Work with Purpose | Collaboration | February 2025
Description
Unlock the power of collaboration in the workplace with this insightful Work with Purpose Conference keynote by Ty Stolp, Betenbough Companies Director. Our speaker reflects on the importance of working together, drawing lessons from academic experiments and biblical stories like Nehemiah’s wall-building teamwork. Through personal experiences and a story from the homebuilding industry, he demonstrates how collaboration can transform challenges into collective triumphs, as everyone brings their unique strengths to the table. Learn how to overcome the temptation of pride and embrace the difficult yet rewarding journey of working well with others. This session will inspire you to build stronger teams, accomplish more, and cultivate worthy work relationships through humility, empathy, and a collaborative attitude. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to strengthen your team collaboration, proving that when you work together, you go further.
Key insights include:
• How intentional teamwork transforms individual expertise into shared success
• The biblical foundation of collaboration, exemplified by the creation of Eve and the inspiring story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls
• Practical strategies for overcoming pride and embracing the strength of diverse talents on your team
Reflect on thought-provoking questions designed to uncover obstacles to collaboration and learn actionable tips to harness the power of unity in your workplace. Join us to discover that every challenge becomes an opportunity when you work together.
all right man today has been a great day
we’ have had a lot of fantastic speakers
uh who’s ready for a final exam you guys
ready I know uh Bill said you only
retain 20% so I hope you guys have
retained a little bit more than that now
just kidding we’re not going to have any
exams today but I’m going to talk a
little bit about
collaboration um and I read this story
and it’s in a it’s in a book called
hidden potential by Adam Grant and it
was just a it just kind of a crazy story
Little experiment that he did that he
inadvertently kind of discovered a
lesson on collaboration but he had a
class he’s a professor of psychology at
the school of Wharton and he had his
class and he noticed that his students
were really just filled with anxiety all
that cortisol that bill talked about
earlier there for this exam that was
coming up and so he said you know what
I’m going to throw him my bone he told
his class he said I’ll I’ll let every
one of you you can pick one question on
the test and you can write in a fellow
classmate and if get the question right
then you get that question right kind of
like a phone a friend on the
exam but what he noticed shocked him he
got the grades back and the grades were
like 15 20% higher and he’s like man
that it can’t be I only gave him one
free question how did the grades jump so
much and he actually did this for about
four or five semesters in a row and he
had the same results it’s like magically
everybody got smarter all of a sudden
his students were scoring 15 to 20%
higher on every exam
so he started trying to figure out what
was going on he started asking some of
the students and what he realized is
that they had changed their study habits
because in order to take advantage of
this rule they had to know who knew what
so they started studying together um and
what they discovered is that by studying
together they actually learned more
because they didn’t want to just write
in anybody’s name right they didn’t want
to just write in kayle’s name maybe she
doesn’t know the answer but if they knew
that Kaye knew the answer then they
would that would be a good one to write
in so they started studying together and
it turns out that by studying together
they actually all learned together
better and so they could learn more
together than they could alone and this
shouldn’t surprise us because this is
actually how God designed us Genesis
chapter 2 um Verse 18 and the Lord God
said it is not good that man should be
alone I will make him a helper
comparable to him so the lord gave adam
Eve so that they could work together or
maybe worship together or serve together
but that so they could do it together
and they could accomplish more together
than they than really Adam could alone
and so if you write down one thing for
my talk this is this is the thing to
write down God wants you to work
together with others he’s actually put
people in your life that you guys could
accomplish things together that you
could not accomplish on your own he’s
put people in your workplace in your
church uh in your families your kids
even he’s put all these people in your
life so that you guys could accomplish
things together that you couldn’t
accomplish on your own and yes I even
mean Joe and I know Joe is that guy on
your team and you’re not sure if he’s
capable of tying his own shoes
correctly but I’ll tell you what uh Joe
has some unique talents and you guys can
actually do things if you combine your
talents with Joe’s talents you can
actually do things that you couldn’t do
on your own and the only reason I know
that because I actually have learned
from this mistake I’m actually this is
why they called me to talk on
collaboration because I’m actually not
good at it but 15 years ago when I came
into the marketplace I saw this quote
for the first time it’s an old African
proverb you may have seen it or heard of
it to go fast go alone to go far go
together when I first saw this quote
honestly I thought you know I think I’d
just rather go fast who cares about
going far you know what I can do it
alone I can go quickly I can get it done
um but honestly that’s not how God
designed it to be and that way of
thinking is actually rooted in
Pride I actually
believed that I was better on my
own and that’s a prideful thought and it
actually held me back it held me back in
my relationships in my career it held my
teams back that I was on and I didn’t
realize it but I can tell you that today
because I have been a part of some
amazing teams like worldclass teams like
I I keep saying that one day there’s
going to be books written about the
place that I work at because of the
teams that I’ve been on and so I’m going
to tell you a couple of stories I could
have picked from hundreds of stories but
I’m going to tell you some things that
we accomplished together I’m going to
take you back to uh July summer of of
2021 and it was just after covid right
covid hit and everybody had to shut down
the housing market shut down and then
all of a sudden everybody realized that
their house was terrible and they need a
new house and so there was this massive
housing boom and you would think that
would be awesome working for a home
builder that’d be great well I was the
leader of the purchasing team and my job
was to make sure we had materials on the
job site and actually it was really hard
to get materials to the job site we we
we dealt with all kinds of shortages but
probably the biggest one we had was in
the summer of 2021 and it was our brick
shortage and our suppliers were telling
us hey there’s no more brick like we’ve
given you all the brick we can give you
it takes around 15,000 brick on a home
and we got to the point where we were
over 150 homes behind on delivering
brick uh we were actually getting like
we were two two weeks away from closing
some homes without brick like we
finished the rest of the home which is
kind of crazy and it just looked blue
like that um but we didn’t have any
brick and so we were actually we had a
we had a meeting with our senior
leadership team at the time and we were
just talking about what’s going to
happen if we can’t get brick to this job
site and we said man man like we’re
going to have to stop the production
line we’re going to have to stop closing
homes we’re going to homeowners are
going to have to move their schedule
they’re not going to be able to move in
in time we’re actually going to have to
stop all work on the homes meaning all
of the thousands of Trades we employ
will not be able to go to work the next
day and so there were some serious
consequences if we weren’t able to get
this brick and and we came to the
conclusion in that meeting that we need
to deliver 2 million brick in 2
weeks and honestly we all walked out of
that meeting thinking like I don’t think
that’s going to happen but we’re going
to try our hardest we’re going to do
everything we can and I’m going to cut
to the chase we actually did it we
delivered 2 million brick in two
weeks not 14 days 10 count 10 business
days we delivered 2 million brick and
this was actually the first uh home that
we delivered and there was no shortage
of obstacles and it actually turns out
we found brick you know our suppliers
have been telling us there’s no brick
there’s no brick there’s no brick we
started calling factories and we found
brick within one day uh but we had to
get it to the job site there was a
actually a nationwide Trucking shortage
turns out there’s like specialized
forklifts and specialized things that
you need in order to actually deliver
the brick like this gentleman is doing
to the job site and all of those were in
Mass shortage and so there was all kinds
of challenges but we accomplished it
because of the team we had so I’m going
to tell you a little bit about the team
we just had a fantastic group of Lego
people and they accomplished it all now
we had Sawyer he was our connector
Sawyer’s the guy that got on the phone
literally like suppliers who their
entire job is to deliver brick they’re
telling us there’s no brick and Sawyer
frowned 20 million brick in in 24 hours
cuz he’s the guy that can connect he
just keeps calling he’s it’s almost like
he was so naive he just keeps calling
hey do you have brick do you have brick
he found factories that had brick Brad
you just got to hear from Brad if you
you want to know one thing about Brad
Brad is an innovator there is no
challenge that Brad cannot overcome Trey
is a challenger he was the guy on the
team’s like man I’m not sure that’s
going to work we had daily meetings
every day on these 10 days Kendra
Jennifer detailed organized they were
making sure the right brick got
delivered man it’d be cool to just
deliver any brick right but man if it’s
not the color the customer wanted that’s
not going to work Mitch the encourager I
will tell you that was a very stressful
time and Mitch James pulled us all
together and kept us positive and moving
forward ry’s the charger ry’s the guy
that like you can’t walk as fast as him
if you’re in a room with Randy you’re
you’re kind of walking this space you
can’t keep up with him but he’s the guy
that just out there getting it done and
honestly I was just kind of watching it
all and so this team there’s no way that
we could have accomplished we couldn’t
have done this just by myself there’s
just no way that it would be possible um
and you know I’m going to go into
another uh story real quick we shouldn’t
be surprised because once again this is
biblical and I could have picked from
hundreds of stories in the Bible as well
of uh teams working together but one of
my favorites is Nehemiah so a little
background on neem IAH Nehemiah is the
cup Bearer for King Artic
Xerxes and Nehemiah is actually sad one
day in front of the king and Ne and
which actually by the way being sad in
front of the king in that time is a
crime punishable by death that’s kind of
wild but the king actually uh says you
know what Nehemiah why are you sad he
has enough empathy to say that and
nehemiah’s like my my City Jerusalem
it’s in Ruins I need to go rebuild the
walls and so anyway he’s like sure go
rebuild the walls and then neem
nehemiah’s like wait one more thing I
actually uh if it pleases the king may I
have letters to the governor so that I
can have safe passage may I also have a
letter to Asaf so he can give me Timber
I need to make some gates and so it’s
almost like man the boldness of Nehemiah
to go out and ask the king like he just
granted him uh access um to go to go do
this and then he’s actually asking for
things and the King has the empathy to
be able to say yes go ahead we will I
will give you safe passage and so he
assembles a team probably one of the
largest teams ever this wall that they
built they built it in 52 days it was
1.7 mil long 12 MERS High that’s over 3
million brick if you want to do the math
and the crazy thing about it is once the
once the enemies of uh of Judah found
out that they’re rebuilding the wall
they actually came and fought a war with
Nehemiah so all of these tribes that are
building this wall I love this verse
When I saw this those who carried
materials did work with one hand so
they’re laying brick and with the other
they held a weapon so they’re like
fighting off I think if I was one of
those tribe leaders I’d have been like
hey Nehemiah man you asked me to build a
wall great I signed up but then whenever
they started attacking me I’m like I
didn’t sign up to fight a war I just
signed up to build the
wall um but they didn’t they had the
tenacity and resolve to go get it done
and so Nehemiah there’s no way he could
have done this on his own right he had
to he had to have the empathy of King AR
Xerxes he had to have the boldness of
Nehemiah to ask for what was needed he
had to have the resolve and tenacity of
the tribe leaders and so all those
strengths came together to actually
allow him to accomplish more than he
could on his
own and so once again God wants you to
work together with others he’s actually
put people in your life and I’m going to
give you a quick little challenge
next time you’re doing a project at work
maybe tomorrow you’re back in the office
you’re back back with your team you’re
out on the job site I want you to ask
for someone’s help ask for someone’s
advice on that project on that task that
you wouldn’t have normally asked it
needs to be a peer like not just asking
your boss like what to do that’s
different ask someone to help you
because actually you’re going to be
surprised what they say you might think
that you have it all together but you
can actually come up with some things as
a team that you wouldn’t be able to come
up with on your own and I’m going to
give you one more piece of advice on
this that I’ve seen over the years is
that collaboration is not the easy
way it’s not how God designed it it’s
not the easy way it’s actually the hard
way it’s so much easier to do this alone
I remember uh visiting a a home builder
one time and we were kind of learning
from them it was a much larger home
builder than us and I was meeting with
the guy that does my exact role at that
home builder and I was asking him hey
what kind of process do you have for
like changing your designs and changing
your plans up like who do you like do
you have a committee do you have any
sort of like approval process and he
kind of looked at me funny he said
approval process like I just pretty much
tell him to change the plan and they do
it and there’s there’s no approval I’m
the one who gets to decide and in my
head in that moment I thought man that
must be nice dang you don’t have to go
get approval from a bunch of people but
once again that’s the pride it actually
keeps coming up you have to keep
fighting it because actually our designs
our plans all the things that I get to
do in my realm of expertise are actually
better because we do them together if I
got to do it on my own and got to decide
on my own yes it would be easier but it
wouldn’t be better and so once again I’m
going to end with
this I don’t think this quote is quite
right to go fast go alone to go far go
together I’d like to change it this is
an African proverb I’m going to make my
own proverb I’m not sure I’m allowed to
do that can I make it I’m going to call
it ties prover I’m going to do it anyway
to go fast you need to go together to go
far again it still needs to be together
everything you do gets better when you
work
together okay I’ve got a few reflection
questions for
you what is one obstacle in the way of
you having the power of collaboration in
your
work and number two has Pride cause you
to have a cynical view of working with
others
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