Jonathan Brooks
CEO
Warehouse on Wheels
Episode 16
Rapid Growth Blueprint: Culture, Radical Transparency & AI for Decentralized Teams
Current chapter: This episode is presented by Previ, the only free tool that boosts internal communication
Built By PeopleDecember 18, 2025 · 12:11
Thesis
“Rapid growth and a decentralized organizational structure are best supported by a strong, actively cultivated culture, radical transparency in communication, a commitment to employee development, and an unwavering focus on emotional intelligence in leadership.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, Jonathan Brooks shares his unique career journey from working at Arthur Anderson during its collapse to becoming a successful leader in the storage trailer industry. He emphasizes the importance of company culture, employee engagement, and the use of technology in operations. Brooks discusses his vision for growth and offers valuable advice for aspiring leaders, highlighting the significance of emotional intelligence and continuous learning in leadership.
Takeaways
- I was working at Arthur Anderson through the collapse.
- I started working on my MBA at Notre Dame.
- I got involved in operations, sales.
- We rent them into the supply chains of Fortune 100s.
- It always starts with our culture.
- We're about ready to test a new tool.
- We've been reinventing our commercial strategy.
- I give every employee my personal cell phone number.
- We do a semi-annual engagement survey.
- It's about the people.
What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize culture as the foundation for business success, actively measuring its "temperature" through engagement surveys and direct feedback.
- 2Embrace radical transparency and accessibility, even sharing personal contact information, to foster trust and address employee frustrations directly.
- 3Leverage AI tools for internal communication and organizational pulse-taking, such as AI-driven meeting summaries and internal podcasts, to scale insights in a decentralized structure.
- 4Actively respond to and address all employee feedback, demonstrating that their input is heard and valued, which is crucial for genuine engagement.
- 5Invest in continuous learning and development, including leadership training (like Extreme Ownership) and dedicated L&D roles, to foster an environment where people grow and want to stay.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Sharing his personal cell phone number with all employees across 37 locations to facilitate direct communication and frustration resolution, bypassing traditional hierarchical channels.
- •Utilizing AI tools to process meeting notes and communication channels to create a weekly internal podcast that provides an organizational 'pulse,' an unconventional approach to scaled internal monitoring.
In Jonathan's words
“So I am a big proponent of knowing what the temperature in the room is, how the team is operating. Are they synchronized? Are we focused on the right things? So I spend a lot of my time, often say, as the chief evangelist.”
Highlights his proactive, hands-on approach to monitoring and nurturing company culture within a decentralized structure.
“We're grounded in the foundations of— we all subscribe to the leadership philosophies found in Extreme Ownership, the book. And so everybody gets trained on that. You come to work for us, you get a copy of it. We do a 12-week book club. We send you to the trainings Echelon Front has developed.”
Shows a deep, systematic commitment to embedding a specific leadership philosophy across the entire organization through comprehensive training.
“And in the course of that, I actually give every employee my personal cell phone number. So it's the same number my wife, my kids, and my mama call me on, you know, and it's there for them to use.”
Demonstrates an extreme level of accessibility and transparency to foster trust and direct communication channels with employees.
“But the real powerful part of it is we ask 3 open-ended questions. What's the single best idea you have to improve the business? What's the silliest thing we're doing as an organization? Those are pretty interesting. And then what does working at WOW Warehouse on Wheels mean to you?”
Details a unique and insightful approach to soliciting actionable and honest feedback from employees beyond standard metrics.
“So one of the things we do is every week we get all our key leaders together on a 30-minute phone call. And at the end of that phone call, I always ask in with one question: who's got some gratitude for me?”
Illustrates a specific, recurring practice designed to foster a culture of appreciation and positive recognition within leadership and ripple throughout the company.
“I think if you're new to the executive role, what I would tell you is, It's about the people. And so that emotional intelligence piece, as smart as you may be, as good of a strategic mind as you may have, without that EQ piece, it's going to be hard and you'll gain a lot of lumps on your bald head like a guy like me.”
A candid and relatable piece of advice emphasizing the paramount importance of emotional intelligence for effective leadership, drawing from personal experience.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Difficulty in maintaining a synchronized culture and understanding team dynamics across a rapidly growing, decentralized organization (37 locations).
- •Challenge of ensuring employees see, understand, and act on information in large, distributed teams, requiring innovative communication strategies beyond traditional methods.
- •The need for effective methods to gather authentic, actionable employee feedback beyond standard surveys and to demonstrate that feedback is actively addressed and valued.
- •Scaling internal communication and 'pulse checks' effectively when a CEO cannot be physically present in every meeting or location, necessitating technological solutions.
- •Recruiting and retaining talent in a competitive, growth-focused environment, requiring a strong culture and a visible commitment to continuous learning and development.
In this episode
This episode is presented by Previ, the only free tool that boosts internal communication
Built by People
Jonathan Brooks talks about his career journey and what led him to leadership
Born By People: Jonathan Brooks
Chief evangelist focuses on finding the right pulse within the business
Top Priorities of the Company
What's one initiative you're really proud of recently
Tom Clancy on His Company's Success
With 37 locations, employee communication is becoming harder and harder across every organization
WOW Warehouse on Wheels Communication
What tools or platforms are most essential for your operations today
What tools or platforms are most essential for your operations today?
If we sat down, John, in 12 months from now, what would you have hoped has changed most
What's Changed Most in Your Organization in the Last 12 Months?
John Andersen: It's about the people. And then I think it's building an environment where people continue to learn
Mark Mann on Developing Your People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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