How did we do it?  For the past twenty years, you helped build a proud company brick by brick.  New generation, new transmission lines, new facilities, and new members, better reliability, and a stronger focus on our member-owners.  Our Board and members provided us the money to make these investments, and you, the Wolverine employees, made it happen.  We asked you to embrace change at a rapid pace and you continue to pull it off.  How did we accomplish so much together?  I believe it took more than your vast individual talents; I think this is a product of the Wolverine culture.

If we can define our culture, and if we can bottle it, we can teach it to our future employees.  Perhaps as we focus hard on culture, we can learn some things we can improve on and make it even stronger.  Back in January, I asked you to think about what makes our Wolverine culture special.  In the next week, you will receive the Wolverine Power Cooperative Culture Survey and I want you to take the time to respond to it.  The survey is voluntary and it is completely anonymous.  (We hired an independent firm to conduct the survey and report the results.)

Our goal is to learn what parts of our culture shape your unique collective abilities to get so much done.  Many parts of our culture are positive, and we hope to reinforce those.  You can also share elements of our culture that need improvement so we can develop action plans to address those issues, too.  We need to teach the good parts of our culture to new employees, hold each other accountable, and continue to demonstrate value to our member-owners.

Please take a few minutes on Monday, May 8, and over the following days to complete each of our surveys.  Remember, your feedback is confidential.  We want to write the book on culture — no, really, we want to write a culture book by the end of this year!  Your input is essential!

For more survey details, please visit www.wolverineculture.com.