We are bronco bull riders. We hang tough.

Give me a forum for a speech these days, and without a doubt I will at some point talk about the importance of your “language of intention.” Our MWAC value studies these two past months have truly put me squarely in a Lōkahi and Kākou frame of mind, and these values naturally color my presentations. Today I was asked,

“What are Kākou messages? Gimme an example.”

Kākou messages are “We” messages. If you are the leader of a business, when do you want to say “we” and talk about your “we” to get an effective message across?

Do you want to say that “We are innovators, movers and shakers.”
Or that “We are compassionate care givers.”
Or that “We are the customer service people who will make things happen for you.”
Or perhaps that “We are a storm’s fury waiting to happen!”

When do you want to say “We” just for those you consider to be part of your ‘Ohana in Business, appealing to their camaraderie, their sense of team, their convictions? Better yet, when do you pray that they will say “We?”

“We value each other.”
“We don’t take shortcuts, and we get the job done.”
“We always go for extraordinary. Always.”
“We do what others only think about and dream about.”

We pride shines brilliantly. And most times, the less lofty and presumptuous the better. Most times grammar and sentence structure don’t matter. Words don’t have to be pretty nor phrases politically correct to mean the most to the people who need them to mean something to them.

For instance, people in our Ho‘ohana Community have been known to say they are spirit-spillers, or toot-sweetly-ers.

Here is a great example of a Kākou message about a business you have likely heard of. These are the very first two paragraphs of the foreword written for author Joseph A. Michelli in his book about The Starbucks Experience, 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary. It’s written by Jim Alling, President, Starbucks U.S. Business.

“We are litter-picker-uppers. We are green-apron-clad seekers of the book that you might have left on one of the tables in our coffeehouse. We are the folks who smile across the counter at you every morning as you ask for your double-tall-nonfat-mocha- with-a-little-vanilla-at-the-bottom- you-know-my-regular-drink. We’re Starbucks partners (commonly known to the world as employees).”

“I often start stories about our company and culture with a description of us as the litter-picker-upper type of people. We just naturally stoop down to pick up that gum wrapper or soda can on the sidewalk as we’re talking to you about how the kids are doing and what crazy weather we’re having. It’s not a magic formula for hiring or business success; it’s just who we are.”

Kākou messages are those “We” messages that tell us who you are, and who you are proud to be.

Do you wonder what your “we”-people would say?

Try this: Next time you have a staff meeting, read the above two paragraphs by Jim Alling to your own team of “we”-people. Then go around the room, and ask everyone to share their own “We” sentence, one at a time. What you all come up with may be pretty enlightening, and I’ll betcha anything it will also be pretty cool.