How do creativity and productivity thrive simultaneously in a business? The creative and the business mindsets are often very different in their approach to problem solving and innovation, yet in most professions, success in each area is necessary for companies to grow and thrive. So what are the conditions that make space for both?

Paul Seck is a landscape architect and Partner at MVVA, a leading landscape architecture firm nationwide. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Paul shares how MVVA makes space for both. It starts with a plurality of voices and with a commitment to collaboration.

Listen and learn more about how collaboration is a precondition for creativity and innovation.

Tugboat Institute®’s Gary Kunkle spent many years advising companies around sustained growth and then completing a PhD thesis on the true drivers of sustained growth. Through this work, he has built up an impressive store of data and insight. Gary leads Tugboat’s Paced Growth Team Training and our Executive Team Training Series and has helped many Evergreen® leaders and executives understand their own companies better and set the conditions for sustained growth that will last 100 years or more.

In this Tugboat Institute talk, Gary shares a quick insight into why philanthropic efforts, which come naturally to the Purpose-driven Evergreen leader and company, are, in fact, also a wonderful strategy for recruiting, retention, and overall success. Through several examples, he demonstrates that going good is not only good for the community and the world, but god for your bottom line as well.

Listen and be inspired to align your philanthropic efforts with your business’ purpose - and watch both flourish.

Most company leaders can attest to the fact that finding a way to be a present spouse, parent, and even friend while building a business can be extremely challenging. But it is critical for creating a life and lifestyle that are good and sustainable. People often talk about “balance,” but sometimes balance is simply not possible. So seek harmony instead.

In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Paul Mears III, President, and CEO of Hello! Destination Management, shares his own journey as a CEO, a husband, and a father. Through the different chapters of his life, he tackled this tension with different strategies, and he uncovered some great wisdom along the way. Although he is unfortunately not able to resolve this tension for you, he does offer some strategies and perspectives that might help you as you find your own way through.

Listen and be inspired to seek work/life harmony in the way that works best for you and your family.

Brad Herrmann learned about building and running a business from his father, who had done just that. But then his father sold the company, and the company and the team Brad had grown to love disappeared. He partnered with a friend and founded a new company, and they vowed that would not happen to them.

In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Brad shares his journey to find a way to ensure that his company, Text-em-All, lasts far beyond his own tenure. The company has grown substantially since its founding in 2005, and Brad and his co-founder were committed to finding a way to ensure it stayed Private and Evergreen® forever. He examined a number of potential ownership models and finally hit on the Employee Owned Trust (EOT). They have just completed their conversion to an EOT and Brad is a big fan.

Listen and learn more about EOT, and whether or not it might be right for your company.

Change is uncomfortable, especially when we did not seek it and when it sets us on paths we would never have chosen. How we choose to deal with the inevitable surprises life has in store for us is where we really find out who we are and what we are capable of. This is true in our everyday lives, as well as in our jobs and careers.

In this talk, Tugboat Institute® member Elizabeth Glasbrenner shares her story of dealing with change. Elizabeth co-founded her company, Smiley Technologies, with her brother after their father sold his own company and they perceived a window of opportunity. Over the following years, as she started her family and worked on the business, she encountered several twists of fate she had not planned for at all, both at home and at work. As she faced the huge changes that presented themselves, she realized she had a choice: to let change happen to her… or to choose to embrace it and make it work for her.

Listen and be inspired by this extraordinary story to choose to be an agent of change, rather than a victim of it.

Tugboat Institute® member Kirk Aubry leads Savage Services, a transportation company based in Utah that moves and manages critical materials. In the years he has led the company, they have seen impressive growth. Rather than simply sit back and admire their success, Kirk asked himself, why? He spent dedicated time and effort exploring this question, and has reached a clear conclusion: connection.

Connection is, in Kirk’s words, “The Secret Sauce” that has allowed for Savage’s success and growth. Connection amongst team members, with their customers, and with their community. This realization is, in many ways, a great confirmation of the Evergreen® model and mindset, because creating connection starts with communication, care, and a focus on People.

Listen and be inspired to examine and improve connection throughout your organization.

Jeff Patterson is the CEO and founder of Gaggle, an EdTech software company that exists to protect students in schools. As a company founder, he has fought hard to create and build Gaggle, and along with it an entire industry, and he has remained committed to the Evergreen® path throughout. However, as committed as he is to the Evergreen 7Ps® principles, he has had a nagging feeling for years that he needs more than a wonderful culture to survive for the long term.

In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Jeff shares his own journey toward creating a meaningful and effective strategy for Gaggle. After searching in vain for the “right” strategy, he embarked on his own learning journey, reading many books and talking with many leaders about the ingredients of an effective strategy. Here, he shares his learnings and explains why, in his eyes, culture is important, but without a strong strategy, it’s not enough.

Liusten and be inspired to dig deeper in your efforts to create a strategy that is just right for your company.

When he was still researching and teaching at university in Germany, Professor Hermann Simon undertook to study the landscape of market leaders in exports around the world and in different industries, with the goal of identifying the characteristics of the companies that managed to find their way into that selective group. What he discovered surprised him; it was not the giants he expected who occupied the top spots. It was, instead, predominately middle market companies who remained relatively unknown who were the clear leaders. Many of them came from Germany.

In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Professor Simon shares key learnings from his work on his subsequent book, Hidden Champions: Lessons from 500 of the World's Best Unknown Companies. The Hidden Champions are different from Evergreen® companies, but they share some important and interesting characteristics. Professor Simon went a step beyond simply articulating his theory on Hidden Champions. Following publication of the book, he left the university and founded his own company which, following the steps he outlined in the book, he has grown into a Hidden Champion itself.

Listen to this talk, consider the characteristics of the Hidden Champions, and see if any of them might help your company.