PortaPros Blog

February 2, 2021

How the PortaPros Culture increases my power on the bicycle

After two days of meetings at our PortaPros annual strategy sessions Thursday and Friday, I had an opportunity to review the state of things on an indoor ride early Saturday morning. While my body performed the physical workout, my mind moved to reflecting on our people and the business.

The previous two days of work with my five colleagues and our coach was aimed at building team health coupled with alignment and clarity on the future view of our business. After a half day of exercises and meaningful conversations with each other designed to build connection, we settled in to focus on our business.

They say culture trumps strategy. Looking at our 2021 company goals, apparently we believe that culture is strategy. Five out of our seven 2021 company goals squarely focus on nurturing our culture, beginning with building relationships through regular conversations and connections, listening to and learning about the experiences, feelings and feedback of our teammates. We will be intentionally open and curious with a coaching mindset to cultivate real discussions centered on our workfellows, and we have ways to measure our process and our outcomes.

During this first quarter, I’ll be holding fifteen coaching sessions with members of our leadership team and an additional ten connecting conversations with others, primarily our Service Technicians. Our Service Technicians take care of our customers and are relentless at figuring out how to do it better by doing it different. They provide trusted, reliable care – seems like a logical core purpose for a portable sanitation outift just trying to be a great company.

With the team-centered focus that our leadership team embodies, it is no surprise that this past year, PortaPros experienced an annualized turnover of just 14% in an industry that records 50% plus.

I had a lot of conversations going on in my head during Saturday’s workout, mostly reflection and gratitude. A short 45 minutes later, drenched in sweat, I realized the ride results indicated that I had just recorded the highest average power for any of my winter workouts. It occurred to me that my watts were fueled by the past couple of days with our exceptional team. It was no small coincidence that as I wrapped up my workout to move on with my day, I noticed a text from my coach daring me to blast that old Scorpions song Wind of Change, take a moment to contemplate who I really am, and of course, to enjoy the day!