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GREEN
GOLDFISH
by Stan Phelps
PurpleGoldfish.com
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BEYOND DOLLARS:
15 WAYS TO DRIVE
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
& REINFORCE CULTURE

2. “If you’re looking for ways to inspire your
employees to love your company, and if you’re
smart enough to realize that money can’t buy
you love, then you need real-life, uber-
successful examples from real-life, uber-
profitable companies. Look no farther! In this
book, you’ve got examples from hundreds and
hundreds of companies.”
- Ted Coiné, author of Five Star
Customer Service and Spoil ‘Em Rotten!

3. The Challenge:
How can you Reinforce A Strong
Corporate Culture,
Improve Employee Engagement +
Drive Positive WoM
with ONE effort?
The Idea:
The Simple Premise That
Employees Come First And
“Happy Employees Create
Happy Customers”

4. (Source: Corporate Leadership Council)
A Solution that Sticks
Green Goldfish is about Differentiation via
Added Value
Giving Little Unexpected Extras (GLUE)
Drive Employee Engagement and Reinforce a
Strong Culture
“Engagedorganizationsgrewprofitsasmuchas 3x fasterthantheircompetitors.”

5. The book is based upon research conducted for the Green Goldfish
Project. The Project crowd sourced 1,001 examples of companies
that provided signature extras for employees.
http://list.ly/list/1OE-green-goldfish-project

6. Where’s The Happiest Place to Work in America?
Google was crowned the "Happiest Company in America."
The rankings were based on 100,000+ worker-generated
reviews spanning over 10,000 companies. (CareerBliss)

7. Dropping the Hammer on Why?
“My father’s father worked in the Chevy
plant in Flint, Michigan. He was an
assembly line worker...My Grandpa used
to carry an "Alley Oop" hammer – a heavy
iron pipe with a hunk of lead melted on the
end. The workers made them during the
sit-down strikes to protect themselves.
When I was growing up, we used that
hammer whenever we needed to pound a
stake or something into the ground. It is
wonderful that most people don’t need to
carry a heavy blunt object for protection
anymore. But just in case, I have it
here." (YouTube)
But maybe there’s another reason. Here is a quote from
Page's Commencement Address at the U. of Michigan:
According to CEO Larry Page, “I believe in a world of abundance, and in that world,
many of our employees don’t have to work, they’re pretty wealthy and they could
probably go years without working. Why are they working? They’re working because
they like doing something, they believe in what they’re doing.” (NY Times)

8. Houston, We Have a Problem
69% of US employees are either
"not engaged" or "actively disengaged"
(Source: Gallup)

9. The Amsterdam Window
Canal house windows in Amsterdam are immense. They
are a throwback to the modest Calvinist period when
subtle expressions of wealth, such as being able to afford
to pay the highest window tax, were favored by the rich.
While visiting Amsterdam, Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL
Technologies, pointed to windows and asked his friend,
“Why so large?” The friend mentioned all the obvious
reasons like letting in light and enjoying the view of the
canal, but then offered a much more interesting answer...
“It keeps the house clean.” It turns out that the bigger your
windows, the more glass you have, the more visible your
dirt will be - to you and to everyone who visits or passes
by.
In Vineet's words,
“If you can see the dirt, you will be much more likely to get
rid of it. A transparent house has a dramatic effect on the
culture inside.”
(Source: Employees First, Customers Second)
Employee First
Culture trumps strategy and principles beat rules. The
entire premise of Green Goldfish is that employees must
come first. Employee experience should be priority
Numero Uno. Companies need to empower and create an
open environment.

10. “When I started the agency, my goal was not to be
the biggest or to have the best clients. It was simply
to become the best agency to work for. I knew if we
were the best agency to work for, we would then
attract the best people. And that if we retained the
best people, the best clients will follow.”
- Tom Coyne
A Foundation For Retention

11. Why Green and
Why a Goldfish?

12. Why Green?

13. Mardi Gras

14. Mark Twain

15. Lagniappe
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Meaning - The additional gift
or to give more

16. Now why a Goldfish?

17. The Goldfish represents something small, but it was directly inspired Kimpton Hotels.
A chain of boutique hotels, Kimpton embodies the doing the little something extra.
Stay at any of the Kimpton properties and you’ll find:
• free gourmet coffee and fresh fruit in the lobby
• complimentary wine tasting in the afternoon
• pet-friendly accommodations
My favorite perk is something a select number of the properties do for guests.
Perhaps you are staying at a Kimpton for a few days, and you are getting lonely…

18. GIVE A LITTLE UNEXPECTED EXTRA
Guppy Love
Kimpton will give you a pet
goldfish for your stay. They call it
“Guppy Love.”

19. Average Goldfish = 3 to 4 inches
A goldfish also represents something
small. But all goldfish are not
created equal. The average is three
to four inches (8-10 cm) in length.
The world’s largest is …

20. Nearly 20 inches or 50cm
That’s nearly six times larger! How can there be such a
huge difference? It turns out the growth of a goldfish is
determined by five factors. The growth of your business
is affected by these same five things.

21. 1
WHAT’S THE SIZE OF THE BOWL IN BUSINESS?
= _____
1. The size of the bowl or pond will determine how big a goldfish with
grow. The bigger the pond or bowl, the more a goldfish can grow

22. 1
SIZE OF THE BOWL
= MARKET

23. 1
2
2. The number of other goldfish in the bowl will also impact the
growth. The more goldfish, the more difficult it is to grow.
THE OTHER GOLDFISH IN BUSINESS = ________

24. 1
2
NUMBER OF OTHER GOLDFISH
= COMPETITION

25. NUTRIENTS / CLARITY OF THE WATER IN BUSINESS
= ____
3. The nutrients in the water and clarity of the water will
also determine how large the goldfish will grow.

26. NUTRIENTS / CLARITY OF THE WATER
= ECONOMY

27. 4
24. The first 120 days of a goldfish life will be a factor on its
growth. The better the start, the bigger it can get.
= _______
FIRST 120 DAYS OF LIFE IN BUSINESS

28. 4
2
FIRST 120 DAYS OF LIFE
= START-UP OR NEW PRODUCT

29. 2
5. The genetic makeup of a goldfish will also determine
how big it will grow. The more it stand outs, the better.
= _______
WHAT’S GENETIC MAKE-UP IN BUSINESS

30. ITS GENETIC MAKE-UP
= DIFFERENTIATION

31. Five Factors
#1. MARKET
#2. COMPETITION
#3. ECONOMY
#4. FIRST 120 DAYS
#5. DIFFERENTIATION
Assuming you’ve already been in business for four
months, what’s the only thing you have control over?

32. Five Factors
#1. MARKET
#2. COMPETITION
#3. ECONOMY
#4. FIRST 120 DAYS
#5. DIFFERENTIATION
The only thing you can
have control over
is how you differentiate
yourself.
The little things you do to
stand out in a sea of sameness?

33. 1. Recruiting, 2. Onboarding, 3. F&B
4. Shelter, 5. Wellness, 6. Time Away, and
7. Modern Family
8. Team Building, 9. Retirement,
10. Attaboys and Attagirls,
11. Flexibility, and 12. Transparency
13. Training,
14. Paying it Forward, and
15. Empowerment
{
{
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BASICS
BELONGING
BUILDING
BEYOND DOLLARS, HERE ARE 15 WAYS
TO DRIVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

34. 1. Recruiting
!
FBNA is an acronym for "Free Beer, No A--holes." It
is the pseudo tagline for marketing agency Ryan
Partnership and an unofficial mantra for many
others. Some like the Australian software company
Atlassian make it a hiring requirement. The
company has a recipe for selecting potential hires
called the “beer test” according to co-founder Mike
Cannon-Brookes, “I ask myself would I find it
interesting to have a beer with this job applicant?”
Finding the right fit(s) for your
organization

35. 2. Onboarding
!
"The way you manage the
transition of somebody
into your culture speaks
volumes about the culture
to the person coming in” Asana (#143) minimizes chores for new
hires. They set up their desk / computer in advance
and provide $10K for further customization.
Research shows that employees
make the critical decision to
stay or leave within the first six
months

36. 3. Food & Beverage
SAS Institute (#437) – “You have two choices. You can spend
money on employees or headhunters and training, and it's
about the same amount of money. So why not spend it on the
employees?" - SAS Institute Founder Dr. James Goodnight
Little things like F+B can make a big
difference. Even silly things like M&M’S

37. 4. Shelter
!
Tip: Kitchens are Key
Kayak.com (#64) has an
open office environment.
The design of the workplace and where people are
situated will influence collaboration and engagement

38. 5. Wellness
Reebok (#4) - This benefit reinforces the company’s new mission: to get consumers
moving. Participants at HQ lost over 4,000 pounds collectively during its first year.
Without health, we have nothing. More than health,
wellness is about enhancing productivity

39. 6. Time Away
Full Contact API (#19) - "One, you actually have to take a
vacation to get the money (a full week gets a payout of $7,500).
Two, you have to disconnect from work, so that means no calls, no
emails, no tweets and no work of any kind."
Time off is not only valued by employees, it’s
regenerative. Like aspirin, it only works if you take it.

40. 7. Modern Family
!
Aetna Life & Casualty Co. (#68) reduced resignations of new mothers by 50
percent by extending its unpaid parental leave policy to six months, saving the
company one million dollars a year in training, recruiting and hiring expenses.
Families have changed. Today’s employers
needs to deal with modern issues such as
same-sex spouses, infertility, adoption,
parental leave, day care, and eldercare

41. Snagajob (#62), the Culture Squad organizes the annual Office Olympics, during
which employees [Snaggers] are divided into competing nations—and dress the part.
8. Team Building
!
A team that plays together, stays together

42. Google (#40) - Should a U.S. Googler pass away while under the employ of
the search giant, their surviving spouse or domestic partner will receive a
check for 50% of their salary every year for the next decade.
9. Retirement!
Going the extra mile to prepare and take care of
employees for life after work

43. “YOU MATTER. These two words can change your mood, change your mind,
and have the power to change lives and the world if we understand and
leverage them in the right way.” (Source: Angela Maiers, TED Talk June 2011)
43% of highly engaged employees
receive feedback at least once a
week compared to only 18%
of employees with low engagement.
(Source: Towers Watson)
10. Attaboys & Attagirls
!
Recognition fuels performance

44. Campbell Soup (#21) - Doug Conant wrote 30,000 handwritten notes during
his 10 year tenure as CEO at Campbell’s.
A recent study reported that Fifty-seven percent of respondents indicated that
the most meaningful recognition was free.
Just look at some of these quotes to judge the impact:
“I received a hand written thank you in the mail from my manager and my CEO. I smiled like
an idiot." - Bill A.
"I got a bonus with a handwritten note. I read the note several times; even took a picture of
it. Bonus was good, too but no picture." - David H.
Take Note: The Best Things in Life are Free
!

45. BEST BUY (#13) - The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of
hours. The program aims to weed out "presenteeism": employees warming their chairs all day
but not getting much done. There are no schedules, no mandatory meetings.
[R.I.P. - Hubert Joly abolished ROWE at Best Buy on 3/4/13]
11. Flexibility
No longer an extra, flexibility is an expectation

46. 12. Transparency
Atlassian (#47) embraces
transparency wherever at all
practical, and sometimes
where impractical.
All information, both internal
and external, is public by
default.
Of seventy-five possible drivers of engagement the ONE that was rated as the most important was the
extent to which employees believed that their senior management had a sincere interest in their well‐being.
Rule #1 of 5 Core Values:
Open Company, No Bullsh*t
In the words of Louis Brandeis,
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

47. STAT: 75% of
people voluntarily leaving jobs
don't quit their jobs;
they quit their bosses.
(Source: Roger Herman)
Evernote #83 - Lessons from a Trident nuclear submarine.
As an officer, you have to know how to do everyone else’s
job. At Evernote, employees can opt to be part of officer
training. They then get scheduled into 1 or 2 meetings a week
to learn about different parts of the company.
13. Training
Investing the development of your team

48. Hewlett Packard (#52) empowers employees to make a difference and give
back. Let's do the math: 4 hours per month x 300,000 employees = 1,200,000
hours of HP social impact.
14. Paying it Forward
!
Giving back reinforces a sense of purpose

49. 15. Empowerment
!
3M (#53) launched the 15 percent program in 1948. After forty plus
years in the red taught 3M a key lesson: Innovate or Die, an ethos
the company has carried dutifully into the 21st century.
Tapping into the creativity of your team
powers innovation

50. Don’t Think Trojan Horse
Here is a great analysis by
Peter Fryar on the concept of Trojan Mice
[Goldfish]:
Much change is of the “Trojan horse” variety.
The planned changes are presented at a
grand event (the Trojan Horse) amid much
loud music, bright lights and dry ice. More
often than not, however, a few weeks later
the organization will have settled back into its
usual ways and rejected much of the change.
This is usually because the change was too
great to be properly understood and owned
by the workforce.
Trojan mice [Green Goldfish], on the other
hand, are small, well focused changes, which
are introduced on an ongoing basis in an
inconspicuous way. They are small enough
to be understood and owned by all
concerned but their effects can be far-
reaching. Collectively a few Trojan mice
[Green Goldfish] will change more than one
Trojan horse ever could.
Start Small

51. FIVE POPULAR KEYNOTES/WORKSHOPS

52. AUTHOR, FORBES CONTRIBUTOR,
TEDx SPEAKER, AND IBM FUTURIST

53. INSPIRATIONAL, INFORMATIVE, & ENTERTAINING

54. LET’S WORK TOGETHER
+1.919.360.4702
stan@purplegoldfish.com
LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE
THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE