Who Gives A Crap’s Simon Griffiths on driving a team through greater purpose

In March 2020, Simon Griffiths was watching as toilet paper sold out across Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. Even as the CEO of toilet paper innovators Who Gives A Crap, he never imagined the same thing was about to happen in Australia, UK and the US. 

But on March 4th, things took a dramatic turn. As the great toilet paper wars broke out across supermarket aisles, sales rose by 30-40%. Who Gives A Crap sold out, with half a million buyers on their waitlist. 

The challenge excited Simon Griffiths, and over an eight week period the company pushed its systems to the absolute limit. 

So how did Griffiths keep his team motivated? Who Gives A Crap donates 50% of profits towards building toilets and providing sanitation to those in need, so Simon and his team knew this was their moment to shine. Having a purpose at the heart of the company propelled the team into action. 

As a remote-first organisation, Griffiths says focusing on autonomy, mastery and purpose, combined with clear goal-setting, can motivate a team to tackle anything.

Simon Griffith’s recommended reading: 

- The Lean Startup

Amantha’s recommended reading:

- Measure What Matters

Podcasts he listens to: 

- The Journal by the Wall Street Journal 

- How I Built This

- 20VC

And Amantha’s current favourite podcast:

- Pivot

You can connect with Simon on Twitter and Linkedin and the Who Give’s A Crap website - whogivesacrap.org

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.