Tulsa’s new mayor has new problem-solving strategy

TULSA — Mayor G.T. Bynum’s introduction to thousands of city employees on Friday was kept light with giveaways, encouragement and a demonstration of the “penguin walk.”

Tulsa employees spent the afternoon meeting with Bynum, who focused on the topic of building a connection from the top to bottom of city hall to gain new ideas and feedback.

But that discussion was perforated by giveaways of concert tickets and donated gift certificates and making all the attending employees stand up to practice how to safely walk on ice — the “penguin walk.”

Bynum is finishing his second week as Tulsa’s mayor.

His major point to employees on Friday was simple.

“A top priority for me is that you can come to me with any ideas and thoughts you have,” Bynum said. “I feel my role as the mayor is to be the facilitator for you to do great things for the citizens of Tulsa.”

Bynum showed up an hour early and stayed late, promising to meet with individual employees as long as they wanted to interact with him.

Bynum said the entire meeting was mirrored off of the approach QuikTrip CEO Chet Cadieux uses, in which he meets with all 20,000 employees at least once a year.

“One of the companies that I’ve really zeroed in on because I love their corporate culture is QuikTrip,” Bynum said. “I want us at the city of Tulsa to be viewed that way . ... You don’t just wave a wand and create that. So I went and met with their CEO Chet Cadieux … I’m blatantly ripping off all of his ideas for this meeting today — just so we’re clear.”