CHAPTER1
The Genesis of the High-Performance Work Place
From his early thirties until his retirement, Ken Bingham has devoted his career to finding and fine-tuning elements that create the highest-performing work environments. By doing so, he has, directly and indirectly, impacted thousands of people’s lives, both at their workplaces and in their homes. He has done this through his own high standards for hard work and excellence as well as by applying these same expectations to everyone around him. He calls his system theHigh Performance Work Place, or HPWP. In the simplest of terms, he would describe this as, “Do the Right Thing—Every Time.”
If you have seen the standup comedy routines of Jerry Seinfeld, you know he makes us all aware of how humorously stupid our commonly accepted thoughts and behaviors are. That’s also Ken. He is extremely impatient with policies, practices, and decisions that don’t make sense. Driven by the dual desire to make the companies he has worked for successful and the people with whom he worked feel valued, Ken developed the philosophy and applications in the following pages. Everything we know today about creating the most successful workplaces comes from being his devoted apprentices.
Researching High-Performing Companies
Over thirty years ago, Ken worked for CECO, a major construction company, with over seventy locations throughout the country. CECO’s businesses consisted of steel mills, manufacturing plants, construction sites, and supporting warehouses and facilities. Over 80 percent of the operations were unionized, involving over fifty different labor agreements.
Do the Right Thing—Every Time.
While CECO was very strong in the construction business at that time, the company was experiencing losses in market share in some of its manufacturing lines. Executive leadership was dissatisfied with the current situation and was alarmed looking at forecasts for the future. They determined that, while they could gain a competitive advantage through technology, innovation, automation, sales approaches, material utilization, and customer service, all these advantages would only prove temporary. Over time, the competition