Welcome to the Week: The Fixer of Everything

I am enjoying my visits to our Fitlife Foods Culinary Center. This is the location where we make tens of thousands of meals each week. They have remarkably improved their operations the last couple of years.?

They are a team focused on winning and is curious when things don’t go right so they can improve. They believe in a sense of purpose for themselves and one another and are grateful for the opportunity to continue to get better.

It was not so long ago (about 2.5 years ago) that I along with Penny Primus , Fitlife’s VP of Marketing and Customer Experience had to continually be there because the level of ownership did not exist. We had the right strategy, but we did not have the right people in the right seat.

This week, when I was visiting the Culinary Center, I found the plaque in the picture above sitting on Director of Culinary Center Operations David Saso 's desk. It said “fixer of everything” and it stopped me in my tracks.?

I said…. No! It was scary. (I came to find out it was a gift given to him). The reason it was so scary is because if one person has to be the fixer of everything, then we do not have a business that is scalable. We have a business that relies too much on tribal knowledge and “heroes” vs. being a cohesive team that can work together where individuals can be the owner of every situation, every customer, every plating, every delivery bag, etc.

This weekend is the National Football League (NFL) 's Super Bowl, hosted by Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee and all the talk is about how Patrick Mahomes , Travis Kelce, Christian McCaffrey , Brock Purdy or Taylor Swift (I hear she has a mean blocking style) will be responsible for the win. The reality is though, it will come down to ALL the players that you have never heard of on the offensive or defensive line and many more. There are no fixers of the game, but fixers of their thing.

Companies like Fitlife have survived, thrived and persevered for 13 years because of a mentality of alignment to our values. Winning, Ownership, Gratitude, Purpose and Curiosity along with people who Get their roles, Want their Roles and have the Capacity for their roles according to EOS Worldwide is what provides companies the structure to grow.

The “why” behind this is companies cannot have one person in any area who is the “fixer of everything.” Businesses are a collection of individuals who must own what is right in front of them. Organizations need teams of fixers (at the root cause vs. being in constant states of firefighting) and people who can figure out how to always have a culture of continuous improvement.

This is what it takes for the winner of the Super Bowl (no one player will win it for a team) and for your organization to thrive. There are no fixers of everything or heroes, but when everyone is a fixer of THEIR THING, that is when special things happen.

As you approach this week, where do you sense there is a “fixer of everything” or a hero in the business. What changes need to be made to ensure the layers go much deeper?

Feed Your Journey,

David