E2 Interviewing Mr, Lasse

Hello folks. This is Shohei speaking and here is my very first interview with my incredible respectful boss, Lasse. We talked about his company, how to make a strong community and tree planting, mostly I was just listening though. I think many my tree planter friends can enjoy our conversation. And also I translate this into Japanese so that my Japanese friends can enjoy too. Before listening this, I want you notice something. In this interview, you can see I was very nervous and my terrible English,Actually I realized what my English sounds like when I listen this to translate. So I cut some unnecessary words out for my blog because reading and listening is different and it might make you be confused to understand. And also I wanna make it clear that I mean more bosses in the world by more bosses I meant in this interview. For final note, I really need to help to catch some words in it. If you could find something I misunderstood or completely didn't catch, please tell me. I can rewrite. Well then, here you go! Thank you for having me in this company and taking this interview. No problem, Shohei. And... ah..Maybe I should say" Hi Lasse". Hello. Because audience doesn't know who are you... Right. I wanna tell, ah, like peole or stories about when I met in mt travel and to tell those stories, people, audience to make people, you know, world more better. Right! Yeah!And mostly I wanna have a interview for you because I'm impressed by your policy you have for this company, Hybrid17. Right. Thanks Shohei. And I love people and company, the style, and the time being here. That's part of what we are trying to do every year to create very strong community that we can all enjoy at the same time while working very hard. Working together makes us more, you know, affectionate? each other? And also having a common goal kind a brings people together but also making sure that we respect everyone from the person who just starting the same way that you respect the 5year veteran. And ah, that way everyone can work together instead of just having a strict hierarchy and having people who are less respective than other. This way every one kind of works together and that makes everyone happier but also makes more productive and also make people come back because this is seasonal work. Seasonal work is very different from the job happens everyday. So you need people to come back every year. So then you maintain that kind of... I met many people here who really loved here, love being here. people. Everyone, after this season, after I've done this job, everyone asked me "You wanna come back?". you know? " You wanna come back?". And I wanna comeback. It's up to my Visa. But I think because they wanna come back too. They wanna meet people again. Yeah, It's a place that they can know come to that they can work hard, make money and be with people that they like. And that's pretty important these days. Yeah, yeah. So here is a question. Your parents started this business, right? When did you take over and what did you change? I, myself and my wife, Sara, actually purchased the company from my mom when I was , I think about 25 years old, and ah, yeah. It was kind of the spur of the moment decision when we did it.When we first decided to buy it we were really determined to change the culture in this company because we thought that there was a little bit too much kind of masculine and testosterone type of energy and very high baller, we worry about numbers. And we didn't want to run the company in that way.　So we hired a lot of our friends and a lot of artists. Wow, Cool. It was cool but we didn't plant a lot of trees. So it was a long time for us to kind learn what the right balance and what types of people to come. It'a also I wanna ask, I wanted to ask you about how could you organize these people not only as workers but also teammates, friends. We have sometimes party to be friends. You know, when we started at the very beginning, I talked in front of everybody make everyone know that we are very open and that they can talk to anyone all the time. And that's how you start building a strong community you followed, right? At the very beginning, establishing that everyone is equal, that every has safe and we are working together. And then you have to actually, follow through those things when situations comes up stuff like that. Another really important aspect of how this community is developed is that I let the crew bosses, I choose leaders, but the leaders choose people who will work with them. And that kind of as long as I am choosing good leaders and then they will choose good people that work with them. I think that's how it works. It's just ah, that's the hardest things to do this, to choose those people going to hire. For sure, thank you. So... Could you explain one more time about your policy you have. I started to explain it by myself. I don't think it's clear. Right. You know, I don't have a specific policy. If you avoid it call policy, it's more like a guarding principle. Guarding principle. Yes. That means what we tried to do at the beginning every year is to create a very strong community that respect one another and one's to be around one another. And in this very intense work, environment we are working so hard and pretty extremely situation if you create open inclusive space, then you creative really tight community because it's very extremely situation that people are in. So if you can make a good spot in an extremely situation, those good feelings are kind of multiplied because you are in such a extremely work environment. That's, I think, it's a kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy that way we are. If you're open, and inclusive, and respectful to the people you are working with, then, they turn it back thousands times. I don't really have specific policy. That let us happened by trying to guide those principles. Right. I think you are very important for you to be the first man who do these principle. And I think this company, these people are awesome, I think, because you're trying to be open mind and talk to people, and like try to be friends and also good leader. That's very important I guess. Yeah, exactly. So that goes back even though first speech that I gave is to make sure everybody knows a little bit about me and also to understand kind of community that we want to build. And then you have to actually be that way. Yeah! That can be hard sometimes. It not always gonna be succeed. I think you are. You know I'm from Japan and I sometimes feel lonely because I don't understand, sometimes, that people, conversation. But in here, when I feel lonely or I'm confused, people try to understand me, and talk to me. And you are one of them, I mean, you are the first man. I hope more leaders try to be , even all fare to the people who work with. I think one of the things that I want, cause I got a lot of very young people that come work for me. So one of my goals is to show that people that come through this company what a good person to work for is. So then one day they go to other places cause everybody always moves on from tree planting, it's a work for us, doesn't stay with you in entire your life, usually it's for a phase of their life before they go on to do other things. But I want them to know what good bosses is like and I want them to be able to refuse to work somewhere if it's not good, And understand that difference between good work and hard work. That's wonderful. Thank you. Um, just one more question. Yeah. And ah,it's more casual. I'm just wondering where these " Hybrid" and "17" comes from and also " bird" you put this as a signal. So our Hybrid 17 comes from. When we first started we did a lot of different works, and we also planted a lot of this spruce tree called Hybrid white spruce. So we thought we are kind of like a company that did a lot of things differently, but achieving somewhere goals to the company. So we thought we kind a like hybrid. And then for me, I like prime numbers and 17 was a my one of favorite numbers and I just wanted to have that in there. No particularly reason. My personal quarks. And then raven bird things that our symbol is actually one of my favorite pieces of art that came from our employees. When once we had a season where a whole bunch of people got injured because they were planting in a snow.At that same time our client said that I had to make these placards for the front of vehicles so that could tell who we are on a road. Everyone got together and designed a bird because I believe birds are good luck. I especially like raven. So everyone drew different raven and then one of workers, Tyrone, this is many years ago, he assembled all those birds into one. So the head is someone's interpretation and each wing is someone's interpretation, and then tails are someone else's. So it's a combination of real true collaborative efforts that everyone brought something to the table. So I really like that symbol for a company because it's kind of brings together all the things that I like about the way we work. I think more tree planters should know about that. And it's Hybrid. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. One more question? Sorry it was second. Okay. What is tree planting for you? What is it for me? yeah. It is huge part of my life. It's who I am. It'something that i believe as part of myself and that very hard to imagine not doing it. I always need to return to the bush. Living in a city is not natural for me because I grew up in the country. So it's part of my life to be ought come back to here, be outside and do physical work. But more than I think tree planting is a life style that I am not able to give up yet, despite the fact that It's hard, because I'm away from my family quite a little bit and it's really hard work, can be stressful sometimes. But right now it still worth it. Um... Thank you so much Your welcome, Shohei. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. Yeah I'm really glad that this finally happened. Yeah! I was asking around you. yeah. And you know, sometimes I feel nervous. Off course. It's natural. I'm so glad. That was very good. Thank you so much. No problem. Thank you. Yeah. So how was that!? I hope you can enjoy this episode. Thank you for listening and helping, especially Lasse. If you could help me to make this clear, I would appreciate it. If you have any question, suggestion, advise or things you wanna know, please let me know by comment section,or sending e-mail to shinhassou@gmail.com. It's gonna be great help for me. Your interest might be new episode for my journalism. Okay then, See you next time!! special thanks to help to catch words by R and J.

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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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