Most of us have likely used a Burt’s Bees product at some point over the past 10 - 15 years. Burt’s Bees is a personal-care products company that was founded in 1984 in Maine and is now headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Burt’s Bees was purchased by the Clorox Company in 2007 for a whopping $925 million in cash. Its original, “flagship” product was the famous Burt’s Bees lip balm which led to the company growing its unique personal-care products line globally. Burt’s Bees has now expanded its footprint into 19 different countries. A consumer can find Burt’s Bees products in most supermarkets, pharmacies, and even restaurants.
I recently read an article from the September 18, 2017 Encouragement Wired newsletter that talked about the high pressure growth environment that Burt’s Bees was able to successfully manage. In many companies, a high growth scenario means numerous meetings, flooded e-mail boxes, and constant urgent demands. The Burt’s Bees team has been able to successfully avoid operating in the expected “state of high anxiety” environment which tends to effect a group’s problem solving capabilities. The secret to this success has been an encouragement for Burt’s Bees employees to work with a positive mind-set. Research shows that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level related to productivity, creativity, and engagement – improves. Most individuals equate a positive mindset with personal happiness which is the assumption that we’ll take in this blog. By the way, this will be the first of four blogs related to achieving what is called “Positive Intelligence.”
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