comes through trust and confidence. He's made a play on words with Einstein's formula and turned it into E2=MC which stands for “Education and Experience equals Motivation and Confidence.”
The amazingly fast-talking Southerner, Beeland, has arranged an office with soothing Northwest colors, abundant fountains, boxes of toys, easy access to boxes of chocolates and various hot and cold beverages for clients and employees. One result is seemingly happy employees.
Employees' comments reflect the 9s and 10s on their score sheets: “unlimited continued education;” “values that you adopt and make your own;” “creative, intelligent, energetic people committed and passionate about our mission;” “the CEO is accessible to everyone and takes an active interest in my position and how I am doing as a person – he wants to facilitate my success;”
“It takes time and energy to believe in employees”Henry Beeland
“Evergreen Team Concepts is a fun and exciting place to work because they really are dedicated to the concept of thinking outside the box;” “our voices as individuals count.”
Recent speaker, author Judi Moreo, president of Turning Point International, a performance improvement company offering training and consulting in leadership fields, was one of the team's first outside speakers with a national reputation to come in September. In an interview with David Wright in “Getting Things Done: Keys to Communication, Sales and Service,” Moreo says, “Routines keep us in our comfort zone. You have to be willing to step out of that comfort zone and do something different every day so that you become comfortable with change and adaptable to changing circumstances. … If you really want to get things done you must be passionate about what it is you want to accomplish.”
Getting outside of ruts and being passionate encompass ETC's philosophy, which lists core values such as innovation, creativity, professionalism, inspiration, compassion, leadership, dedication and commitment.
“We believe everyone is important, unique with special abilities, creative and innovative,” Beeland said.