CHAPTER 9

EnPro Industries: Enabling the Full Release of Human Possibility

This chapter is a deep dive into how an organization can transform itself into a much more humanistic people-centric organization. That transformation requires the leaders to transform themselves by modeling the new desired mindsets and behaviors and creating and using daily practices designed to enable those behaviors. Then it requires scaling those mindsets, behaviors, and practices throughout the organization.

The EnPro story is pretty amazing. EnPro is a global, engineering-based manufacturing company with both union and non-union employees. None of those factors inhibited its transformation. I am deeply grateful to EnPro’s senior leaders for sharing their personal stories and the company’s organizational story in this book.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

EnPro Industries is a public company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the diversified manufacturer of proprietary, engineered products involving sealing technologies, bearings, reciprocating compressors, and diesel and dual-fuel engines.

It operates 30 primary manufacturing facilities in North and South America, Europe, and Asia; employs approximately 6,000 people worldwide; and sells its products to more than 50,000 customers in over 100 countries across the globe. The company’s revenue is about $1.5 billion.

Among EnPro’s subsidiaries are the Garlock Group, which is the number-one manufacturer of industrial gaskets in the United States; the Technetics Group, which is the number-one worldwide manufacturer of metal seals for nuclear applications and number-one worldwide for semiconductor PVD chamber solutions; and Stemco, which is the number-one U.S. manufacturer of wheel-end seals for heavy-duty trucks and trailers. EnPro’s client list includes big companies such as Boeing, SpaceX, Shell, Volkswagen, John Deere, PACCAR, and Airbus.

The company was spun out of Goodrich Company in 2002 to isolate a potential asbestos liability. The liability was resolved in 2018.

In chapter 6, we discussed the need to humanize the workplace. As you continue reading this chapter, please think deeply about how EnPro is humanizing its workplace.

The following information on EnPro’s values and cultural principles comes from the company’s website under the Culture tab (https://www.enproindustries.com/culture).

These values and cultural principles are not standard in corporate life.

Please take your time and read them.

Does your organization have values and principles like these? Should it?

ENPRO’S VALUES

“Our Values

“Safety: Our most important obligation to each other and our families. We require all employees to pledge annually to uphold this as our top priority. We place a relentless focus on creating a safe and healthy work environment.

“Excellence: An expectation to continuously strive for world class performance in our individual behavior and business performance as measured against the highest standard we know or can imagine.

“Respect: This is the cornerstone of how we behave toward others and is built on the belief in the inherent good intentions and orientation toward growth in fellow human beings. We believe all people are fully worthy of growth and development.”

ENPRO’S CULTURAL PRINCIPLES

“Commitment to Our People

“People drive EnPro’s success. Our colleagues—the most valuable part of EnPro—are empowered to develop themselves as they build capability into our businesses via creativity and initiative. We are committed to helping them develop. This commitment enables us to attract and retain a diverse workforce of top-tier talent, positioning us for continued growth.

“In a time of rapidly changing markets, where the pace of change is ever accelerating, EnPro chooses to aggressively respond by investing in human development—confident that these investments will produce the flourishing of our people and financial returns. We have invested in development workshops that have directly impacted more than 6,000 colleagues at all levels. These workshops involve learning through doing, which in turn spurs learning by experimenting, accelerating how quickly our people and teams gain knowledge.”

“Dual Bottom Line

“Our purpose is to enable the full release of human possibility.

“As a Dual Bottom Line company, human development carries equal importance to financial performance.

“There is no trade-off between the two and we measure both. People who are focused on developing themselves pursue excellence, and when excellence is pursued, financial results are superior.

“Our human development philosophy is evident in our daily behavior and supported by an education system built on everyone teaching and learning from others. We recognize people learn and change from the inside of themselves on their terms, consistent with their beliefs.”

Let’s continue with EnPro’s cultural principles:

“Working Your Way

“We believe the people closest to the job should have the most input into how it is performed. Our employees have the freedom to define—and redefine—how and what they do. This philosophy has led to success and the creation of long-term gains.

“Diversity and Workforce Equality

“EnPro values diversity and is committed to providing equal opportunity for all employees. Discrimination based on gender, race, disability, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or gender identity will not be tolerated. At EnPro, we encourage mutual respect among all employees.

“We are committed to fair living wages for all employees, and our wages and benefits are competitive within our industry and local labor market. Our working hours contribute to a healthy work-life balance. The right to pursue your life’s vision and purpose using EnPro’s work as a vehicle applies equally to everyone.

“Continually Learning

“At EnPro, “learning & development” is not just another corporate catch phrase. Instead, it is an engrained element of our culture and a foundation on which we build our business and enlarge our capabilities. EnPro offers an educational assistance program, industry courses, a learning library, as well as many leadership development programs. It is our philosophy to hire and retain highly motivated employees and provide them with a vehicle that will enable them to continue to grow.”

WORKSHOP: ENPRO CEO SPEECH

This exercise involves a speech that Marvin Riley recorded and shared with all EnPro employees in the summer of 2019, soon after EnPro’s board of directors appointed him CEO.

Please take a moment and visualize yourself as an employee of EnPro who’s been asked to watch the recording with your team today. Visualize going into a conference room where there are coffee and soft drinks. You sit down and smile at your colleagues, and then Marvin Riley, the new CEO, comes on the screen and starts speaking. Visualize yourself leaning in to focus on the new CEO’s talk because you are naturally concerned about how he may change the way things are done at the company.

“Hello, I’m Marvin Riley, the new CEO of EnPro. I wanted to take a moment to speak directly to you, as I’ve been asked a number of questions about my vision and what changes I plan to make now that I’m CEO.

Before I do that, I’d like to first start by saying thank you to Steve Macadam, who was our CEO for the past 11 years. I deeply care about Steve and will forever be grateful to Steve for what he has done for me.

He’s made me a better leader, a better father, and a better human being. Steve took on asbestos and won. Steve committed himself to building a culture and should declare victory, as he won there as well. This culture allowed me to flourish and release my full potential. The imprint that Steve has made on EnPro will last forever. Now let’s talk directly about my vision, especially as it relates to the Dual Bottom Line.

Someone asked me if I plan to keep the Dual Bottom Line culture. For a moment, I was a bit stunned. I found it to be a strange question. However, after some reflection, I realized that my understanding of the Dual Bottom Line is very different than the person who asked me the question. For me, the Dual Bottom Line lives in the heart and soul of the company and can never be removed. It’s my responsibility to spread the Dual Bottom Line way of working and to ensure everyone has a common understanding of what it means to enable the full release of human possibility.

Steve and I believe that each human being comes into this world with a perfect soul, fully worthy of dignity and greatness, bearing their own unique set of aptitudes and capabilities forged to pursue a certain destiny. The pursuit of that destiny is uniquely a lifelong journey for each individual, and I’m committed to providing an environment that enables this to unfold for everyone.

You know, I’d like to tell you a story about [employee name omitted] who is currently leading the continuous improvement effort at GPT. She joined GGB almost 10 years ago when she was 21 years old and quite inexperienced. She was working at GGB during the day and pursuing her bachelor’s degree at night. The servant leaders at GGB cared so much about her that they even allowed her to study at work sometimes.

All she did was promise to do her best, and that she did. She then left GGB and came to the U.S. to pursue personal growth and a desire to improve her English. She left everything and everyone she knew on that mission. She became a production coordinator, then became a logistics manager, completed her supply chain and project management certification, and was recently promoted to projects and continuous improvement management.

I’m sharing this story with you because my vision is to ensure that [employee]’s story of hope, development, growth, and opportunity is accessible to everyone. Releasing possibility requires grit, determination, yet reflection and courage, but most of all, our support.

As I go about my day at EnPro, I’ll be focused on creating psychological safety, supporting the self-determination needs of all employees, and creating value for our shareholders.

No one should ever come to work at EnPro and not feel safe to be exactly who they are. Diversity and inclusion are a buzzword in most companies, but here, it’s your absolute right. Everyone must feel safe, every day.

Now let’s talk about self-determination, because that means having autonomy, connection, and competence. I’ll be working every day to ensure that everyone feels freedom to do their job, they feel cared for by their manager and their peers, and they also are getting support with the skills they need to be excellent at what they do.

This also means supporting everyone when they make mistakes. I view failure as the best opportunity to learn, and we should never waste a good mistake.

Now let’s talk a little bit about value creation. At EnPro, we must play to win. We must strive for excellence in everything that we do. We must focus on our earnings and focus our cash flow, because every penny we spend at EnPro has been provided from our shareholders.

We have an obligation to spend that money as if it’s our own. That notion can easily be forgotten, but this is a Dual Bottom Line culture. As I travel to your locations, I’ll be in search of excellence. I want to see how you’re serving the customer better today than you were serving them yesterday. I want to see excellence in sales, manufacturing, engineering, human resources strategy, basically everywhere.

I’ll be in search of your best ideas. We must share our ideas and collaborate in order to win. The best idea must always win, regardless of title or hierarchy, even when it comes to me, because I love my ideas, but guess what? They’re not always good ideas. You have permission to tell me when I’m sharing one of my classic bad ideas.

Okay, I want to do something else. I want to talk about our practices, because our practices shape EnPro.

Speaking in “I” statements, centering, journaling, letting go of the ego, sitting in a circle, giving and receiving feedback, that is who EnPro is. Winning is about getting better every day, playing to our strengths while working with rigor and discipline. Every day I wake up wanting to express more empathy and more humility. I’m owning up to my mistakes. I’m admitting when I’m wrong. I’m working hard to not take myself too seriously.

I’m asking more questions rather than advocating my opinion, and I’m doing so because this is the next frontier of my own growth and development. Even though I’m the CEO of EnPro, it doesn’t mean that I get to stop developing myself.

I’m looking forward to this journey with you, going to the edge with you. We learn at our edge, we grow at our edge, we must reshape EnPro from the edge. The edge always redefines the core. Thank you. Now, let’s go win together.

I suggest you take a break now and let the first part of the EnPro story incubate in your mind and heart. Then come back to explore EnPro’s behaviors and practices. Thank you for your engagement.

ENPRO’S BEHAVIORS

EnPro emphasizes and teaches employees six key company behaviors. EnPro introduces these behaviors through workshops led by senior leaders. The workshops include videos and short three-to nine-minute exercises in which employees engage with other team members to make meaning of the behaviors and talk about how to behave.

Before introducing the behaviors, the company always begins with this slide (figure 2):

Figure 2: Why Focus on Behaviors?

Why does EnPro introduce its behaviors with this slide?

How would you answer the question posed: Why focus on behaviors?

What would you add to the answer EnPro gives on the slide?

Now here are the company’s slides introducing five of the behaviors (figures 3–7). The sixth behavior, collaboration, is discussed later in a different format (figure 8). Notice the company’s concise definitions of the behaviors and explanations for why each behavior is important and how each can be observed.

Review these behaviors with a critical mind—please make meaning of what the company is doing by trying on each idea to see how it feels to you. I am asking you to do more than just read.

Does the behavior connect with you? How would you amend the slides? This is a learning experience. EnPro has built a good system, but it is not perfect.

Evaluate “How It Can Be Observed” for each behavior. Make notes in your Learning Journal.

Figure 3: Open Minded

How would you define being open-minded?

Please write it down.

What observable sub-behaviors would you add or amend?

Figure 4: Deeply Listen

How would you define what it means to deeply listen?

Please write it down.

What do you think of the company’s list of observable sub-behaviors that would evidence deeply listening?

Can the list be improved? How?

Figure 5: Curious

Figure 6: Manage Self-Mindful

How would you define being curious? Please write it down.

What observable sub-behaviors would you add or amend?

How would you define what it means to manage self and be mindful? Please write it down.

What observable sub-behaviors would you add or amend?

Figure 7: Courageous

How would you define being courageous? Please write it down.

What observable sub-behaviors would you add or amend?

COLLABORATION AT ENPRO

EnPro treats collaboration as (in my words) an overarching or higher-level behavior or process that requires utilization of the five other EnPro Behaviors to be effective. This multilevel approach to key behaviors, which is similar to WRBC’s approach described in chapter 3, is evident in the company’s Resource Guide: Collaborative (figure 8). After reviewing that document, ask yourself if EnPro’s approach to collaboration would help you become a Hyper-Learner.

Figure 8: Resource Guide: Collaborative

ENPRO’S PRACTICES AND MEETING MANAGEMENT WORKSHEET

To support the company’s desired behaviors and ways of working, EnPro has also created a list of 25 practices that every employee is encouraged to embrace on a daily basis. I have included a paraphrased version of the list in figure 9. In documentation shared with employees, the company further defines and elaborates on each practice, explaining:

1. What it (the practice) means

2. Teaching goals/process

3. Purpose/goal/expected outcomes

Another key EnPro document that facilitates the company’s way of working is its Meeting Management Worksheet (figure 10), which EnPro employees use for every meeting, every day.

I hope you review these figures and documents carefully and take advantage of all there is to learn from how EnPro is integrating the New Way of Being and New Way of Working necessary for Hyper-Learning into the company’s daily way of working.

In your Learning Journal I suggest that you write down your key takeaways from EnPro’s example.

Figure 9: EnPro’s Practices

Figure 10: EnPro Meeting Management Worksheet