Last week, our members and their leadership teams gathered in Nashville, Tennessee for our sixth annual Tugboat Institute® Gathering of Teams. Many aspects of our week echoed the first five Tugboat Institute Gatherings of Teams in structure and format, but there were some exciting innovations as well. This is appropriate, since this is a big year at Tugboat Institute.

In our eleventh year, we are unlocking the second part of our original vision. While continuing our foundational, important work of sharing inspiration, best practices, and wisdom between our members, we are now creating new ways to spread the inspiration and know-how of Evergreen® companies far and wide. An important announcement that we shared at our gathering marked this step forward, about which you will read below.

To kick off the week and set the tone, we welcomed Charles Duhigg, author of the bestselling Supercommunicators and The Power of Habit. Charles introduced us to the why and the how of making deeper interpersonal connections through thoughtful and intentional communication. With the tone of authenticity, vulnerability, and curiosity set, we dove in.

As always, the centerpiece of our experience was our impressive slate of speakers. We were treated to five Tugboat Talks and one panel discussion, all of which offered rich learnings and insights.

Marianne Lewis is Dean and professor at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. She is also the co-author of Both/And Thinking, which explores the power of creative tensions. She shared wisdom around how to shift our perspectives on priorities that appear to conflict with one another, such as Profit and Purpose, or Purpose and Pragmatic Innovation, for example.

Tugboat Institute member Ford Mennel gave us insight into the fascinating history of his family’s 140-year-old company, Mennel Milling. He then shared some of the creative ways he has found to grow and innovate in one of the world’s oldest industries – flour milling.

Michael Horn, co-founder of the Christensen Institute and longtime friend of mine and of Tugboat Institute’s, shared a talk grounded in his recent book, Job Moves, in which he explores how and why so many employees are experiencing job dissatisfaction which leads them to make company changes that they later regret. Although the book is aimed at job seekers, his talk offered a perspective into the minds of potential employees and insights into ways companies can attract, hire, develop, and retain talent.

We heard from another Tugboat Institute member and leader of a multi-generational family business, Jayne Millard. Jayne is the fourth-generation leader of her family’s company, Turtle & Hughes, which is a leading electrical and industrial distribution, logistics, and supply chain solutions provider. In addition to sharing the rich history of her family’s company and four generations of leadership, Jayne shared her past experience in the arts and how she was able to meld that passion and experience into her leadership of her firm.

Modern philosopher, Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way and The Daily Stoic, brought forth the wisdom of the ancients, and specifically the Stoics, in his talk. His encouragement to view obstacles not as something to avoid, but as an opportunity to understand and address challenges with creativity and perseverance, resonated with our audience.

Lastly, we enjoyed a panel discussion with Bo Burlingham and me, moderated by Tugboat Institute member Mel Gravely. The topic of the discussion was the book co-authored by us, Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last. This book, which publishes on May 6, 2025, represents perhaps the most important step forward in our push to raise awareness of, and appreciation for, Evergreen companies broadly.

Most of these talks will be available to readers through our Evergreen Journal® in the coming months in both video and audio formats so please keep an eye out for their release. And this bring us to our exciting new initiative, which was launched this past week in Nashville: Evergreen Journal Plus (EJ+).

EJ+ is an upgrade to our Evergreen Journal free subscription and contains our entire library of eleven years of content, which includes over 200 Tugboat talks and 300 Evergreen Journal articles and is growing every week, in a new and vastly improved format. Our library contains a treasure trove of Evergreen wisdom; collected over more than a decade, it includes inspiration, stories, best practices, challenges, and wisdom from Evergreen leaders and thought leaders to help current and future Evergreen company leaders, founders, and owners be more successful. It’s a rich store for anyone interested in learning more about capitalism at its best. Your paid subscription to the EJ+ also includes periodic live events with Evergreen leaders and thought leaders, a curated list of recommended books from me, and much more. As a current EJ subscriber, we invite you to upgrade now to the EJ+ at a discounted price of $99 for the coming year HERE.

By extending the Tugboat Institute experience and know-how to our broader Evergreen community through Another Way and the EJ+, we hope to both elevate Evergreen companies and provide ideas for Evergreen leaders to further improve their companies.

We are grateful and humbled to serve such an incredible community of leaders that make such an important contribution to our communities and society.