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I sat in a corporate boardroom in Sioux Falls recently with a CEO who was hosting a luncheon for 10 employees.
 Dee Dee Raap This company faces what I call the stress of success, the conundrum facing many small businesses today. What helped it grow and succeed was a tightly knit group of motivated employees who creatively worked hard to solve problems and achieve great success.
But that very process meant more people, new people, and because of the speed of growth, a loss of what got it there in the first place – people knowing people.
This CEO is smart. While I thought the session should focus on the company and employee likes and dislikes, he wanted to keep it informal, focusing on employees, how long they worked there, the years in the industry and how they got to Sioux Falls.
His sincerity was rewarded with stories of school, engagements, marriage, adoption of a foster child, aging parents, dogs, more dogs and Iraq. He heard stories of experiences in an industry where acquisitions and mergers have created more corporate names than most could remember.
He learned that he had a 3-to-1 ratio – three years of industry experience for every year with his business – and saw that experience as depth that can solve any problem the company faces as it grows even more this year.
As he learned their stories, they learned about each other, and they connected.
In the official world of corporate training, it’s a version of appreciative inquiry, a strategy used by 3M, General Electric and others as they work to build or rebuild cultures to support growth, service and teamwork, aka internal service.
In the unofficial world of one corporation in Sioux Falls, it was called lunch with the CEO. It accomplished an important task: reducing the stress of success by affirming the importance of individuals by helping them reconnect, which helps them commit, create and solve problems together.
And we can do that by taking a deep breath in the midst of growth and change, and take the time to ask for and then listen to employee stories.
Employees answer your telephones, greet your customers, serve and meet your customers’ needs. That process is called service.
Employees add value to your product with that service. And stories of what we’ve done, who we are and how we got here add value to us as people. People with greater internal value can provide greater service. Growth can make it hard to take the time to stay connected, but staying connected is a human need that helps us be the best we can be.
And some days, it’s as simple as telling our stories.
Raap is a speaker and consultant on service and leadership
www.deedeeraap.com
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