Rob Anderson knew something had to change. As CEO of Superior Water and Air, he was ultimately responsible for directing the company towards improved service and greater profits. At the time, Superior was a one-service-line company with 25 employees. Everyone operated out of a single office, and annual revenue had plateaued. To remain viable, Superior needed to expand its operations and overcome fundamental deficiencies within its status-quo. This company culture case study describes how Rob, a leadership development example, utilized Arbinger’s tools to expand while improving his work environment.
Rob was unsure how to best proceed and found himself particularly stymied by one thorny problem: how to improve the sense of individual motivation and accountability in work where employees seemed complacent and uninvested. Improving accountability in the workplace became his top priority. The future of the the organization was heavily impacted by the diligence and customer service of the frontline workers, but the small company was beset by unproductive conflicts. When a mistake occurred, different parties blamed each other, displaying no accountability in work. One employee described the atmosphere as “hostile,” and General Manager Todd Jameson reflected, “A huge part of our time and energy was spent dealing with internal conflict.” Superior needed a change that would influence the way each employee operated while also addressing the underlying mindsets that inform behavior.
Rob discovered Arbinger’s work after he received a pre-publication copy of Leadership and Self Deception and an Arbinger’s leadership development case study. He described the encounter the Arbinger concepts as illuminating, “…it was like somebody opened the blinds on a window so I could see.”
Rob became convinced that Superior needed to embed an outward mindset approach within the company. Otherwise, their growth, performance, and service objectives would remain out of reach. To his credit, Rob recognized the necessity of changing himself before he tried to change others. He made a personal commitment to lead by example.
Rather than focusing on the shortcomings and misbehaviors of others and getting lost in the ways that they inhibited his own objectives, he worked to more consistently see their full humanity. This continual choice fundamentally shifted his approach to working, managing, and conducting meetings.
Next, Rob engaged Arbinger to provide initial trainings for his employees, thereby providing a shared experience and unified understanding of mindset. Rob also deepened his own understanding and capacity to operationalize Arbinger principles by completing Arbinger’s train-the-trainer process. Investing in this training enabled him to truly lead the outward mindset transformation within Superior.
Since then, Rob has trained all Superior employees in Arbinger’s outward mindset methodologies. He and his other leaders manage and operate Superior with the tools they have acquired from Arbinger. These have been essential for transforming the internal conflicts, establishing clear accountability, and elevating team performance.
Rob saw the “immediate and obvious” impact of these efforts within Superior and with their customers- similar to the company culture case study he had read before beginning this journey. . Superior employees began communicating and working with each other far more effectively. Rather than narrowly defining their roles by the specific tasks they needed to accomplish, employees began to view their work in terms of the impact their actions had on fellow employees and on Superior’s customers. This led to a better understanding of customer needs and a desire to exceed the expectations of Superior’s clientele. “The way we look at our customers has been transformed,” Rob said. “Consequently, the way we treat them is different as well.”
This transformative thinking eliminated employee resistance to change and encouraged the sharing of innovative ideas. These changes allowed Superior—a company that had focused on a single product line for over forty years—to introduce six complementary product lines in only six years. Individual motivation and accountability in work improved drastically. By implementing
Arbinger’s ideas and methodologies, Superior has successfully increased its customer base from 30,000 to 140,000. Annual revenue has grown an explosive 400% from $4 million to $25 million. The company has transformed from a single location offering a a single line of service to a profitable six-service-line business with four offices in three states.
As he reflected on the company’s journey, Rob said, “None of this could have happened without Arbinger. Superior would still be focused on one core product and have a small and stagnant workforce.” He continued by describing the changed focus of the company, “Arbinger helped us ask and dive into two questions. First, what are all the ways that we can make the customer experience better? And second, how can we make the experience better internally for our employees and each other? Our work around these questions changed everything for us and for our customers.” Superior Water and Air has become one of the largest independently owned and family-operated providers of water treatment, plumbing, and heating and air services in the United States. They are trusted to service over 130,000 homes located throughout the Intermountain West. Rob, a fantastic leadership development example illustrates how initiative to improve the customer and employee experience was met with fantastic success by applying the Arbinger principles. His hopes of replicating the positive effect he had read about in Arbinger, a company culture case study had come to fruition.
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