DIY 1 source Jul 8, 5:38 PM EDT Updated 3h ago 0 views

Don’t pee in the water jug

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Don’t pee in the water jug July 8, 2026 | 4:38 pm CDT

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Lean Manufacturing

Plant Production & Software

Don’t pee in the water jug

Brad Cairns

July 8, 2026 | 4:38 pm CDT

Brad Cairns is a partner at Quantum Lean and is dedicated to improving the woodworking industry in North America.

There are a million and one books written about company culture, yet for some reason I’d be willing to bet we all suffer at some level because we are not putting the effort required to build and maintain it. 

But what is company culture? It’s one of those intangible things that cannot be measured. There are tons of programs that help evaluate your culture. You can do surveys and hope people tell the truth. But I’m not sure if there is a better tell of culture than laughter in the breakroom at lunch and a clean bathroom.

Creating culture can take months or years depending on the size of your organization and you can destroy a vibrant culture in days or weeks. So, what’s the best way to protect it? The answer is simple, yet difficult all at the same time. My question to you is this: Can you have a culture without people? Buildings can’t make a culture. Machines can’t make a culture. The unmistakable truth is, “It’s all about the people.”

People make up the entirety of your culture. And whether or not you are purposeful about it, you have one, and it’s thriving. The question is, what kind of culture is it? Another way of defining culture would be something along the lines of “what everyone does when no one is looking.”

But where does culture start? Does it start with a decision from the boss to hold meetings talking about all the weird and wonderful ways to build a culture? That can certainly be part of it, but I believe it starts way before that. I think it starts with the decision to hire someone.

I can’t count the number of times I have witnessed a shop owner posting an ad for a trades person with “x” number of years’ experience. On the surface that sounds pretty good, I suppose the subconscious train of thought is we are hoping to save some money on training, but at what expense. 

I remember advertising for a finisher. Our paint department was so far behind and as usual I was under the gun. The resumes started coming in, and I distinctly remember one gentleman who was bragging about having 40 years of experience and how good he was.  He was flabbergasted when I told him with that many years of experience I could not hire him. He demanded a reason, and I elected to just tell him the truth. It was going to take me too long to break all his bad habits.

In my career anyone with that many years of experience and not shy about telling you how good they are, will be a huge problem on a team. It is extremely difficult to integrate anyone with an ego into a thriving culture of continuous improvement. 

And there is the magic bullet everyone is looking for. How do you create a great culture? Start with great people. We have completely revised our hiring process, we almost don’t ever look for experienced people, but rather a kid with a smile and a good handshake who says, “I’d love to learn that.” I’m not saying experience can’t be an asset, if the character is right, and they have experience, wow! You have found a unicorn. Hire them immediately. 

When trying your best to build that culture, take a page from the medical world and use this phrase: “First, do no harm.” The best way to build a culture is not to poison it. To emphasis this point at one of our company morning meetings, I did this little experiment.  I brought to the front of the room a jug of water, and a stack of $5 bills. I handed out little cups and said, “Anyone who takes a shot of water is welcome to grab $5 off the stack of bills.” As you can imagine, the line formed immediately and every single person took a shot of water and a $5 bill. 

Then I took the jug of water behind a rolling white board so you could still see me from about the knees down. I set the jug on the floor and got a juice box with apple juice. 

I squirted the apple juice in the jug making it look like I was peeing in the jug. It was actually quite a funny scene. Then I came back around the white board with the jug with just a little bit of “pee” (or apple juice) in it and offered everyone $20 for the same shot of water. 

Not one taker! Why is that? 98% of the jug was the same water and just maybe 2% contaminated. Yet for 4x the amount of money people were still not willing to drink any. Then the kicker. I said to everyone, “This is what happens when we let just one person poison our culture.” 

So, if you have an organization with 100 people, and two are bad apples, they will poison the whole building. Not many of us have 100 employees, and likely many of us have at least two bad ones. Imagine the effect of that. 

If you’re trying to create a culture, the number one thing you can do for it is get rid of the bad apples and don’t contaminate the good ones. Then and only then, can you start to see that vibrant culture we all dream of flourishing. 

Watch a video: If you got a kick out of this story, and want to see the video, see below or head over to wdwrk.net/culture to watch the YouTube video of that meeting for yourself. It was a fun demonstration, and I think my team really got the point.

Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Production Efficiency

About the author

Brad Cairns

| President/Owner/C-Level

Brad Cairns is a partner at Quantum Lean and is dedicated to improving the woodworking industry in North America using lean methods. He puts lean thinking in action at My Door Factory, a cabinet door manufacturing business he founded in St. Thomas, Ontario. And he is also founder of Stolbek, a machinery manufacturer. You can reach Brad at 519-494-2883 or brad@quantumlean.ca.

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