Value My Family, Value Me

Recently, we received a request from a local school for some much needed supplies. The school (private) as a classroom project was teaching the students how to write letters and benefit the school at the same time (love efficiency!). This was a rather mundane thing that passed my desk.

The opportunity was this child belonged to one of my most outspoken critics on the plant floor. Maybe this was the opportunity I had been looking for. This employee was technically the most competent, but attitude was horrible.

To make a long story short, I approached the employee about what was needed and why. He was not sure I was sincere and it took some convincing to show him that the company would provide the needed supplies if he would accompany me to the school to present them. He agreed.

When we contacted the school they were so pleased that they wanted to do the presentation in front of the entire student body (500) . I had planned on doing the speaking, but kidded with the employee and told him “it is your idea, you can make the presentation”.

He did the presentation of the supplies. We gave the kids a framed certificate. They were the only ones in the class that even received a response from any local company contacted. Their dad was a hero in their eyes. His son was the envy of his classmates with his “framed certificate”. His dad was the envy of his classmates.

Although this did not enter our minds at the time we did this, we had an incident at the plant that made the local papers a few months before. How much good did we do with the 500 families represented in the audience to improve our company image.

Don