Culture isn’t something that a company has or doesn’t have. Every organization already has a culture – whether it’s good or bad or somewhere in between. Making sure that they create and maintain the culture they want requires deliberate planning and constant vigilance.
Click on a spoke of the Christy Way Wheel to learn more.
At Christy, we define our culture through a working model that we call –
The Christy Way
Each of the eight "spokes” of that model represents a key element of the way we guide our actions and how we run our company, as well as the expectations we have for everyone on our team.
“We believe that in the end any entity is judged by the good that it does. Complying with just laws and simply making money, we felt, is a rather low bar to achieve. This belief led to Christy's current set of Mission & Values which guide our daily efforts.”
- Frank O’Brien, Jr.
Owner, Christy Companies
Our mission is to make our labor a pleasing offering to the Lord while enriching our families and society.
Integrity
Our conduct is guided by the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments. We will not discriminate based on anyone’s personal belief system.
Success
Our customers provide for our very existence as a commercial entity. Our relationship with them will be mutually beneficial. We will attract and keep outstanding personnel who meet stretch financial and career goals.
Be Loyal. Want to Work to Win. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do. No Drama. Be Transparent.
At Christy, we believe that listening fully to what someone else has to say is one of the greatest acts of caring that people can show for one another. We emphasize that good communication is a dialogue, not a directive. If it’s not two-way, it’s not communication – it’s just somebody talking.
We know that employees have mixed feelings about communication in the workplace. On one hand, they want to be heard. On the other hand, they hesitate to be speak out at times because they fear being criticized, misunderstood, ignored or even punished.
To lessen those worries, we do the best we can to listen to everyone at all times – and take their concerns and ideas seriously. We encourage people to use good “reflective listening” skills to ensure that we understand what others are saying before reacting to what we hear.
We use a four-letter acronym – CORE – to help people remember important keys to effective listening:
Here are a few tools we use to help people speak out and tell us what’s on their minds:
Our two safety priorities for Christy team member are 1) They return home safe and sound each day, and 2) They are able to work and retire with dignity – physically and financially. No other portion of The Christy Way requires as much commitment and effort on the parts of both our team members and our company.
Some of the key areas where Christy supports our team:
In striving for our foremost goal of ensuring that our employees return home safely every day, we employ a number of preventive and remedial practices:
Christy has a deep and longstanding commitment to supporting the communities where our team members work and live. One way we do this is by supporting The St. Nicholas Fund, our charity of choice. Through this charity we anonymously provide financial support for those in need and facing difficult circumstances.
We do this because “Enriching Society” is an element of Christy’s Mission & Values that requires action. In fact, The St. Nicholas Fund began in 2008 as a Christy program to meet this need. It was initially funded with a portion of the ownership’s tithing and has since grown into a 501c non-profit. Contributions supporting it come primarily from Christy’s owners and employees who choose to support those in need in their local community.
The St. Nicholas fund exists to “throw a bag of gold through the window” when a little monetary help may make a big difference to someone. All of our Christy employees are asked to keep their eyes open for when such a situation may be happening and to refer this to the St. Nicholas Fund.
The St. Nicholas Story
St. Nicholas was a bishop in the fourth century of Myra, which is now in modern day Turkey:
"St. Nicholas' parents died when he was a young man, leaving him well off and he determined to devote his inheritance to works of charity. An opportunity soon arose. A citizen of Patara had lost all his money, and had moreover to support three daughters who could not find husbands because of their poverty; so the wretched man was going to give them over to prostitution. This came to the ears of Nicholas, who thereupon took a bag of gold and, under cover of darkness threw it in at the open window of the man's house.”
People usually don’t spend much time dreaming about how their lives could be better. They may think about it once in a while, but that’s where it stops. Sometimes, it’s because they don’t know how. Or they don’t think they have what it takes to get there. Or they’re afraid of going after a dream and falling down somewhere along the way.
At Christy, we want everyone in our company to be able to discover and pursue their dreams, and we have a program to help them do just that. The idea comes from the popular book “The Dream Manager” by Matthew Kelly. Our program is designed to help the people on our team explore what’s important to them and provide the tools for them to get where they want to be.
The inspiration and the rationale for the program comes from our core belief about the source of success in business: We must help the people on the Christy team reach their dreams and goals for their lives if we want them to help us reach our dreams for the company.
That’s what makes a great, high-performing team – a win-win for everyone!
2 Second Lean puts a powerful tool for continuous improvement right in the hands of each and every employee.
Traditional lean methods tend to be technical and complex, and it can take a long time to get improvements approved and implemented. For organizations with a do-it-yourself attitude, 2 Second Lean makes improvement so simple – and even fun – that everyone can do it every day.
Putting 2 Second Lean into practice starts by encouraging employees to take charge of making whatever improvements they want in their own work areas. No supervisor approval is needed.
Then employees used their cell phone camera to make a short video of the improvement they’ve made, and they post it on the company’s in-house website for everyone else to see.
That’s it! Simply put, 2 Second Lean boils down to giving everyone the permission to … “Fix what bugs you!”
Even in its simplified form, 2 Second Lean covers the traditional “eight wastes of lean”.
Producing videos on their cell phones empowers employees and greatly accelerates improvement results. Here’s why it works so well:
“Goals without routines are wishes; routines without goals are aimless. The most successful business leaders have a clear vision and the disciplines to make it a reality.”
– Verne Harnish, Author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
The success of any company depends largely on how well it defines a clear direction for its business, and how effectively it plots a sound, strategic course to its desired destination.
At Christy, we conduct that essential process with a management framework called The Rockefeller Habits, based on the book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.
The process is based on three core pillars:
Building on those pillars, we create detailed plans that guide us on our ongoing journey to growing a prosperous business for the benefit of our company and our employees alike.
At Christy, we define A-players as people who want to achieve, belong and contribute at a level that aligns with our company’s high-performance goals.
They do it for the mutual benefit of themselves and their families, co-workers and customers, and the community and the company we all count on to provide a high-performance culture of trust.
They are not superheroes, but they always put forth a super effort, and they are eager to learn and grow.
They make mistakes, and they accept responsibility for fixing and making things right.
They are not content with the status quo, and they are always looking for ways to do things better than before.
They appreciate how much people everywhere count on the products and services we provide to make the world work.
With those qualities in mind, we encourage everyone at Christy to invite other A-Players to join our team in a rewarding career with a company that places great value on the people who help us excel