From Loma Vista Nursery's Lyndsi Oestmann: Building trust from the inside out

I can still remember the moment, over a decade ago, when I realized that Loma Vista Nursery’s culture had to change. The country was in recession. Company sales were down. Margins were shrinking, and we had more plants than the market was absorbing.

The stress of daily management was heavy, making it clear that we couldn’t move forward with only a handful of people carrying the weight. We needed more hands. But what we really needed were more heads, more commitments and more company-wide buy-ins.

Clarity out of uncertainty

Nursery-wide, communication was our biggest challenge. Not only during those early days as I stepped into a leadership role in 2007, but as Loma Vista Nursery entered a significant growth phase with the economy’s recovery.

Historically, the nursery’s leadership thought staff understood its decisions, as well as its goals and financial pressures. We thought employees knew how their work connected to the bigger picture.

But we were wrong.

Surveying our team, we discovered that more than half believed Loma Vista Nursery was running at a 50% profit margin. In fact, we were operating in single digits and borrowing money to pay year-end bonuses. This disconnect told me everything I needed to know.

We weren’t working with transparency and without transparency there could be no trust. In order to manage growth effectively for the short and long term, our culture had to change.

The first step was getting leadership on board. My dad, Mark Clear, built Loma Vista Nursery from the ground up. His business instincts and plant knowledge are unmatched. But shifting to a culture of open-book management was outside his comfort zone. Truthfully, it was outside of mine, too. Until I read Jack Stack’s “The Great Game of Business.”

Stack’s premise is that companies can achieve growth and success by educating, engaging and empowering every employee to act like an owner. His concept of open-book — know the game, know the rules, keep score and make sure everyone has access to the scoreboard — became our framework for a cultural evolution.

Once we began integrating Stack’s open-book approach into Loma Vista Nursery’s operations, we saw how quickly transparency could align people and build trust.

Build trust through insight

Transparency is the foundation of our culture. In my experience, when people know where the company stands, they feel empowered to make decisions that move all of us closer to our goals.

From hiring decisions to equipment purchases and budgeting, Loma Vista Nursery’s managers have autonomy over their budgets. People are more invested in the company because they see how their contributions impact profitability.

We invest in onboarding our H-2A employees just as we do new full-time staff. We train our H-2As thoroughly and hold them accountable by the same standards. We go out of our way to recognize what they’ve given up to be here. And we make sure they understand that their work matters to Loma Vista Nursery’s success.

The results speak for themselves.

Years ago, Loma Vista Nursery was issuing 400 W-2s annually just to keep 95 positions filled. Today, our average employee tenure is more than 13 years, with 60% of our full-time staff employed with us for more than a decade and nearly one-third for more than 20 years. Turnover is low, our team is stable and our managers focus on leadership instead of scrambling to cover no-shows.

Use a strong playbook

Because a professional baseball player raised me and founded Loma Vista Nursery, I use analogies of the game a lot in our business. No two baseball games are the same. Neither are the day-to-day operations of a nursery.

Culture is about mindset, but it’s more than that. Culture is actionable. It’s about establishing practices and daily habits that keep operations steady especially in the face of change. Culture requires Loma Vista Nursery’s team to play and adapt as new challenges and opportunities arise.

That means we’d better be in sync. We’d better be practicing transparency, trust and effective communication and everyone better understand the playbook.

For years, we operated without standard operating procedures (SOPs). Things went fine until they didn’t. Without documented processes and procedures, we found ourselves wasting precious time reinventing the wheel every time a new challenge or opportunity arose. No more.

SOPs are now one of the most important tools we have. They keep the nursery running like a well-oiled machine, ensuring continuity and bridging communications across departments.

Contingency planning and cross-training also play major roles. I don’t want to walk into a ballgame with only one pitcher. Loma Vista Nursery’s managers know who their starters are.

And we’ve also built a bench.

If one person is absent or moves on, the goal is for someone else to step in without missing a beat. That flexibility has helped us weather everything from sudden resignations to unexpected shipping challenges.

Sometimes, the plan isn’t obvious. Several springs ago, a driver quit at the peak of shipping season. Hiring a replacement quickly was not possible. Instead, we worked with outside partners to cover deliveries, communicated with customers and adapted together as a team.

That’s what transparency looks like when things get messy. Problems don’t get buried. They get solved collaboratively.

Empower teams to innovate

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned is that when employees own their budgets, equipment and processes, they bring forward the best ideas. We’ve seen innovations that saved time, improved safety and increased efficiency.

These include ergonomic fertilizer applicators and redesigned mini houses that eliminated hazards and cut production time in half. Even simple changes like implementing electronic filing have freed up countless hours once spent shuffling paper.

These improvements are proof that when people are given ownership, they care more deeply about outcomes. They look for solutions that make the whole company stronger.

Recognize and reward success

We also make it a priority to recognize our team beyond paychecks and bonuses. Celebrating milestones like three years with no time-loss safety incidents helps reinforce values that matter.

Hosting retirement parties, recognizing safety champions and nominating employees for industry awards sends a powerful message: we see you, we value you, we’re invested in your growth.

I’ll never forget one retirement party where we presented a longtime team member with a cake, personalized with his name. He told me it was the first time in his life he’d ever had a cake with his name on it. That small gesture carried more weight than we could have imagined.

Recognition also means investing in people’s potential. We regularly send team members to AmericanHort’s Cultivate with learning goals in mind. When they return, we share takeaways and implement new ideas.

That investment tells people they matter. And not just for the work they do today, but for who they can become tomorrow.

Leverage culture for advantage

We’ve worked hard to identify, define and implement a culture based on values. Today, Loma Vista Nursery’s culture rests on three attributes: integrity, service mindset and accountability. Each attribute points to our values, which infuse every aspect of our business.

Integrity means doing what’s right even when it’s hard. Operating with a service mindset reminds us that success depends on working together and prioritizing long-term relationships with customers and partners. Accountability keeps us production-centric and expertise-driven, with everyone taking ownership of results.

These attributes shape how we work internally. They also give us an edge in navigating industry challenges. Rising costs, labor shortages, supply chain pressures, shifting consumer expectations — none of these are easy. But when your team understands the conditions, when they aren’t swinging blind, they’re more willing to adapt and contribute to solutions.

For example, rising labor costs means we have to be efficient. That requires buy-in from everyone because wasted labor is wasted money.

When employees know the financial picture, they can help find savings, streamline processes and justify value to customers. Transparency turns an uphill climb into a shared challenge instead of a lonely burden.

Adapt to market demands

We’ve also had to adapt quickly to challenging customer expectations. Quality is now the baseline.

To compete, we have to deliver excellent plants consistently and deliver them fast because customers expect same-week turnaround. That leaves little margin for error, which is why our SOPs and cross-department systems are critical. They are the backbone of meeting customer needs real-time.

When partners and vendors interact with us, they often remark about our culture. I hear regularly from customers who appreciate our sales team’s genuine care for their business. Vendors and partners recognize our willingness to try new plants and provide industry feedback.

Comments like these confirm that our culture doesn’t just exist internally. It extends outward, shaping how others experience Loma Vista Nursery. Culture builds trust through transparency—and that generates a whole lot of goodwill.

Play the long game

Culture is what sustains us as a business and as an industry. It keeps people engaged, empowers innovation and ensures that no one feels they’re in the fight alone. Just like a baseball team, we can’t rely on one or two players to carry us. It takes everyone pulling together to succeed.

That’s the team culture we’ve built at Loma Vista Nursery. It sure hasn’t happened overnight, and it hasn’t always been easy. But it has made us stronger, more resilient and prepared to thrive in an industry where challenges are guaranteed.

And that’s the lesson I keep coming back to. When you invest in culture, you invest in your people. When you invest in your people, they invest in the company. And together, you build something that can weather change and win for the long run.