Not unusual behavior for a preschooler, right?  It would seem pretty standard. Except that his five older siblings really never did this. (Yes, there are six kids in all. More on that another time. Stay with me.)

That’s right: none of the other kids ever carried a toy companion, had an imaginary friend, or created any sort of pseudo-best-friend.

But, those kids had each other. The older five kids’ ages span only seven years, so they always had playmates. As pre-schoolers, they played games together, built forts, performed plays, and were generally inseparable.

When faced with the rare moment that these kids found themselves alone, they panicked. After mere  moments on their own, we heard them say, “there’s NOTHING to do, can I have a play date?”

It was actually troublesome. In fact, during their elementary school years, I worked hard to encourage them to build playing-alone skills: teaching them how to play solitaire, buying single-player games, and arranging times for each child to spend entertaining him/ herself.

Now, there’s this littlest brother, who is seven years younger than his closest sibling. He doesn’t have the constant companionship of peers. He learned early how to entertain himself.

And, just as early in life, he created a best friend, in Cha-Cha The Monkey, to accompany him.

All this has me thinking about what social creatures we all are. This isn’t a revolutionary concept; there are many scientific studies that reinforce this theme.

But, to see our social nature play out in such real ways, every day, confirms for me that I must continue to focus on the right things.

Our lives, our world, and our experiences are meant to be shared. God has created a place where we depend on one another. Where we yearn to share our lives. Where we expect to give and receive. And where, if we foster our relationships, lives will be forever better.

So, I thank you for being part of my life. Your presence here, in my social circle, is appreciated. Your companionship is treasured. Thank you.

(In fact, we have, to a certain extent, institutionalized this effort. In every job description – or at least all the ones I’ve seen – a portion of the job is dedicated to “duties as apparent or assigned.” In large part, this is taken to mean: if you see something that needs to get done, then by all means do it!)

Sometimes the result is small scale – as in, a few employees at one store – and sometimes, it’s a nationwide effort that leverages talent throughout the company. IAmBestBuy and Project Holiday are great examples that showcase these small and large efforts.

Either way, the dilemma is that we don’t have a good way to share all the great stuff that’s happening. Amazing work yields equally amazing results, but most of us – and certainly most of the people that shop with us – just don’t know about it.

This issue has been here for years, and we’ve tried to tackle it in many ways, from huge “Knowledge Management Infrastructure” work to grassroots attempts to just encourage people to tell their stories.

But the issue remains. Incredible stuff is happening all over the place, but it happens in little pockets and never gets to the scale, or the benefits, that should come with being a $40B company. And with over 1000 stores and 150,000 people, it is no wonder that this issue exists.

I really wish I had an answer, one simple solution that would fix this problem. A common idea I’ve heard is to “do less” — that if we have fewer projects going on, then we could all just focus on them and really drive them to success.

This, however, is counter to the very nature of the culture that brought us to this place. If we do less, then someone’s idea isn’t heard. Someone somewhere is told to be quiet and just get with the pre-ordained, fully funded, executive-approved program.

Not only does this sound like a miserable culture, it would just never work at Best Buy. Each of us has a story to tell about something we made happen at work, not because the company told us to, or because it was part of our job description, but because we really cared. And I believe that none of us would give that up, for ourselves or for anyone else. In short, we just value people too much.

That – obviously – is a good thing.

And so, we are left with the dilemma: with all these people doing all this great stuff, how does everyone else find out about it? How do we get the most out of the hard work that each of these people puts forth?

While I don’t have a magic bullet, I would submit that the answer has something to do with social technologies. With sharing. With openness. With networks. With relationships. And yes, with people.

Because the only way we are going to overcome this challenge is through the amazing efforts of the people that created it.

The evening started with doors opening to Soldier Field’s club level, which led the first 100 attendees to run in, either to claim their first player autograph, or to get in line for their complimentary gift bag.

For the next 90 minutes, the sold-out crowd of 850 women ate a light dinner, enjoyed wine tasting, and took tours of the Bears’ locker rooms. Most of these minutes were spent waiting in line – for food, wine, tours, autographs, and gift bags. But, the women didn’t seem to mind: they were just thrilled to be in the same room with Matt Forte, Mark Anderson and other Bears.

About halfway through the event, the “presentation” portion started, by far the coolest part of the evening. We watched game tapes, listened to players describe why they made the decisions they did, and got a chance for some Q&A. It was intriguing – not just because the content was engaging but because this event clearly filled a unique need of their fans.

And so, since that evening, I find myself thinking a lot about sports marketing. Not the boring run-of-the-mill marketing like naming a stadium or hanging banners behind home plate, but the potential unique sports marketing opportunities. Given creative minds and clear objectives, I am convinced that Best Buy’s most effective sports marketing opportunities will provide more than brand awareness – they will compliment our growth strategies and create unique brand positioning among fans.

After the Soldier Field event, we headed to the South Loop Best Buy store for what I referred to as an afterparty. (Marketing materials referred to it as an exclusive shopping event.)  In any case, women shopped the store, enjoyed snacks, won raffle prizes, and finally had their opportunity to take pictures and even chat a bit with Bears players. Overall, a successful night.

At the store, I met Daniela, who greeted me shyly, but warmly, in an effort to help me shop. After introducing myself – and my role in making Best Buy a better place for women – her demeanor changed. She now had something to SAY.

Daniela told me how, on occasion, she has been frustrated as female customers assume that she doesn’t have deep knowledge about the products she sells. She also talked about how much she enjoys her job, how her manager listens to her ideas, and how she never wants to leave the company. Daniela’s excitement about reaching her local Hispanic market was contagious; by the end of our conversation, I was convinced that she alone could drive this store to meet its growth plan.

And then, she floored me: Daniela has worked at Best Buy for one month.

Something is happening here. Daniela’s passion wasn’t the result of a talented recruiter. Or new employee training. Or big posters proclaiming Best Buy’s vision and values.

No, Daniela has connected with Best Buy. Somehow, after 30 days on the job, she embodies all that we want to strive to create: Passion. Empowerment. Engagement. Customer Focus. Drive for Growth.

Now, all we need to do is uncover the magic that brought Daniela to the place where she is. And then replicate that magic another 100,000 times. Because the more Danielas there are, the faster Best Buy will grow.