Play Well LaserShip

Making the Vital Connections to People, Processes & Outcomes

LEGO is a visual metaphor, an image that brings forth both understanding and inspiration on a very serious topic: How do we connect our current business problems—the day to day issues each of you deal with—to our established foundation of business practices, goals and values?

What we do today must be linked to our long held purpose and mission. Each of us as we go about our daily tasks need to think about what we are trying to achieve: Our goals are long-term, our mission is to be the best at what we do, our duty to each of us and to the company is to be profitable and our values require all of this to be done while keeping in mind our image of professionalism, quality and integrity.

LEGO building blocks might just help us understand this point. LEGO blocks must fit with and be connected to all others. No one LEGO block is independent of others. LEGO blocks come in various sizes and colors, but in order to construct something each block must fit with the previous one—it must snap into place. To build the next level of a creation the previous and the current pieces of the structure must to be snapped into place and firmly connected; if not, the creation will not be structurally sound, long lasting or look anything like the outcome envisioned.

Just as with LEGO, everything in our business is connected: Connected to our mission, our goals and our values. The concerns of today—such as social media and DPMO concessions, or scanning percentages and driver costs—are connected to each other and to our long-term mission, goals and values.

In order for us to build a sound, lasting structure that looks something like our plan; we must consciously and consistently connect our current problems, solutions and actions to our overall vision of the company.

Social media buzz, for example, is directly connected to individual acts of omission: When we do not snap firmly into place the uniform LEGO, the vehicle signage LEGO, the door tag procedure LEGO or the follow-up communication LEGO we see the negative buzz increase.

Each and every concern/problem/issue of today is a connection issue that LEGO blocks help us visualize, understand and just perhaps solve by consciously making us aware of the impact each unconnected or imperfectly connected LEGO has on the entire structure; if one imperfectly fitted LEGO block fails, the entire structure can come crashing down.

Moreover, all of the issue-of-the-day labeled LEGO blocks are connected (or should be) to the larger structural elements of LaserShip: Growth, Opportunity and Prosperity. Individual, organizational and business growth through (and only through) high service levels and attention to details creates opportunities for us to expand our volume, our markets, our job creation and our career growth which produces profits for the company and prosperity for individuals who make a lasting and recognizable contribution.

The point of the LEGO metaphor for LaserShip is simple: No problem-of-the-day is unconnected from yesterday’s issue or tomorrow’s concern; no task is unconnected from the purpose of the organization; no person employed or contracted is unconnected from the long-term viability and survivability of the company.

Each of us, as a LEGO block, must share the connection to each other; our connection is to our mutual well-being. Each of our actions must demonstrate personal accountability for our own success as well as the success of your team and the entire company; our action must always demonstrate a consideration of the whole not just the parts.

The LEGO block was invented by a Denmark based company. The word LEGO comes from the first two letters of two words in the Danish language—"leg godt:—which means "play-well". Play well for LaserShip means that we have a passion for excellence, that we care about people, processes and outcomes, and that we find joy in both the resulting relationships and the outcomes.

Play Well Today LaserShip