Over the years I've had the opportunity to work with a great number of individuals - from the old Payless days, through distribution, to today at Diamond Oil. I learned much from these folks and I hope they learned as much from me.
One particular group was from when I worked at Huttig in Kansas City. This group of people distinguished themselves by taking a facility that was losing a lot of money to becoming profitable in just two years. We got a lot of attention from others who tried to figure out exactly what we were doing and why it worked. It was the people, which is always the answer. Let me tell you about some of these individuals.
My Production Manager had come from Guatemala to make a better life for his family. Alary never met a challenge that he couldn't overcome. As I continued to add production to his schedule, he complained in passing fashion and then dug in and figured out how to get it done. He threatened me a couple of times about it, but always just got it completed. I still grin when I think about his words: "Meester Martin, I beech-slap you if you..." Add whatever challenge I set before him.
My operations team was made up of a lot of people, but Benny and Jamie were two of the folks that really got it done. They were the people who made sure all of the orders were pulled and completed every day, and got the product on the trucks and routed so that everything was delivered. This was one of the largest jigsaw puzzles that you could ever imagine, and they took it on day after day. Pretty amazing.
Then there was the inside sales team. Dawn, Donna, Joe, Grif, Andrelee, Dave and Roy. They took tremendous care of the customer. As we worked to change the way that the branch responded to its customers, this was the group that stepped up to tell the story and bring back the customers that we had lost with bad service and bad pricing. They did the work one customer at a time, in conjunction with the outside sales team. These teams spurred our growth until we were moving forward again. As individuals we were all flawed and had our quirks, but as a team, we were just about unstoppable.
So you ask, what does this have to do with a small green stone? When I roll this stone over in my hand, these are all of the things that I think of and more. This stone reminds me of all.
But most specifically it reminds me of Grif Davies. I'd known Grif when he was the sales representative for Magic Woods when I worked at Payless. He sold me hardwood lumber and specially items and was always there to help. Years later, when I landed at Huttig, he worked as an inside seller for me. I remember sitting down with Grif for his annual review and asking him what his goals were for the upcoming year. He told me that he wanted to live to the next review, going on to tell me that he was going to need a lung/heart transplant in order to get there. Over the coming months, we all worked to support him in all the ways we could. He ended up gong in for the surgery and although things started out well, as we all followed him through his "caring bridge," we hoped for the best. But in the end, his body was unable to overcome all of the indignities that had been done to it over the years and we lost him.
When we went to the funeral, there was a basket of these small stones at the entrance to the sanctuary. Each stone was unique and a handwritten note from Grif. He wanted us to take a stone and use it over the years to remember that day and the friends that were there with us. It has always done just this for me.
I know there will be a day when someone goes through my things and tosses this stone in a box to go to Goodwill, or to the curb. But like so many things for so many of us, it really is just a symbol. This little green stone isn't just a rock to me. It's something that helps me remember.
Cherish the things in your life that are more than they appear to be. There value will rarely be understood by anyone but you.
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