"When team culture reigns, teams are dependable and consistent." Linda Case, Founder

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Truck Washing Boosts Company Image—and Bonding

Progressive Builders, Inc.’s trucks are easy to spot around town. The fleet of three pickup trucks and four vans are emblazoned with Progressive Builders’ logo and additional signage denoting the company’s Big50 status—and all of the white vehicles are sparkling clean.

For the past 8 years, Michael Spreckelmeier, president and owner of the Ft. Myers, Fla.-based design/build firm, has been joining the company’s production manager, superintendents, and remodeling assistants at 6:30 each Monday morning to wash each of the company trucks. The process is something of an assembly line: One guy mans the hose, another applies soap, others wield brushes, and so on. The team is so efficient that they manage to wash all seven trucks in just a half hour—but it isn’t all business. “There’s usually some clowning around, and there’s time for team building and bonding,” says Spreckelmeier. “We talk about who played golf over the weekend and who watched football.”

The truck washing sessions are quite egalitarian, something that the production staff truly appreciates. “The remodeling assistants enjoy the fact that I’m in there washing with them,” says the remodeler, “and that I don’t simply tell them, ‘pull those trucks around and let me know when they’re clean.’ It’s a humbling little thing, and it’s definitely a big part of our image to have clean vehicles.”

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