This is Waste to Wealth, a podcast about turning your waste hauling business into a profitable, scalable cash flowing machine. And now, here's your host, Michael Have you ever heard of the Christmas truce? Christmas truce. During World War I, German soldiers and British soldiers killing each other in trench warfare. They were in trenches, very close to each other, trying to kill each other. And there was this event where at Christmastime, and I'll have to get the exact year, at Christmastime, the German soldiers and the English soldiers For Christmas Day, they took a break from killing each other, and they actually got out of their trenches, put down their weapons, and they spent the day together sharing jokes, food, cigars, playing cards, even kicking a ball around playing some soccer, or as they would call it, football. In the middle of a war, they're trying to kill each other, and they took a day off to hang out together. Why would they do that? If you've ever heard of this before, it sounds really really strange. And it is really strange, especially when you just take that one day and you say they stopped killing each other for a day, hung out together, then the next day they went back to going ahead and killing each other. There was, this was really This is a great example of what can happen when you put together the right circumstance. See, I'm reading a book called The Culture Code, which is about building effective teams. And what happened with the Christmas truce is the same kind of thing that you need when you build effective teams. These different sides, although they're trying to kill each other, they actually, because of their proximity and the things that they were doing, they actually came to like each other. And they began to trust each other, even though they weren't, even though they're at war with each other. It doesn't make any sense on the surface, but the events leading up to the Christmas truce make it a little more understandable why this happened. You see, these soldiers were only like 30 meters, 30 yards for us Americans apart from each other. So they're actually physically very close. And they got to a point in the war where they were not, neither side could advance one way or the other. So the same soldiers were in the same spots with the opposite soldiers from them, and their routines became the same. So after you have fighting going on, you have your dead that get dropped and injured, and it's common courtesy to say, hey, don't shoot our guys as they go to get their wounded, and we won't shoot you while you get your wounded. So first thing is, don't shoot at each other when you're trying to get help people that are injured in the battlefield, like let us go get our wounded and our dead. Okay, so there's a slight ceasefire there. They would take a break so they could eat food. When I'm cooking my breakfast, hey, I'm not going to be shooting you because I'm cooking my breakfast. You're going to smell the bacon and the eggs. The other side, the Germans might start cooking, and then the English people are like, hey, they're cooking their food. Why don't we cook our food? They start having the same breakfast routine, like, hey, we're not going to shoot each other during breakfast. No one's trying to come over during breakfast. Then they have supply lines that come in and we're going to be here forever. So I really don't want you to shoot at my supply lines. So I won't shoot at your supply lines if you don't shoot at mine. And so they stopped shooting at each other's supply lines. Then they put up white flag areas where it was like off limits to get to shoot in those areas. Like, hey, if I'm in this spot, I'm not going to shoot at you. Don't shoot at my guys in that spot. We're not doing anything dangerous. We're just, we're above, we're above our trenches. Don't shoot at us. Then they started having a good night routine where at 9.30 at night, a sniper would shoot a final round and they would call it the good night kiss. That would mean that we're done attacking each other for the night, we'll see in the morning. Isn't that weird? They had all these little micro truces that happened. Then as it was becoming holiday season, They're getting gifts at the front line, so they're having more fun things to play with, and they have more treats, and they have more fun things to cook, so there's even more smells. They start singing holiday songs, and they had competitions over who could sing louder. Hey, I hear the English are singing loud songs, I'm going to sing songs louder than them. That's so weird to have those competitions. On Christmas morning, One of the English officers shouted, I'm an English officer and I'm going to come to the other side without my weapon. My life is in your hands. Send another officer and I'll meet you halfway. I'm coming right now. And the German was like, oh my gosh, is this a trap? And what they just said is, you know what? I'm going to send an officer as well. And so both sides sent an officer and they met in the middle and they said, hey, let's spend today together. We're all away from our families. We're all miserable. Let's just spend one day enjoying life and the little life we have left. And that's what they did. That's how it happened. Isn't it so strange that two enemies could actually build trust with each other enough to take a break and enjoy festivities. It has to do with three major concepts that I've learned from the culture code. One is building safety, another is sharing vulnerability, and another one is establishing purpose. Those are the three skills of a successful culture. What's ironic about most of these things is that you can't, to build safety, the number one way to build safety is actually to just physically be close to somebody. And that's what these soldiers were. They were physically close to each other for a very, very long time. And that, what is that word? The commonness, the routine, the awareness, mundane, just the familiar, that's the word, the familiarity, familiarity with each other. The familiarity with each other is what created safety. Like, Hey, I know who you are. I've been around you for months. Like I even know some of your names because you shouted at each other. I know your routines, the same as mine. We have a lot in common that creates safe. Um, and then sharing vulnerability that they, they, um, one side would say, Hey, I'm going to be vulnerable. And then the other side said, okay, if you you've given up some vulnerability, um, I'm going to do the same. And they, they escalated the amount of vulnerability they're allowed, allowing each other to have. And you have to go, you have to give first, you have to give vulnerability first. So it's really interesting. Um, that this is how teams get the best teams get built is having these things. So if I have a workspace. then I need to be able to create that safety. I have the problem of, and I think we all have this problem of, in today's age, we don't spend time physically near people because we talk through electronics. I'm talking through electronic right now. We don't talk physically in person as much, and so you don't have those micro micro truces or those micro interactions that build trust and build cohesiveness. We've lost that as a culture, and it's really hard to get back. We're trying to make an active effort to have people physically, you can't be physically together. Let's be virtually together. Turn your camera on. Let's use our voices. Let's all say words. Let's problem solve together. Let's make as many things common as possible. The best groups in the world know these things. And the Navy SEALs is a wonderful example of a team that has created an amazing amount of vulnerability and safety and purpose. One of their famous exercises that does this team building is the log PT. Log PT is where Everyone on your team, there's six people on your squad. They all, you all have to carry a log around with you. That thing is so heavy. It's like, um, it's like 250 pounds or 300 pounds. And you can't carry that thing by yourself. You need your whole team to coordinate. You have to do sit-ups with it and you have to carry it, um, and do maneuvers. You have to lift it up and down and take it here and there and spin it around. And you have to do this in, on the beach and in the water and unit. I remember hearing stories of they had to sleep with the log sometimes. You can't move it unless you're coordinating with your team. You're so close to your team members that you're breathing on each other. If someone falters, then the other people around them have to lift up right when they falter. You have to be in total sync. And that shared closeness and shared struggle creates a bond that can't be created another way. You have to physically be close to somebody else and interact with them. And when they move, you react to their movement in a complimentary way. That's how you build good teams. So that's how you want to run your organization too. by having group cohesiveness where you solve problems together. So if you have a truck that's broken down, don't just give it to one guy to solve. Have a team effort to solve it. Or if you have a logistical problem, have the team be aware of that problem and weigh in on it. Share the problems. Don't isolate, because isolation is how you destroy teams. And just physically bringing people together creates team unity. dramatic difference we had. When we were running our trucking company, we had two yards. It was so difficult to coordinate when people just physically went to different places. I said, you know what? We're going to have one yard. We're just going to have one yard where all the trucks are, and we're going to solve We're going to solve so many problems just because we only have one place people meet instead of two different places. Because if Andy, his truck breaks down, he has to get another truck. Guess what? It's in another yard. His backup truck's in another yard. Half the team members are in another yard. We don't have all of our team members in the same yard where Andy's truck is. So let's just bring all the trucks to the same yard. And then if somebody has a problem, then we have all the resources there together. And it's a together problem. It's not an Andy by himself problem, which is what was happening. This team member, team member A was having a hard time by himself. Well, team member B is like, well, that's his problem. I'm able to roll and do my job. No, it's a team problem. We're all together. A truck can't run. Then what are we going to do as a team to make up for it? Is someone else going to do an extra haul? Who's going to stay and fix the truck? Can we tag team and bring the truck to a mechanic or get the part? So much better when you have teams together. So build that cohesiveness and don't put anyone on an island. and work together. Share vulnerability. It seems like you want to, as a leader, you want to make it so you're tough and you have all the answers and you're super smart and you never make a mistake. But that makes it so people are intimidated by you and don't want to be vulnerable in front of you because they think you have your act together. So it's better to be, as the leader, say, hey, these are the things I suck at. I'm bad at these things. These are the things I'm working on. and lower your guard and create vulnerability. And then that gives your team the opportunity to also be vulnerable and they share their weaknesses. Just be honest about them. No one's perfect. Nobody here is Jesus. Jesus was perfect and he humbled himself. So what does that mean for us? We also have to humble ourselves and be vulnerable. So those are a couple of things I learned from the Culture Code. I hope that you you implement some of them into your organization, build a strong team and make some things happen. This has been Michael with Buffalo Finances. You have Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Waste to Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you connect with us on social media and subscribe to the show wherever you consume podcasts. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell a friend about the show.