Meet dan agnew of mt. hood beverage
Tell us about yourself and your organization.
Dick Lytle and I have been business partners for over 35 years. We bought Mt. Hood Beverage in 1980 which at that time was a small to medium sized beer and wine distribution company. Dick is the company’s CEO and I am the company’s COO. Today, Mt. Hood Beverage sells beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages (primarily energy drinks and waters) in all of western Oregon and in southeastern Washington to over 4,000 retail accounts. We have approximately 725 employees working out of four major distribution centers located in Portland and Eugene, Oregon and in Yakima and Kennewick, Washington.
How did you and your organization get introduced to Rapport Leadership International?
Steve Lytle (Dick’s son, my nephew and the President of Gold River Distributing in Medford, Oregon and an affiliated company of Mt. Hood) was the “pioneer” and first member of our family to attend a Leadership Breakthrough One class in 2005. Steve came back absolutely “on fire” and hugging everyone in sight. Taken aback, we asked ourselves “what happened to him?” Steve proceed to enthusiastically tell five members of our senior leadership team here at Mt. Hood, including Dick and I, about an incredible leadership training experience he had participated in at the Rapport Executive Retreat in Alamo, Nevada. Steve convinced my wife, Kim, to attend and she was off to Leadership Breakthrough One within a few weeks. After she came home with virtually the same verve and enthusiasm that Steve had, my reluctance waned and I made a commitment to go. As a result, I was the first individual in our company to “bite” and attend Leadership Breakthrough One, and I came back realizing that this was the toughest, yet most rewarding, leadership training experience I had ever had in my life. I convinced my partner Dick to attend, and after he returned from Leadership Breakthrough One we put our heads together and agreed we needed to get our managers to participate and attend this training as well.
How many Rapport graduates does your organization have?
Currently, Mt .Hood has over 110 employees who have attended Leadership Breakthrough One and Power Communication, and by the end of February our company will have over 110 Master Graduates, with the substantial majority of them being in management and supervisory positions. In addition, all members of our family and their spouses have attended Leadership Breakthrough One, and nearly all of them are Master Graduates as well. I’m guessing that Dick and I have personally, and through Mt. Hood, nominated and sponsored another 25 or so of our friends and business associates who have attended either Leadership Breakthrough One or Power Communication.
Tell us about your Rapport experience?
My personal Rapport experience at Leadership Breakthrough One was incredible, exhilarating, enlightening, eye-opening and fun. Wow…I did things I never would have thought about doing. I was amazed at how quickly a group of complete strangers from all walks of life and economic backgrounds could come together and form a bond of friendship and trust that lasts to this day. And, I was amazed at how the Rapport processes made me take a hard look and gain new perspectives on the things and relationships that were the most important in my life: my wife, my children and my employees and friends. The follow-up training classes and processes (Power Communication and Leadership Breakthrough Two) were important and necessary steps in my personal growth and simply took the things and insights I gained in Leadership Breakthrough One to the next level. Leadership is a way of life, and my experiences at Rapport definitely helped get me there.
How has Rapport impacted you personally?
Rapport has literally changed my life and my family’s relationships with one another forever. I have a new, more personal and committed relationship with my wife and children. My wife and four adult children (and two have spouses) all attended the Power Communication class together, and the Rapport processes in that class allowed us to address and solve some personal communication issues that literally transcend understanding and explanation. We all have a greater and more profound respect for one another and now have a bond of love and trust that will never be broken. The Rapport training also re-energized me and renewed my interest in being an owner of and a leader at Mt. Hood. Quite honestly, before Rapport, I had become a controlling and wimpy manager walking around our company with an unapproachable demeanor and judgmental attitude instead of being a leader whose desire and goal was to inspire and lead our employees and our company to bigger and greater things. That has changed today.
How has Rapport impacted your business?
The Rapport training our employees have gone through is changing and reshaping the culture of our company, and Dick and I have never been more excited about our future. At this point, if I could point to one particular thing that has had a positive impact, the improvements in communication between management and supervisory personnel in our company’s various departments has been the biggest surprise to me. While we are not perfect or there yet, gone are most of the barriers and distrust that previously existed. I now sense that our various departments are beginning to recognize the importance and value of being a part of one highly focused and energized team instead of being an important stand alone department. With over 110 Master Graduates, Dick and I know we are on the road to taking our company from “good to great.” "Goodnuf" is no longer an acceptable result or a satisfactory goal…our vision is to be the most sought-after beverage distributor of our customers, suppliers and employees in every market we operate in, and to have fun and celebrate our wins and successes with our employees in the process.
What is the most surprising benefit you or your organization received from Rapport Training?
It’s all been a surprise. While changing a culture is a process that will take time, I’m encouraged and pleasantly surprised at how quickly the communication barriers that previously existed between various departments in our company have been broken down and how enthusiastically our managers and supervisors have generally been willing to grab hold of the training and use it everyday. Again, while I want to emphasize that we have room for improvement, our people are now working together and focused on solutions and searching for ways to do things in a better way. In that environment, it’s amazing the things that have been accomplished in a short period of time.
Another surprising benefit for our organization has been on the more personal side of the ledger. Some of the personal testimonials Dick and I have heard from spouses of employees who have been through the training, and even from employees themselves, have been very rewarding. When the spouse of a Leadership Breakthrough One attendee comes up to you in a private moment and with tears in her eyes says “thank you for giving me my husband back,” or when an employee sends you an email that says “I took my daughter to school this morning for the first time in five years,” let me tell you, comments like that have great impact!
How do you keep Rapport alive in your organization?
Keeping the Rapport process and training alive in our company is our biggest and most important challenge, and I think it is a challenge for Rapport to help us find ways to do that as well. Dick and I are simply committed to doing everything we can to keep it alive. Old behaviors and thinking are difficult to overcome. Unfortunately, our company has had a history of “starts and stops” over the years as we attempted unsuccessfully to change our culture and improve our behaviors using different ideas, processes and methodologies. All ended abruptly after half-hearted implementation as we soon realized everyone (including both Dick and I) had simply lapsed back into old behaviors and actions. With Rapport’s help and assistance, we have implemented personal and team coaching sessions with Bob Combs, a Rapport Trainer, that commit our management teams to talk over and discuss a multitude of issues and ideas twice each month via conference call. In addition, we have recently completed some training processes that identified four key and important core values our company is committed to living. Incredibly, we had active participation from over 95% of our employee population involved in the process of helping us, as a company, identify the core values that were necessary to grow our company, change its culture and move it forward. Even those who had not attended Leadership Breakthrough One or any Rapport training were engaged and excited about participating in the process. In addition, we have more behavior training classes and processes scheduled in the near future that will again give all of our employees the opportunity to be involved and engaged in the process of identifying behaviors that are either in alignment with our core values or out of alignment. We’ve certainly learned that inclusion is important.
What class had the greatest impact on you and why?
That is a topic of debate that we constantly have in our family and in our company…"what was your favorite Rapport class?” While Leadership Breakthrough One certainly had the impact of making me aware of the Rapport processes and their impact on my own personal growth, the class with the greatest impact for me was Power Communication because I had the opportunity to attend and participate in the class with my family. There were processes in that class that allowed each of us to say things to one another in a safe and trusting environment that brought all of us much closer together. We all developed a bond of trust with one another as a result of that class that is indelibly etched in each our hearts and minds in an incredible and lasting way. While not the most impactful, the class that was the most fun was Leadership Breakthrough Two. The processes we participated in that helped our class become a high performance team were incredible. And, there was one process in that class that my wife and I experienced together which neither of us will ever forget.
When you face a challenge in your organization, what tools from the training do you call on first?
That’s easy. Before Rapport, during any challenge, I focused more on the problems than the solutions, made quick judgments, took a command and control attitude and told people what to do or solved the problems for them myself. Today, that’s not the case. When faced with challenges, I now make a commitment to listen, then seek to gain understanding with a goal of helping others focus on finding positive solutions. I’ve certainly become aware that there is a difference between managing and leading. I now want to inspire people to make positive choices that will move our company forward…and, it’s now okay to make a mistake.
I want to take time from the questions and make one comment about the trainers at Rapport. The trainers that Dick and I have met and worked with in the last 18 months are all incredible individuals who are committed to their profession and committed to helping create opportunities for others to make positive and necessary changes in their own lives. Thank you Rapport for what you have done to make me, and everyone in our family and company, a better leader...at home, at work and in our communities.
