Four Simple Letters

The L-Bomb. Four simple letters. The word can ruin a relationship if said too soon, and it can lead to blissful years of happiness when said at the perfect time. Children hear it whispered by their parents while drifting off to sleep. Musicians hear it screamed at them from adoring fans in the crowd. Oh, what a complex relationship we have with the word “love.”

I’m not sure how the societal rules around using the word developed. It makes perfect sense that we use it to indicate affection for other people. That part I get. But somehow it can also describe our relationship with cars, jeans, and weather conditions. I mean, isn’t that a little weird? The word can simultaneously be the solemn bedrock of human relationships and also the descriptor of a person’s feelings towards Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream.

Interestingly though, there’s one arena where the word is strictly taboo – namely, the world of business.

In this way, I’m lucky. My bosses are my mother, father, aunt and uncle. I hear “I love you” from them all the time, and I say it back just as often. But in most workplaces, the word brings the constant risk of harassment complaints (unfortunately, this concern is justifiable).

I’ll give credit to my grandfather in this respect though, because he wasn’t afraid to use the word at Interface. I was reminded of this recently when I listened to an old Bioneers Radio interview with him. In it, he told a story that he always called “Love on the Factory Floor.”

I can also give you the abbreviated version of this particular story. Many years ago, a large global food company sent a team to Interface’s manufacturing operations in Georgia with the goal of learning about Interface’s approach to sustainability.

One member of that team did not want to be there. As Ray describes it, she interjected frequently in negative ways, often disrupting the tour of the facilities. She didn’t believe they had anything to learn from a carpet company.

During a break though, she separated from the group and began chatting with a forklift operator who was transporting a roll of carpet. She asked this gentleman what he did at the company and was met with a surprising answer: “Ma’am, I come to work every day to help save the Earth.” She engaged with him further, and after a couple of minutes of conversation, the employee politely cut her off. “Ma’am, if I don’t get this roll of carpet to that machine in the next minute, our waste and our emissions are going out of control!”

She returned to the meeting with a different attitude. She began asking earnest questions and engaging positively, and then she shared the story of this encounter. She remarked on the alignment she saw at Interface, straight from the top of the company down to the factory floor. She said there was only one word she could use to describe what she encountered in that forklift operator. That word was “love.”

Ray would tell that story often, and I think I know the reason. It’s because the story validated what he felt. His environmental epiphany and all his efforts over the last 17 years of his life were also best described by the word “love.” Love for his company and its employees. Love for the Earth. Love for his family.

And so as we bring another long year to a close, inspired once again by my grandfather, I have a message for you. I love you. Whoever you are, and whether we’ve met or not. It doesn’t matter. I love you, and there’s not a thing in the world you can do about it.