Dear friends,
As we have finished 2021, despite all of the travails and headwinds, we have a lot to be thankful for. For BIC, 2021 was a record year for placements by our recruiting division and also for our web traffic. In fact, many of you may be reading this missive on your phone, either in our digital edition or you may have been directed to this article by a social media post.
I'm especially grateful for the teamwork of our managers and teammates. I've often said, an entrepreneur knows he's running a real company when things happen that he's not directly involved in. For many years at BIC, I really tried to do it all myself, or at least as much as I could touch and then a little more. I've since realized the joy of letting managers and employees take more rein. Life is so much sweeter when you leverage the talents of many. It takes a real team to get anything significant done.
I was thinking about this recently while training for a long-distance bicycle ride. One similarity between riding a bike a long distance and business is that it is so much easier to ride in a group than by oneself. Camaraderie eliminates monotony and makes the miles go by faster; peer pressure keeps you from giving up too easily; and tucking in behind other riders has a very positive aerodynamic effect, creating a windshield, or even a slight "pull" that makes pedaling much easier. My unscientific estimation is that a solo ride of 40 miles is about the equivalent of 100 miles in a group.
This similarity between cycling and business got me considering teamwork and successful partnerships. It made me reflect on the importance of groups and how they optimize all aspects of our lives -- our work lives, social lives and spiritual lives -- and how they are interrelated. When one participates in small groups by giving a priority to attending and contributing effort, there is a strong human tendency to connect relationally and provide mutual encouragement, support and accountability to one another.
The first job of my career was with Exxon, the world's largest integrated oil company. It seemed rather daunting to be a small cog in such a big wheel. I was assigned to a work group with nine people and a supervisor. These were the people I carpooled with and who introduced me to the local professional associations where I was able to network and learn from other professionals in my field. Quite a bit of camaraderie developed with the folks who were assigned to train me. Within our closest workgroup there was a lot of good work going on making money for the company. I later learned that these pockets of effectiveness were prolific throughout the company. Exxon was using a structure of small groups to build efficiencies into its giant corporation.
Exxon management set up the small group structure and even committed resources toward seemingly "hokie" team-building projects. In hindsight, I see that Exxon was trying to establish the human connections that would lead to mutual support and accountability in the workplace. Sometimes it doesn't work, but often it did. People can always choose to become engaged, connected and friendly or not. People can choose to participate in a group or not. Sadly, it is a missed opportunity for those who choose not to participate in the groups that life offers them.
The BIC Alliance is a group of companies banded together to connect business and industry with one another for the benefit of all. We have styled our publication as a multi-company newsletter. Every magazine, event, webinar and e-newsletter we produce is a product of teamwork, often of multiple companies, with a united purpose.
Our team worked hard together to include the information and stories found in this edition of BIC Magazine. In this issue, we include interviews with Caliche Development Partners Chief Commercial Officer Steve Markovich; ExxonMobil Port Allen Cluster Manager Bonnie Eckhart; CITGO Vice President of Health, Safety & Environment Shane Moser; ServiceMax Senior Director of Global Customer Transformation Sara Cerruti; Power Storage Solutions Strategic Sales Manager Jeff Hemsing; and Reliant Workforce Solutions Vice President of Sales and Business Development Stephen Marengo Jr. We also have features on a variety of topics important to your business, including how to overcome objections to technological transitions by the workforce, the future of sustainability and plastics, and procurement tips from industry leaders.
Work groups and social groups often seem to overlap because of the great amount of time we spend with the people with whom we work. Naturally, we develop some friendships with our colleagues.
Spiritually, some of the greatest life changes come from participation in groups. How many life lessons have we learned from a loved one or a close friend? In a group of friends, the people with whom we have close relationships are the ones most apt to powerfully point out things that we forget or don't see about ourselves. And we learn many of the deepest lessons in life experientially through interaction with friends and family.
Where, however, do work and spiritual groups fit together? Can they? Yes, it has been done before with great success. Jesus Christ had a business mission with a huge scope. He wanted to spread a radical message to the entire world. Believe the message or not, here we are 2,000 years later and he still gets a lot of press. With this seemingly unattainable job scope, Jesus, who taught multitudes and fed thousands of people at a time, recognized the value of a small group. He strategically chose 12 men to be his confidants for fellowship, learning and mission.
I also know plenty examples of modern overlap of spiritual and work groups. There are business owners I know who incorporate voluntary Bible study into the regular office schedule. Our company and many others I know utilize business chaplains to integrate spiritual care into employee care programs. There is the Leaven Exchange, the Oilfield Christian Fellowship and other faith-centered groups of business folks that successfully mix a higher mission with secondary temporal business goals.
Locally, I am in a group called The Get Together, a group of business people who meet once a month for lunch in Houston to tend to the non-financial needs of local nonprofits. It is so rewarding to be part of the teamwork and results this group produces. Let me know personally if you are interested; I will take you to a lunch as my guest.
Regardless of your personal faith or spiritual convictions, I encourage all of you to actively participate in healthy small groups of any kind. The relationships will optimize and change your life.
