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Key Takeaways
- A strong culture starts when every employee feels their voice matters.
- T-shaped teams break silos and create seamless customer experiences across departments.
- True diversity drives innovation when different perspectives are actively heard and applied
In April 2024, I boarded a flight to Adelaide, Australia, to conduct a series of training programs for an electrical components company. They had watched one of my training videos on “Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience” and reached out to invite me to spend a week with their teams, presenting live sessions on elevating the customer experience.
During one of our prep calls, I encouraged leadership to have everyone in attendance, not just those dealing directly with customers. They told me they had already planned on it.
Every employee in the company showed up: warehouse staff, finance, IT, operations…everyone. That told me a lot right away. They understood that every single employee, no matter their role or title, plays a part in shaping how customers experience their brand. Their customers are electricians, the men and women who wire homes and businesses across Australia and New Zealand. Down under, electricians are called “sparkies.” I used that term throughout my sessions, both live and in the video lessons that followed, because it made it relative and personal, and kept the focus on the people they serve.
On my first morning in Adelaide, I sat down with the CEO, who founded the company in 2001 and still runs it today. He didn’t start by bragging about revenue or growth. And believe me, the growth has been impressive. Instead, he started with his people.
He said, “If I give these folks a place they’re proud of and a place they look forward to coming, they will put their hearts and souls into making it even better.” After more than thirty years of working with leaders in just about every industry, I can tell you it’s rare to hear culture placed first, and even rarer to see it lived out every day.
That passion came through everywhere I looked. During sessions in Adelaide and later in Sydney, I watched employees debate ideas openly, without fear of offending or overstepping. I saw managers step back and listen while frontline team members explained what sparkies really needed. The energy wasn’t forced. It was real, and it was contagious.
When my week in Australia wrapped up, the work didn’t stop. We followed the live sessions with monthly video lessons to reinforce and expand on the training. And through that ongoing work, it became clear why this company has virtually no turnover. The CEO’s philosophy, to create a place people are proud of, a place where they can thrive, had become part of the company’s DNA.
As I spent more time with the organization, I began noticing three cultural habits that explain why this place feels so different from most companies. They live meritocracy. They push people to be T-shaped. And they embrace perspectives. None of these are abstract theories. They’re practical, everyday ways of working, and they’re lessons any company can apply.
Meritocracy: Ideas over titles
Meritocracy means everyone’s voice counts, and the best contributions rise to the top. It does not matter what someone’s title is, how long they’ve been here or how old they are. What matters is the quality of their input, whether that’s an idea, a solution to a problem, an observation about a customer need or even a question that challenges the status quo. In a true meritocracy, what gets rewarded is thoughtful contribution and impact, not hierarchy or volume.
While at their headquarters, I was told that a team member in the warehouse suggested a small change to how pallets were stacked. It wasn’t a million-dollar innovation, but it made deliveries easier for drivers and reduced damage claims.
The best part? This idea was implemented almost immediately. No endless meetings. No “stay in your lane.” Just a good idea, making a difference. That’s meritocracy in action. If you embrace meritocracy, it doesn’t matter whether someone’s been there for twenty years or twenty days, whether they have “manager” in their title or not. If they spot a way to make the company better, their voice should matter.
Too often, decisions are made by hierarchy. The highest-paid person’s opinion wins. That kills innovation. When leaders listen first and decide second, great ideas surface from everywhere, especially from the people closest to the customer.
If you want a practical takeaway: at your next team meeting, ask yourself whether every voice is really being heard. Did you encourage input from everyone, or did you default to the loudest or most senior? Cultures that thrive on meritocracy don’t just make better decisions, they make people feel valued.
Being t-Shaped: Beyond the job description
The CEO and his leadership team also go out of their way to prevent silos. They want employees to be T-shaped. Picture the letter T: the vertical bar is your deep expertise, your specialty. The horizontal bar is your ability to reach across disciplines, collaborate, and understand how your work affects others and how theirs affects yours.
At this organization, customer service reps don’t just answer phones. They learn how their conversations connect to operations, product design, product testing and more. Warehouse employees don’t just move stock. They think about how their process impacts Sparkie satisfaction on the other end. Teams don’t hide behind their specialties. They share, connect and work together.
We’ve all seen the opposite of being T-shaped too many times. A product team rolls out a brilliant new design, but operations isn’t ready to deliver. Marketing launches a flashy campaign, but sales weren’t informed. Finance tweaks billing processes without telling customer service. Each team stays in its lane, and the customer feels the chaos.
Being T-shaped doesn’t mean abandoning your specialty. It means expanding your value by looking across lanes. This company has shown how powerful this can be. Silos disappear, collaboration grows and Sparkies experience the company as one seamless partner.
Diversity as an advantage
This amazing company employs people across Australia, New Zealand, China, India and the Philippines. That’s a lot of perspective, and it’s not wasted.
During one training session, a Sparkie issue came up. The Australian support team suggested a fix, based on input from a colleague from the Philippines. This collaboration of perspectives led to a faster, more complete solution. That’s the value of perspectives. Different experiences solving problems in different ways.
But here’s the important part. Diversity only works if people actually listen. Too often, companies collect perspectives but ignore them. Not here. Perspectives are not only welcomed, they’re also acted upon. That’s why Sparkies experience faster solutions and better service.
For other businesses, including yours, if you’re reading this, the lesson is simple. Don’t treat diverse perspectives as unimportant or a second thought. Use it as fuel. Encourage people to challenge assumptions and bring different views to the table. That’s where innovation comes from.
Why this company lesson matters for you
Customers don’t experience your company one department at a time. They experience your company as a whole. They don’t care if marketing nailed its campaign if sales miss customers’ needs. They don’t care if customer service is friendly if billing makes mistakes. One weak link undermines your entire brand.
That’s why coming together is essential. Meritocracy, T-shaped collaboration and diverse perspectives aren’t buzzwords. They’re daily practices that keep companies agile, innovative and trusted.
The CEO’s philosophy, “give people a place they’re proud of, and they’ll give their best,” isn’t just a nice quote. It’s a growth strategy. It explains why they have virtually no turnover, loyal Sparkies, and a culture that feels alive in every corner of the company.
A call to leaders
If you’re leading a business, here are a few questions worth asking yourself:
- Do we celebrate contributions no matter where they come from?
- Do we encourage people to learn beyond their specialties?
- Do we actually use diverse perspectives, or do we just collect them?
- Most of all, have we created a workplace people look forward to coming to, not one they tolerate?
Culture isn’t a one-time initiative. It isn’t “set and forget.” It’s lived in the way you listen, the way you decide and the way you lead.
This Australian company proves something every leader should remember: when people come together, they don’t just build strong companies, they build companies that last.
