An oversized stuffed dog, won at a carnival, might not seem like the usual symbol for transforming a struggling company into a thriving, innovative powerhouse. Yet, this unlikely mascot became the "Junkyard Dog" rallying cry and symbol of the Junkyard Dog award, boosting morale and playing a key role in the turnaround of a technology company we'll call Champion.

A Symbol of Transformation: The Junkyard Dog Story

A subsidiary of a large, global technology company, Champion found their customers jumping ship faster than they could ask why. The why was the fact that the global parent (eventually referred to as “Mother Ship”) was getting out of the business Champion was in, and they told the customers before they told the leaders of Champion. They cut Champion loose, leaving its Board and executives to flounder and leaving its employees to grasp at jobs they thought might keep them employed a little longer.

How did Champion get blindsided? Part of the problem was the out-of-touch CEO who was fired during the crisis. Another part of the problem was that Champion’s salesforce had no clue about their customers’ technology roadmaps. If they had, they would have seen that the customers would have eventually jumped ship anyway, offshoring manufacturing of the type of products Champion made to less expensive environments. “Mother Ship” saw it coming so got out of the business fast.

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Learning and teaching are keys to change

In came Dick as the new CEO. He was a tough, salt-of-the earth former Marine given the charge to save Champion and get its customers back. Through one-on-one conversations with customers, Dick learned their trajectories and why the parent company had sold him. His learning evoked two actions. One was to fire the salesforce who was clearly unreliable at knowing the customers’ business current and future needs. Two was to tell the Board they didn’t need to get the old customers back. Rather they needed new customers and to produce different, more high-tech products, not as easily off-shored, that used some of the underutilized capabilities held by Champion.

Dick and his chief engineer, Mike, realized that a small, clean room technology that currently produced only 18% of Champion’s business needed to be scaled to become its main business. They also learned that the employees had no idea what the technologies they produced did for the world. So, Mike taught small groups of employees by taking apart his watch and cell phone, explaining where Champion’s parts fit and what they did to make these ubiquitous products work.

The biggest challenge was to get the system and employees to settle down and move from fear and grasping to innovating and fighting for good reason. This is where the stuffed dog came into play.

Physically represent and tell stories of what you are and want to become

Dick called the workforce of 200 people, speaking 18 different native languages, together. He explained the problem in simple terms. He also explained the movement to scale up a technological capability few of them even knew existed. Prior to the meeting, Dick had walked around to meet each employee and find out more about what made them tick. He realized the employees were a scrappy bunch, like he was. He used this, and he helped them channel their anger, fear, and fight to everyone’s benefit. Instead of competing for one another’s jobs, he told them they were going to compete to show “Mother Ship” and build a business that would give them a paycheck, long-term work that mattered, and eventual bonuses.

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Use multiple ways to assess value and invite contributions

Dick shared that he grew up on the south side of Chicago, and he quoted a few lines from the iconic 1970’s Jim Croce song, “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown.” He told them that he grew up “meaner than a junkyard dog” and that all of them together could be “Junkyard Dogs” with winning results. In fact, he showed them the big, stuffed dog he had won at a carnival and kept in his attic. He told them this was to be the first version of the “Junkyard Dog Award.” Whoever came up with ideas to cut costs or innovate work to improve the business should submit them to Dick and Mike. They would make the selection weekly and implement the winning idea. The winner would get to keep the dog at their workstation for a week. Eventually, the winners would receive financial rewards, but for now, the Junkyard Dog was what the company could afford. Then Dick asked if they were with him in terms of turning on their Junkyard Dog spirit, and they all hollered “Yes!”

There were other changes Dick, along with John, the VP of Human Resources, needed to make to settle the system down and move it in a new direction of product and performance. For instance, they selected a few employees who understood the clean room technology, and they commissioned them to train employees to get up to speed quickly on this delicate, high-risk work. They spoke with each employee about their talent and their goals, and they showed them how they fit into the new Champion.

At the same time, they discontinued the seniority job policy. This policy had allowed those with seniority the advantage of securing and sometimes bumping less senior people from jobs. Fueled by employee fear of losing their jobs, this system created a merry-go-round of job bumping, generating time and quality lapses. Dick and John asked the employees to trust them on these changes to ensure everyone kept their jobs and the company could become more stable and produce consistent quality.

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Don’t forget to step back and ask what makes sense

Months later, after the turnaround was clear and the Junkyard Dog innovations had become part of the culture, Dick was walking through the plant talking to employees, as was his habit. He asked Mabel how her day was going. She told him it was not good. When he asked why, she told him that she had put in for a transfer for another job but was told that transfers were not allowed. Dick, not one to mince words, asked, “Well, who was the jack_ss that put that stupid rule in place?” Mabel answered, “You were.” Dick started laughing and told Mabel why he and John had put it into place. Then he apologized for not going back to change it when the need no longer existed.

As the company of 200 employees was thriving and poised to grow financially and in headcount, Dick asked me for advice as to how to maintain the culture of this small camp of “Junkyard Dogs.” He did not want it to turn into a big “Mother Ship.” I admired Dick for stepping back to ask the questions about how to grow wisely and look at things like talent and culture in addition to finances and operations. This “Junkyard Dog” has a practical wisdom about him that encourages entire companies to embody the “little things” that create and sustain thriving businesses.

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Lessons from Champion:

• Learning and teaching are keys to change.
• Physically represent and tell stories of what you are and want to become.
• Use multiple ways to assess value and invite contributions.
• Don’t forget to step back and ask what makes sense.

The four lessons that Dick and his Champion team teach us mirror the four strategies of the Way of Embodying:

• Utilize informal learning and teaching.
• Use icons & stories that resonate.
• Provide value measurement & feedback.
• Step back.

The meta lesson in the Way of Embodying is that little things can and do make a difference. It is the responsibility of leaders, intrapreneurs, and innovators to not only inspire with grand visions but to embody the vision in action in down-to-earth, tangible ways.