A Sense of Purpose

I'm currently working for a homebuilder named Mercedes Homes. Mercedes has 14 divisions, mostly in Florida. At the beginning of this week, the Orlando division all but shut down and joined in with volunteers from all other divisions as well as everyone who's anyone from corporate to build a house for an episode of "Extreme Makeover". If you go to www.mercedes-extreme.com, you too can experience much of what happened throughout this week including pictures of the Mercedes brass and the illustrious Extreme Makeover stars. Alongside them are the best trades in the business. Smiling. Wearing their hardhats. Working in unison as efficiently as possible. All doing their part. For free... Almost.

The house was built in 97 hours and was presented late this afternoon to a woman who overcame drug addiction and was running a non-profit care center from a hurricane damaged house that was literally falling apart around her and her children. The story is heartwarming and although the people at Mercedes who found themselves in charge of this project were criticized for trying to do too much in not enough time, they did it. And they did a great job.

Amazing. We all worked together for once. But something is being ignored here. How come we were able to pull this off? Where did the sudden sense of camaraderie come from? In 97 hours they knocked the old house down, built the slab, built the walls, framed the house, added plumbing and electricity and put the roof on, they hung and finished the drywall, added stucco, painted outside and in, put the floors in, put the tile in, put the cabinets in, put the appliances in, did landscaping for chrissake, and everything else. In 97 hours. And then to put icing on the cake, the Orlando building department's highest official showed up with a Certificate of Occupancy (or C.O.). In 97 hours. While keeping in mind that it sometimes takes 97 hours just to order and then get a C.O., we are going to watch these people "move that bus" and reveal a pristine house whose model at least 15 customers ordered from our division alone almost 10 months ago, and those customers still aren't even close to seeing the keys to the front door.

So I asked some of the guys at my division who have been in the trenches and spent their time in the field building houses: "Why can't we harness this type of greatness more consistently?" The overwhelming answer was "money". Yes, money was involved. Not directly, mind you, but through branding and a pining for being part of the greater good, they made it happen. But if we can build a house in 97 hours because of money, then why don't we spend more money to get even a third of that type of performance from our people?

Money may actually be the problem too. That is, an effort to save money. We spend literally all of our time at a management level getting the most out of our people for the least amount of money possible. It's all about margins. We run our teams lean. We automate everything we can. We force our trades to charge us as little as possible and we still expect quality and speed. So what do we get in return? Bad morale, people who don't care and unskilled workers who don't speak English. But our margins are good. And we can build our houses in 180 days. Or, in case you're keeping score, 5223 hours more than the 97 hour Extreme Makeover house. So maybe I'm being unreasonable. The Extreme Makeover team worked with 100's more people around the clock with unparalled support. But I'm not asking for 97 hour houses here. I'm asking for half. Or maybe a third of that time. But more importantly, I'm asking about motivation. Where does the motivation come from when it hasn't before? Can we harness this magic in the building industry? Can we harness it in any industry? Pinching pennies is not the answer.

We have spent the last 2 weeks of our lives watching Bode Miller fail miserably and then shrug his shoulders, watching the USA Hockey team fail miserably and then shrug thier shoulders and debating whether Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens should waste thier time and possibly risk injury playing in the World Baseball Classic. But why does it frustrate us so? Did you watch Bode Miller one time on T.V. since the last Olympics? Will Chris Chelios celebrate his 50th birthday, which is coming up soon by the way, and think about regretting never donning an Olympic gold medal? Do you care? Do Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens need more fame/money or both? Do they care if they win? Do you care?

But still something tugs at us. Yes, there's quite a bit of money in all of these sports. But we watch and they play for something more. I think its a sense of purpose. Whatever that purpose is, it's really what drives us. If money is involved, so be it. But when I watch Bode Miller or Chris Chelios or Extreme Makeover, I do it to be a part of it... albeit a distant part of it. And those who have that purpose can take things to a new level and do the unbelieveable. All we have to do is figure out how to find that purpose in the office, on the playing field, in our people and in everything we do.