By Doug Strickel
I still remember a particular Friday evening in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We had lived there for just under a year. I was the plant manager at a manufacturing facility that produced corrugated boxes. We were in the process of turning around a very poor facility and saving 150 jobs.
This Friday evening was not what I expected. We shut the plant down that evening and gave everyone the weekend off. We had worked a lot of overtime and everyone needed a break. I didn’t expect any calls that night, but the phone rang.
One of our large customers, also located in Jonesboro, was having major issues with an order of boxes. They could not get in touch with our sales representative that serviced them, so they called me. I drove to their location across town.
I quickly saw that we had over 50,000 boxes that were stuck together. It was clearly our fault. The glue was placed too close to the flap and had squeezed out. They had four automated production lines running the same order all night long and the boxes were not opening.
I had no one to call. We had sent everyone home and all the temporary agencies were closed for the night. The customer’s management team just stared at me and asked me what I was going to do.
There was only one thing to do. I started unsticking boxes and placing them in the machine “hopper”. As I started, I noticed the customer employees supporting the effort went from four to two. It was ten o’clock when I started and by midnight, those two had left as well.
I worked to unstick boxes and load the four machines all night long. By 8:30 the next morning, the supervisor told me the order was finished and that they would be changing over to a new order. Magically, two employees reappeared to start loading the machines with a different set of boxes.
As I was wrapping up, their management team came by and complimented the supervisor and the two employees for breaking a production record that night. Evidently, the order was run two hours faster than expected. My counterpart, their manager, thanked me for ensuring they were able to run so efficiently and walked off.
I went home and dealt with the issue at our plant Monday morning, but I stewed on the encounter all weekend. I was our plant manager and worked all night unsticking boxes that someone else ran incorrectly. I did the job of two other employees all night long, and they were recognized for their efforts (probably even got some monetary reward – I don’t even want to know).
Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good for those that are called according to his purpose. I had to remind myself of that verse prior to going back to work Monday morning. I didn’t need to go back to work acting like a victim. I didn’t need to go back to work complaining, blaming, or feeling sorry for myself.
I went back that Monday morning better for the experience. I was determined to drive an improved quality focus. I shared my record production night and challenged our folks to live up to that example of commitment. I built great credibility with the entire team as that story spread throughout the facility.
Life is not fair. It never will be. How are you going to respond? Will you embrace it and be better for it or allow yourself to be defeated?
It’s a choice we all make at some point!
Doug provides professional speaking and coaching services to organizations and individuals. Whether you are looking for a speaker for your next event or a leadership coach to develop people and build a team culture, feel free to reach out to Doug at doug.strickel@gmail.com and learn more about PLUS.
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