0:00 [Music] Who are you? And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and we're here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and the practices of great military leaders. and we have veteran guests all
0:35 by way of talking about how what happens in the military can be translated into ideas and practices that we can apply to our businesses and professional practices to make them run better to make them to make them go better. So a as a military veteran, I was in the Navy for 16 years. This is one way in which at least I look to give back to you, my fellow citizens, for the support that you gave me and my colleagues. Uh the if you've been following the news, you know
1:11 that um among other things, the the military spends billions of dollars uh training personnel every year. And so this is a way of of perhaps getting a little bit of that uh you know that investment back. So uh today um the the title of the show is Naval Tradition Meets Business Culture. And um by the way I I I forgot to mention um this show is sponsored by the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. This is an
1:47 organization of uh civilian and military people who get together uh in order to promote um the promote the sea services for the benefit of our country and uh this the citizenry and the people who are in those those branches of the military. I'll talk more about the Beverly Hills uh council a little bit later on the show. So uh I lost my train of thought. Oops. Uh, so, oh, I I remember. Oh, so um, in a as as president of the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League, one of the
2:23 things that I'm working to do is to bring some of the Navy culture into how we handle things at the Navy League. And so, uh, it when I recruited my board, one of the things that I talked to them about is that instead of calling ourselves things like president and vice president, uh, we were going to have uh, navy names out of Navy culture. Now, in particular, I'm using naval aviation. Um, that's the community I'm most familiar with. So, as president, I take the title commanding officer. The senior
2:59 vice president is the executive officer. The uh secretary treasurer will be the administrative officer or the admino. The vice president in charge of educational programs will be the training officer known as the trainer, etc., etc. So, it's kind of a fun way to bring some of the military culture into a a more sort of civilian uh activity. Another thing that I mention to them is is once we get I'm we're reestablishing ourselves. So once we get farther along in in rebuilding
3:34 the Beverly Hills Council, I'm hoping we'll have some kind of event and we'll have among others maybe the the mayor of Beverly Hills or the police chief in Beverly Hills happens to be a Marine Corps veteran, for example. And so the Navy has an interesting way of introducing dignitaries who are at an official Navy event. So uh for example, if the if the mayor of Beverly Hills were to go on board a ship, okay,
4:12 that when the when the mayor first set foot on the deck, the mayor is a is a woman right now, I believe. So when when her foot touched the deck of the ship, there would be an announcement. Beverly Hills arriving, right? Not her name, okay? But who what she represents, okay? So, uh, the mayor would be Beverly Hills arriving. The police chief would be Beverly Hills Police Department arriving. Okay. And when they left, it's it's the opposite. when they lifted their second foot off
4:48 the deck and got into the aircraft or or if they were being taken off by boat, they would say Beverly Hills departing. Beverly Hills Police Department departing. That's how so and I it um if the Secretary of State came on board um the call would be State Department arriving. If the president of the United States comes on board a navy ship, it's United States arriving because the president of the United States is the chief executive of the United States of America. So, he represents the United States. He isn't
5:25 the United States, but he represents the United States just like the mayor of Beverly Hills represents Beverly Hills. She's not Beverly Hills. That's the distinction. So in addition to what how people are announced when they come on board a ship, they're also piped aboard that it's called piping the side. This is a tradition in the United States Navy that comes from the Royal Navy, the the Navy of of Great Britain, and it goes back hundreds of years. I I I I don't know
6:00 when it first started. Um, but I know that it was being done at least in the 1700s, likely before that. And piping the side refers to a Bzan's pipe. This this this is an actual Boseman's pipe. Now, I I will say I was never a Bose in the United States Navy. Why do I have a Bzan pipe? Because they were being sold at um at J Peterman and I thought it was a a cool thing to have and it wasn't too expensive. And so I got a Bzen's pipe uh and and you can it's got kind of a unique shape. Okay.
6:37 And and this is this is an absolutely genuine one. It's um it's this one's made in England. Okay. And the the the Bose's pipe I I I don't blow well, but here I'll I'll blow it so you can get just a sense of the of the sound. And then I said I don't I don't play the bosen's pipe, but the by the way you cover the hole here that allows you to do make different calls on on the
7:13 pipe. And it it used to be back in the days of wooden sailing ships that the bowzen piped different calls and that told the crew what they needed to do. Come on deck. uh change the configuration of the sails. Um there was a they were piped for for meals. They were piped when grog was issued. Okay. So, uh you know, you couldn't be screaming all these things across the deck. So, uh the Bzan's mate would would pipe a a call and
7:48 the sailors on the ship knew what all that meant. So uh so the tradition has developed in the Navy that at again at certain official events you have what's called the arrival of the official I'm sorry at certain formal events you have what's called the arrival of the official party and it's just it's the dignitaries who are going to be taking part in the ceremony. So it if there's an admiral who's going to be taking part in the ceremony, if there's a retiree, if there's an awardee, uh, somebody like
8:24 that. So then you you you you have a line, you have like a a red carpet basically with side boys lined up on either side. I'll show you this a little bit later on the show what it actually looks like. So, I'm going to show you a retirement ceremony and and the Bzan stands at one end of the carpet and as the person is introduced, you know, uh, Beverly Hills arriving. Okay. So, then the person walks between the side boys who all salute in unison and the Boseman's mate pipes the the appropriate
9:00 call. It's a it's a very very if you've you've never seen it, it's a very very moving ceremony. I I I' I've been fortunate to see it many times as a chaplain, I was asked um many times to give the invocation and benediction at uh retirement ceremonies. And so while I never got piped aboard because I'm I'm not a dignitary, okay, um I would already be on the podium uh waiting for the various dignitaries to arrive. I did get to witness the ceremony um and and always found it incredibly moving.
9:38 So, uh, the I the idea of taking something like this, like this this Navy Navy tradition of piping the side and transferring it into the culture of your business is to bring in the the kind of symbolism that it represents. And I realized I forgot to close my email. So I'm going to do that before it starts pinging. Uh so so you get a sense of respect,
10:13 acknowledgement, order, ritual. And I I I do think it's a shame when I was when I was a kid, a young boy, even a teenager, there were a lot of sort of civic rituals in which uh you know, our our communities took part. Um, I know in Santa Barbara every Fourth of July, um, there was a fireworks display and we would all go sort of picnic and barbecue in a park along along this along the ocean front and
10:49 then there would be a barge out in the ocean that would shoot the fireworks in order to make sure that they didn't, you know, burn anything, right? But it it was really a civic ritual, everybody, you know, getting together to celebrate uh Independence Day. Um we also had um because Santa Barbara, California in general was originally a Spanish colony. So we have um um uh Lasios de Fiesta, the days of the of the Fiesta. and and there's a lot of events that take place
11:24 there, including a big parade down State Street where there's vakeros in in beautiful uh um they're not uniforms, but beautiful clothes on on absolutely gorgeous horses. I know my older sister had a friend who always was one of the dancers in the parade. Uh she was an extremely extremely skilled and beautiful dancer. There were floats. It was so and and and and La Fiesta was not the only time we had parades. We had parades for various holidays. I know from time to
12:00 time a group that with which I was involved, it was a children's theater company. We'd be asked to participate in various parades and it's a wonderful way to bring the community together. Here in Los Angeles, I I don't ever recall in the last 20 or 30 years anything like that happening. Maybe in some of the smaller communities adjacent to Los Angeles, some of these things still still uh take place, but uh you know, not really. and and and and again that these kinds of rituals help bind us
12:35 together as a group whether it's a group of citizens or residents in in a a community whether it's colleagues in a in a business whether it's a you know group of people in the military building cohesion is very important and I think that it's it's difficult to it's more difficult to do that in business today than perhaps perhaps ever before because so many people are still uh working remotely and people are busy. They don't necessarily want to socialize with their
13:11 with their business with their work colleagues. Um you know they call it uh mandatory fun you know sort of derogatory names like that. Uh and and and it's it's it's a shame. Now I I I will say that we don't you know we don't have to burden people's time in order to create meaningful rituals in the workplace. And so that's really what today's show is going to be about is is how can we how can we do that uh so that
13:46 they're they're part of the regular workday. They don't take very long. their you know maximum impact uh in terms of uh bringing cohesion uh respect acknowledgement to the workplace without causing huge disruptions and and a lot of time. So uh so I mentioned the the the power of of of reinforcing the culture of of cohesion. Uh there's also a sense you know every business like it or not has a certain hierarchy and there may be a
14:24 need to reinforce that hierarchy as well. In in the United States we've devolved to an ever less hierarchical society and there are some benefits to that but I think there are also some detriments as well. So, we've we've lost uh a sense of respect for uh for many of the institutions in our society. I know I I talked about that on my show Jiggers's Place several weeks ago and and and and that that can be a shame as well. So, uh, trying to bring back some of this, I
15:00 think, is is important and and creating ceremonies that are moving, I think, is one of the best ways to regain the benefits that we used to have in past decades. So, there are several uh situations in which we you might decide to build a ritual uh in in your in your business, in your workplace. So one is is the onboarding of a new employee. So especially especially if you have a small organization. So a new team
15:37 member coming on board is going to be a big deal. Excuse me one moment. It's a it's kind of a a chilly day here. um some so anyway um so bringing a new person on board is is going to have a significant impact on the team and it should be recognized as such. Now by the same token in a large organization where it's easy for people to feel like a meaningless cog in this huge organization. It may be even more
16:13 important to have an onboarding uh ritual, if you will, that gives the person a sense that they're really being welcomed into the team. It doesn't necessarily need to be companywide. Maybe it's just within their department. And and as a department head, maybe you develop some kind of ritual for onboarding. And I'm going to talk about some specific ideas in a minute. Uh but but that that that's a that's one area where you might want to create a ritual in the workplace. Another is when someone gets promoted. So uh when they
16:49 go from I don't know uh uh supervisor to um I don't know director or something like that or they go from uh supervisor to maybe an assistant vice president. Okay. By the way, it it occurs to me that one of the one of the types of workspace, one types of businesses where this could be uh most profound is in food service, restaurants, fast food restaurants, etc. You have typically a lot of team members because you need servers, you need bus, you need people to bus the tables, you have cooks, you
17:25 have you have, you know, um supervisors, assistant supervisors, all kinds, you know, you have cashiers, maybe you have um I don't they don't call them matrades anymore, the people who who sit, you know, bring people to their tables with their menus. you know, you have all these people um and and a lot of people, you know, there's there's somewhat high turnover. So, creating some rituals there maybe will create a culture at your restaurant where people see that they're tied to something more important than just a place to work and and and
18:01 earn a paycheck. Okay. So, um, so promotions and and other types of milestone celebrations, including retirements or people leaving. Okay. Now, if someone's fired, you're probably not going to create a ritual around them leaving. But if someone's been at at your company for a while, maybe it's a few years, and now for whatever reason, they're moving on. Maybe they got a better job somewhere else. uh or they they got a you know they were maybe your off your your organization didn't have an opportunity to promote that person and so they they found a uh you know a
18:38 higher level job at another company. I don't think we should begrudge our team members that they've done that. It shows initiative. If if we're not able to offer them opportunity then it's it's it's a good thing for them to seek it elsewhere. But we should then send them off with a sense of of gratitude for their service and best wishes for their future endeavors. So in the Navy, we we wish people fair winds and following seas, right? Which means that you won't you won't have a choppy ship bouncing up and down on the waves, right? So it's it's
19:14 it's a good thing in many many cases when people move on uh because it means they're seeking more opportunity. Now it may not be good for our organ. They may be a key person. We really you know want them there but I I I think we need to be bigger than that bigger than our loss. And and by the way, let's keep in mind if for whatever reason things don't work out in the new position, if we've sent them off with some kind of uh ritual recognizing their service to our organization, if things don't work out,
19:49 they may come back and say, "Hey, you know, things aren't working out so well here. Would you be interested in talking with me coming back?" Well, yeah, absolutely. Right? Especially if it was a key person. Yeah, we'd love to we'd love to talk to you about coming back. Right? So these kinds of rituals open up an opportunity for that to potentially happen. Now is it going to happen often? Maybe not. But even if it only happens, you know, once in a while, still if if the person has been a good employee, to have them come back and to welcome them back will create an even deeper sense of
20:27 loyalty from them, but also from, you know, from from the organization to them and from well, from them to the organization and from the organization to them. and building that that sense of loyalty can be very important to the success and stability of the organization. So uh so I think those are important. Another thing is is to have symbolic recognition. Now in the in the military uh we we award what are called personal decorations. So I brought a couple of my uh personal decorations. Um, this this is this is the one I got
21:04 on my first tour of duty. This is called the Navy and Marine Corps commenation medal. And you can see this is the medal itself. Okay. And you can see there's an eagle there with uh with arrows in his talons. And this is the ribbon for the metal. This you wear when you're wearing the uh you know dress dress uniform. This up here is called a ribbon. So there's there's a uh what's called a um uh service dress in the Navy. You don't wear your metals, you just wear your
21:40 ribbons. And then unique in the Navy, we also still have a mess dress uniform. I'm sorry. No, take that back. This is not for the mess. Uh yeah, no, mini medals are for the mess dress, which I don't have a mini metal here. So, but this is this is um like if you're a member of the American Legion and you wear that that uh uh what's called the overseas cap. So, this is a a a little um metal representation pin uh that you've received this particular award. So, this is this is one that the Navy gives. And then I was fortunate enough
22:17 um having um been of service to the United States Army. So, I was giving given the uh Army um achievement medal. This is the Army Achievement Medal. Okay. And you can see it's a different color ribbon. It's got blue and green with white stripes and and the the medal itself is looks like um a musket and some flags, right? and and um uh you know, I'm showing you two of my most cherished uh because of of of who and why um they were given to me. So
22:55 now maybe I think medals are kind of cool. Um and and by the way, not all medals are are pinned on like this. So I I mean I never got the Medal of Honor, but the Medal of Honor has a ribbon that's put over the recipient's neck. And you know maybe your organization creates some kind of medal is as a symbolic as a recognition for some kind of achievement. So if you have a sales team and there's a particularly audacious sales goal that uh is is
23:30 reached. So then maybe you you award, you know, that salesperson a medal and you have a little ceremony where they where they're given that recognition among their peers. Okay? Now, you may say, "Well, they're going to want money." Well, yeah, yes, money is fine. Money is fine, but there's there's something special about being given a medal, right? Think about when you were in in school and you got some kind of award for, you know, a spelling bee or
24:05 something like that, right? We can create these things. We can make them meaningful. Okay. By the way, one way to make them meaningful is to make them not common. One of the problems with medals in medals in the in the in the military now is officers especially get a medal every time they finish a tour of duty. They're called end of tour awards. One of the reasons why I'm so proud of these two is they were not end of tour awards. They were for actual work that I did. Um, by the way, I got I got several other
24:40 awards of of this just just for showing up every day. Um, but not the original one. The original one I had to work for. So, um, but if we if we have certain awards that are rarely given, so they're more highly treasured because not everybody has them, right? Uh, and and we can work into that, you know, so-called piping moments. Now, are, you know, are you going to get somebody to, you know, blow the bow in his pipe? Maybe not. It's it's it's not an easy skill to to master. But you could have a
25:18 special uh song that's played. You could even these days it it's so inexpensive to have original music written. You could have a little original piece of music written that's played when when any when a a recognition ceremony is done. Maybe there's even someone in your organization who can who writes music and and they would really appreciate the opportunity to write the official, you know, recognition song of your organization. So then every time there's a recognition ceremony, you know, that person is there
25:53 going, I wrote that piece of music, right? So they're brought into the ceremony along with the honore. So all of these things can be brought together to create moments in the workplace to recognize people to show them appreciation to acknowledge their good and hard work. All of these kind of things I think are are are important and uh they shouldn't be done you know purely to make the business more profitable. I hope you wouldn't do it for that. I hope you would do it to show
26:28 sincere sincere uh uh appreciation, sincere gratitude and and and even affection for the members of your team. And again, whether you have a small business with just a few people, whether you have a large organization and maybe it's done department by department or maybe you have some department by department awards and you have others that are companywide. So in the department of defense you have uh you so each each branch of the service has got an achievement medal. There's an army achievement medal.
27:04 There's a navy and marine corps achievement medal and there's an air force achievement medal. And then uh the same is true of commenation medals. There's a commenation medal for each one of the service branches. Navy marine corps share the same one. But the next level up which is the meritorious service medal. Okay, that is a department of defensewide award. So if if a soldier gets a meritorious service medal or a sailor or an airman, it doesn't matter. It's all the same medal.
27:39 Okay? and anything everything above that there are they're not uh well there are some higher awards actually that are for individual service branches like the Navy Cross for example um but but there are also defense departmentwide medals okay to recognize a level of service that seems to transcend your service branch if you will okay so you could do the same thing in your in your company as well in terms of recogn nition and awards. Some can be within individual departments, some can be companywide.
28:14 Okay. So, um I came up with a few ideas on uh for rituals and and you know, take these for what they want. Run with them. Create what create ones that will uh apply to your business. Actually, I'm going to take a a moment here, take a and have a a little break here to talk about uh my sponsor. So, uh, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, my sponsor is the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. So, uh, the the Navy League of the United States is a nationwide organization, and
28:51 there are local councils that that do a lot of the sort of, uh, day-to-day programming for for the Navy League. The Beverly Hills Council actually covers most of the greater Los Angeles area from uh Los from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, all the way down to Long Beach and into uh East Los Angeles as well. Uh the the Navy League of the United States has uh three missions. One is to support, the second is to educate, and the third is
29:26 to advocate on behalf of the sea services. So what are the sea services? They are the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and the United States Merchant Marine. And what do you see in common with all of them? They sail on the oceans, right? And so uh we do programs to help people understand why the sea services what the sea services do why it's important. We do programs to support uh members in the sea forces as long as as well as I
30:02 should say uh units like sea cadet units, junior naval reserve officer training corps units, naval officer reser naval reserve officer training corps units and uh o other units of of the various sea services. Uh and then we advocate for uh support of these. So uh just to give you an example, uh a few months ago there was a possibility that the federal government was going to shut down which could potentially have me meant that uh
30:38 active duty members of the sea services would not get paid. And so legislation was floated to make sure that uh members of the military would get paid even if the government shut down. And uh there was a call went out to all of the individual councils to let people know that this is what was going on and to ask them for their support. Now, and I will say as an aside, I was on active duty when the government shut down um back in the uh uh 201s and I was a reservist at the time, but I had been um
31:14 placed on active duty and as a result of uh the government shutdown. Uh the funding for my uh position was stopped and my unit had to uh send me home. So, I I I know what it's like to have your pay cut off. Uh so if you are interested in more information on the NA Navy League of the United States, please go to navyleague.org. That link will be in the show notes after the show posts. And if you would like to join us in supporting the mission of of the Navy League of the
31:49 United States, I I would love it if you would consider becoming a member. And if you're in the Beverly Hills Council area, when you become a member, if you would designate us as your home council, so then you'll get information about all of the programming that were on which we're working. So, thanks very much to the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States for sponsoring this show. Okay. So, going back to our topic now, we're talking about uh bringing um uh
32:25 excuse me, naval tradition uh into uh business culture. And we've been talking about this practice of piping the side using the Bzen's pipe and um and and bringing ritual for recognition and and appreciation into our workplaces. So, um I'll give you um give you some some concrete ideas on how you can do this. So, you might have something called a first day welcome call. So, um this is uh this is what
33:00 what typically what happens when or not typically but when an when an officer comes on board a ship as I mentioned before they're piped aboard in recognition of of their coming onto the ship and so you could create a similar ritual for new people on your team. I talked a little bit about this um um before before the break. So when a new team member joins your group, so the team member pauses for a few minutes at the start of the day or during a meeting and um first of all the person is
33:37 welcomed aboard. Maybe uh um there's some kind of chime sounded or maybe you get someone who actually can play the the Boseman's pipe and you pipe them on and uh they're given a short personal introduction or maybe they're giving they're giving a they're given the opportunity to talk a little bit about themselves so people get to know them and and that way they're they feel like they're really welcomed into the team, right? and and you could if you're doing it at a meeting. So you could you could you know convene the meeting and you say before
34:13 we get into the business of the meeting we're going to welcome aboard you know Alex who is the new is is the new person in charge of sale operation and and so you know announcing now now coming aboard you know Alex um and Alex walks in and maybe you have like say you have some chimes ding ding ding you know like like a ship spell or someone blows a bowen pipe or you have some some uh you know, original music played or whatever. Or maybe you you play a small piece of Alex's favorite song and and and you know, people they they stand up, they
34:49 clap for Alex, you know, and then, you know, Alex G has, you know, two or three minutes to introduce himself and hi, you know, I'm Alex. I I I'm I'm I'm happy to be here. I was with such and such a company before and I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of you on the team and working with you. uh you know, I'm I'm I'm married. My wife and I have uh you know, two children. We we're dog lovers. You know, just a few things like that. So, people get to know a little bit about them and they feel like they've really been welcomed to the team. So, that could be
35:24 the the first day welcome call. That's that's one uh opport that's one uh way to bring naval tradition into your business. A second is uh call it leadership walkthroughs. So uh one of the things that I did regularly as a chaplain is I visited workspaces. Now this wouldn't be the quite the same thing as a leadership walkthrough. But but what I will tell you is it's it's an enormously beneficial practice for leadership to be walking through
36:02 workspaces talking to um you know rank and file people so to speaking what they have to say listening to the challenges that they have not to be checking up on you know their subordinates but just to have a feel for what's really going on as we call in Navy on the deck plates where where business is actually happening. You know, a lot of business happens outside of the seauite. Okay. So, if so to use the example of a restaurant, right? If if and I think a lot of area supervisors
36:37 do this, they visit their restaurants, they walk through the kitchen, they walk through the dining room, you know, they they greet employees, they talk with them for a few minutes. So, these are leadership walkthroughs, right? So if this is a part of your companies or your larger organization's culture, um so then you've already got the basis for it set up. If it's not, it may be something that you want to think about creating, but do it with a little bit of a Navy twist. So let's take that example of the restaurant where you know that the area
37:12 supervisor is going to be there let's say at nine o'clock in the morning before the restaurant opens maybe because maybe they they open starting at lunch they don't have a breakfast uh opening right and so you plan when the the area supervisor shows up so he's piped aboard you know the restaurant so to speak so you know you have you have all the everybody sort of in their places and he walks in and you play you play some music or again you could even use the bow and pipe you know and sort of you welcome into the space with a
37:47 little pomp and circumstance like wow you know these these guys are really sharp they're really locked on right and and and and then you know he proceeds with his his walkth through now in the Navy in the military they're they're usually called inspections that may be, you know, a little bit too formal. You you not expect inspecting your people in their in their uniforms, although maybe you are, I suppose, if they have a particular way that you know that they dress in the restaurant or whatever. Uh but but you know whatever is going to be
38:22 you can have kind of an official part of the walk through where the area supervisor has a chance to meet everybody and then and then maybe after that he gets down to you know the checking the forms or whatever you know whatever the other work a day things are and even you know maybe even plan it in advance let them know hey look I want to for the for the morale of my group for the cohesion of the team I'd like to kind of welcome you aboard and give you a kind of a more formal opportunity to say hello to everybody, shake everybody's hand, uh, you know, etc.
38:57 We'll take, you know, 15 20 minutes to do this and and then, you know, we'll we'll break to go, you know, kind of get back to work and and then, you know, we can sit down and, you know, if you're the manager of the restaurant, we can sit down and and take care of things and then, you know, you can confer with people as needed um on on, you know, more detailed things. So you could do that in restaurant. You could do it really in any business. Uh I I I will say, you know, in a in a company for example, I'll take Starbucks where, you know, you have a big corporate office in Seattle, you've got thousands upon
39:34 thousands of locations. So for the CEO to periodically visit locations around the world would be huge. or maybe the CEO I I don't know if there's a separate president but for members of the seauite to be regularly visiting uh you know uh restaurants for Starbucks would be a tremendous boost I think because it would let them really know what's going on and again it's not meant to usurp the authority of the individual
40:10 managers it's actually there to give them the support that they need in order to do their jobs better. That's so when a senior in the military when a senior officer comes to inspect a unit yes he is he is looking at what kind of job is you know the leader of that unit doing but he's also creating an opportunity to help that that leader better h better work better toward meeting the goals of the overall mission. So it's not meant to be
40:46 punitive. It's meant to be supportive. And the same thing can be built uh in the in in the business world and you can do it with leadership walkthroughs that have kind of a formal ceremonial part to them. Okay. And likewise um you if you have if you have these kind of official visits so um maybe instead of welcoming them there you you offer them a farewell. So after all the work is done right all the meetings have been held and and whatever thing need needed to be inspected all that's done so you you
41:23 know you sort of ring them off and on their way you know we sort of god speed as we say so this is similar to an officer being piped over the side as he leaves okay and much of much of it would work the same way as a leadership walkthrough crew. Uh, but the idea is rather than welcoming somebody aboard, you're you're wishing them well on their way as they're leaving. And one or the other may be more appropriate. Are you going to do both? Maybe not. Unless it's maybe some kind of multi-day, you know,
41:58 visit on the part of leadership. Uh, but um, if it's only going to be, you know, for part of a day or something, probably one or the other is probably appropriate. And and it could depend on, you know, what's going on in the business. um maybe they're going to be there for the morning and then they're going to depart um around lunchtime. So there's going to be a kind of a break in the day anyway and so maybe it's more convenient to do a quarter deck farewell as we might call it. Um but it it achieves many of the same goals as a welcoming. Okay. And then finally um uh I talk about um a a retirement.
42:37 So, this is different than somebody just leaving the company because they're going to another uh another place of business. Now, I know it's unusual. It's getting increasingly unusual for people to stay long enough at a company that they retire from it and they move on. Um, but it still does happen. And uh uh oh actually wait there was one other there was one other um uh event I wanted to talk about before I talk about retirement. Sorry about that. So let's say you're going to be launching a particular a new initiative. Maybe
43:13 you're launching a new product. Maybe you're uh you have a new a new service. Maybe you have a huge new client who's come on board. Maybe you've recently acquired another company or been acquired by another company and so now you're looking at merging two cultures. So these kinds of events can be a good way to kick those off. So we might call it a a mission launch moment uh where there's a recognition that there's been a there that there's a big change
43:49 happening in your company in your organization. And so you're you're acknowledging that and uh again you might get a group together in a meeting. uh you might you might have a company call where everybody in the company is there or if it's a merger of two companies, you get everybody there and uh you know you have representatives from each company maybe they're you know they're piped aboard uh you know kind of as a group to recognize now that we're coming together and we're going to be merging into a cohesive
44:25 unit. Um, if you're launching a new product, maybe you do it with some fanfare um, at a meeting and and you introduce the team that's going to be leading the the introduction and and sale of this new product and and you sort of wish them well um, as they embark on this endeavor. Okay. So, all of the same pomp and circumstance of of piping the side can be brought to that. Now by the way you can also let's say that a product was launched successfully. So that's
45:02 when you know giving some kind of recognition over and above the financial recognition uh could be such a beneficial thing to the organization right and you do it again with the kind of pomp and circumstance that you see in the Navy. Okay. And then the final one which is I started to mention a minute ago is a retirement where someone is not only leaving your organization but they're moving on. They're not they're they're going to they're done with working, right? They're going to go I don't know, maybe they bought a farm or whatever they're going to do. They're going to travel. And so you're going to
45:38 wish them well. And so I want to show you a short video of a Navy retirement ceremony. Um, not that you would necessarily do it exactly this way, but this gives you an idea of the emotion that can that that that can be brought to a moment like this. And uh, like I said, I've been at many of these ceremonies. I'm going to narrate it a little bit so you can understand some of the things that are happening, some of the special parts of it. So, let's go ahead. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here.
46:21 Okay. Uh, and okay. So, this is the the video. I'm not going to play the whole thing. It'll be a couple of minutes. And I'm, like I said, I'm going to narrate it. So, here we go. For 34 years, Captain Alman has stood the watch. While some of us lay in our bunks at night, this man stood the watch. So, what's happening here is a Navy captain is retiring. And I I'm I'm not sure which one of these officers it is um because they're it looks like they're all captains there based on their uniforms. Uh but this is a very famous uh sort of reading that's done uh at retirement
46:58 ceremonies. Um and it's about keeping the watch which is a tra something traditionally done on Navy vessels. While others of us were attending school, this sailor stood the watch. And yes, even before many of us were born, this shipmate stood to watch. In those years when storm clouds of war were seen building on the horizons of history, this shipmate stood the watch. Though he saw his family ashore, often needing his guidance, he still stood the watch. For 34 years, he has
47:34 stood the watch so that we, our families, and our fellow countrymen could sleep soundly in safety each night. Today, we are here to say, shipmate, the watch stands relieved. Relieved by those you have led, guided, and trained. Shipmate, you stand relieved. Have we have the watch boss stand by to pipe the side shipmate going ashore military personnel
48:12 covered. Okay. So if you can see there the fellow in the sort of triornered tri-cornered hat that's the bowzen. He's in sort of traditional navy garb. Typically that wouldn't be the case. Typically, the Bzan would be in the uh the the the the enlisted uniform um that that is uh that you see today. And you're going to see the officer is going to come around and he's going to stand at the head of a of a group of what are called side boys. So, all of the military people are putting their covers on because in the Navy, we don't typically cover indoors,
48:47 but for certain official things like that do, they also happen to have a drummer, which is very unusual. I've never seen that. Okay. And there you see the red carpet. See this side boys posting now? Okay. And you're going to hear the Bzen's pipe in just a moment. They're ringing the bell. Captain, United States Navy departing. Okay, there's the pipe and they're going to salute. Okay, and he's going to walk down between them. And this is him. This is him departing. Now, on a ship, it would be similar except
49:23 for he would go over the side or if it was an aircraft carrier, get into an aircraft. Okay. Um I'm not going to show you the rest of this. What what as is very typical in retirement ceremonies. Now, um what what what that particular captain is going to do is he's going to walk back around. He's going to um take his his wife. Um she's going to put his her arm in his and they're going to go through the same ceremony again only this time the call is going to be Navy family departing because in in
50:00 especially in the last 20 years or so it's been recognized that the the service of a sailor uh really all military people were away from our families so much the burden is as much on the family as it is on the individual service member. And so at a retirement ceremony like this, there's a recognition that uh there's a recognition of that sacrifice. And so, um, the the most recent retirement ceremony I did, um, as as I recall, um, it was it was a shipmate of mine from
50:35 naval aviation, um, I think he and his his wife and children walked down the carpet on on the second time around. Um, and, uh, and that was very special for them. um his children were um teenagers and and I know because we were shipmates I I know what kind of sacrifices they made uh for their father to spend the time that he did in the Navy. So, um, you know, you you don't in the business, you you know, you're probably not going to have side boys, probably not going to have a drummer, right? Um, but you can
51:12 see, I hope you could feel some of the emotion that was uh conveyed through that ceremony, the the reading of of the watch, uh, you know, you could create something similar for your business. I think that in any business that does well where people have to be away from their families, there is a there is an element of sacrifice in the civilian world as well. uh where you know people have to sometimes work late hours, they miss some of their children's events and
51:47 especially if if that's the kind of uh requirements that you have in your business to do something that includes your employees families in the recognition of that sacrifice can really bind not just your employees but your employees and their families to the company in a way that that they recognize. Look, the company sees that we're giving certain things up for its benefit. Um, and the company is recognizing that and and you know it is it is a part unfortunately it is a part
52:22 of the work that they have to travel be away from home whatever that is or sometimes work at night or whatever that is. So to the extent that you can build rituals that recognize that the way the Navy has, you will build a great deal a great deal more uh loyalty and and cohesion in your business. So that's bringing that's naval tradition meeting business culture. Hope hopefully I've given you something to think about. I'll put a link to this video in the show notes as well if you want to watch it again just to maybe get some ideas. And
52:59 uh as always, if you have any thoughts, comments, uh criticisms, links to social media will be in the show notes as well. Would love to hear from you on this and would be interested if if you institute something at your company uh what it is you do. I' I'd share it on a future show if if uh if you give me permission. So, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, tomorrow, Wednesday, 10 a.m. Pacific time, is my show, People Making Money. And my I'm going to be talking about perhaps uh the most important word
53:37 um that you can learn to use in building a business, and that is the word no. I'm going to give you permission to decline. It was a it was a it was a skill I did not have when I started in business. And when I finally learned it, it it it really helped me make my business much more successful than it was before. So, we're going to talk about that tomorrow. Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time. And then next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show Trust and Estates Weekly. My guest is Kelly Weey
54:14 and she's going to be talking about estate planning and intellectual property. So, this is a rarely tackled subject, but a very important one, an increasingly important one, uh, as content creation becomes an ever bigger part of of the business world and and of of people's professional lives. So join me for what I think will be a a fascinating conversation with Kelly and then a week from today we'll be back for the next edition of Business Lessons from the Military. So I thank you very
54:50 much for joining me today. Uh thanks to as always to those of you watching live. Always a treat and wishing you a wonderful rest of the day. Signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.