At the Midwest Acquirers Association (MWAA) conference, keynote speaker Damon West shared an analogy that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.
It's simple.
Imagine three pots of boiling water.
In the first pot, you place a carrot. It starts out firm and strong but becomes soft under the heat.
In the second pot, you place an egg. It begins fragile, but the boiling water hardens it from the inside out.
In the third pot, you place coffee beans. The beans don't simply survive the boiling water. They transform it. The water itself becomes coffee.
The boiling water represents adversity.
The question isn't whether we'll face pressure. We all will. The question is what kind of person we'll become because of it.
The Carrot
Sometimes pressure wears us down.
We've all had those days when a difficult customer, an unexpected mistake, or a heavy workload drains our energy. We become discouraged. We lose confidence. We stop bringing our best.
The challenge didn't change.
We did.
The Egg
Other times, pressure hardens us.
Instead of becoming discouraged, we become closed off. We lose patience. We become defensive. We stop listening. We assume the worst instead of looking for solutions.
Again, the pressure won.
The Coffee Bean
Then there's the coffee bean.
The coffee bean doesn't change because of the environment.
It changes the environment.
It brings optimism instead of negativity.
Solutions instead of excuses.
Calm instead of frustration.
Encouragement instead of criticism.
It leaves every situation better than it found it.
What This Means at DCCSupply
Every day at DCCSupply we experience our own version of boiling water.
Orders don't always go as planned.
A shipment arrives late.
A customer has an urgent issue.
A supplier makes a mistake.
A deadline changes.
Someone needs help.
None of us can eliminate every challenge.
But every one of us can choose how we respond.
One positive attitude can calm an entire department.
One person willing to help can keep a project moving.
One encouraging conversation can change someone's entire day.
That is what being a coffee bean looks like.
It's Bigger Than One Person
The thing I appreciate most about this analogy is that it isn't about being perfect.
It's about recognizing that each of us has the ability to influence the people around us.
When Purchasing solves a problem before it reaches Programming...
When Programming catches something before Shipping...
When Shipping goes the extra mile for a customer...
When Customer Service turns a complaint into a compliment...
When Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, Operations, and every department work together with a positive mindset...
We're all being coffee beans.
That's how great teams are built.
My Challenge to All of Us
Every morning we have a choice.
We can let the pressure around us determine our attitude.
Or we can determine the attitude of the people around us.
At DCCSupply, I hope we choose to be coffee beans.
Because when enough people choose to change the environment instead of letting the environment change them, that's when great companies are built.
- Adam