L. Bart Adams

I read once that W. Clement Stone, a businessman, philanthropist, and self-help guru, when faced with a crisis or obstacle, would say, “that’s good.” Not the typical response that most of us have in those types of situations. Why was this his response? He was looking for the opportunity in the crisis.

Get Out The Marshmallows

Earlier this year, we had a fire start on one of our compost turners while it was operating. The fire decimated the piece of equipment, which was critical to our operations. Thankfully, no one was injured, and I struggled to see where the opportunity was in this crisis.

It took several months for the investigation to conclude and to process the insurance claim. Finally, our insurance company ruled it a total loss, and we collected the insurance money and went to work rebuilding the compost turner. It turned out that we could repair the turner in-house for much less than we received for the claim.

Our Opportunity

The result of the fire presented us with an opportunity. We had some funds left over from the repairs, and we could have a new roof installed over our administration offices and packing warehouse. But wait, there’s more!  We were also able to have some more damaged areas repaired on the remainder of the roof.

The compost turner has been running for several months without any significant issues, and our new roof is holding up to the summer rainstorms. Of course, this is not an ideal opportunity born of most crises. However, I feel fortunate we were able to take advantage of this possibility when it presented itself.

I’ve learned that although it can be challenging to see the good in every crisis, it’s still essential to have a positive attitude and say to yourself, “that’s good.”

My Responsibility

When I first took over the farm, one of the first responsibilities I assumed from my father was paying the bills. This process was something he had been doing for years. He had absorbed the Controller responsibilities when his prior employer had a difficult time finding a qualified candidate. So, he became the General Manager and Controller. I knew when I took over, one of my first hires would be a Controller, and one of the first delegations would be turning over the bill paying. Still, I was reluctant to turn over this responsibility and hesitated for several months after hiring our Controller.

It turns out I derive no energy from this activity. It took a long time to learn how to do this task, and it did not come naturally. In the meantime, I hired a Controller and turned over the majority of the accounting responsibilities, except, of course, paying the bills. I continued to perform this activity as it helped me understand our cash position and monitor our spending weekly. It took me almost one and half years to delegate this responsibility to the Controller. She was excited to have this added responsibility, and it fell in her core competencies. She enjoyed this role, where it was a significant source of stress for me.

How to Remove Bottlenecks

As the owner, I became a bottleneck in our administrative processes by not delegating the bill-paying role. I had so many other things pulling for my attention that spending a lot of time on a necessary task that I did not enjoy decreased our interoffice efficiency. The only way to remove this inefficiency or bottleneck is to delegate. The freedom I felt when trusting this role to the Controller gave me a boost of energy that I could channel in other business areas.

After I had appointed this process, I was left asking myself, "Why did I wait so long?" As I've contemplated this question, I keep coming back to trust. It was hard for me to let this go because I didn't trust that the Controller could do the job as well as I was. This idea was an absurd notion because I wasn't doing the job very well. Steven M. R. Covey said, "Trust is confidence born of two dimensions: character and competence." I certainly didn't question the character of the Controller. I trusted her to complete many other tasks that required high levels of honesty and integrity in dealing with employees' private and sensitive information. I knew she was competent because she completed other accounting responsibilities. So, I didn't question her competence. The bottom line is I had no precedent for not trusting her with this responsibility.

Passing It On

This experience taught me a lot about delegation. As I've matured as a leader, I have improved dramatically with how I delegate roles and responsibilities to all team members. In an ironic twist, the Controller mentioned previously has recently struggled with transferring some of her more time-consuming lower value tasks. I have asked her to train our receptionist on basic data entry and reporting to help increase her time for more high-value activities. Both she and the receptionist have shared the same feelings about this transition. The Controller has said things like, "I don't trust that she'll [the receptionist] will do it right and I'll have to go back and redo it." The receptionist has said, "She (the Controller) doesn't trust me enough to train me." It's my turn to teach this principle to the Controller while refraining from saying, "delegate already!"

How Am I Paid?

Our mushroom harvesters are paid by the pound of mushrooms they pick each day. At the start of each shift, the harvester receives a new punch card to track the number of baskets of mushrooms they pick. Each punch is worth one lug, which is four baskets. At the end of each day, we calculate the total pounds harvested and divide it by the total lugs for the day to get the average lug weight. The lug weight is then multiplied by the number of lugs on the harvester's punch card resulting in pounds harvested by that day.

This method of calculating the lug weights was employed long before I started in 2003. Since its inception, the harvesters generally assumed that the average lug weight was 10 pounds per lug or 2.5 pounds per basket. This assumption was incorrect as the lug weights were actually between 8-9 pounds per lug.

From Misconception To Understanding

About one year ago, I learned about this misconception amongst our harvesters. I was shocked to hear that they had this idea that the company was "stealing" pounds from the harvesters. I learned it was a common sentiment with the harvesters and was being shared with our new harvesters. At orientation and from time to time, we review the pounds calculation with the harvesting department. However, there was still a disconnect between the assumed and actual pounds harvested. You can probably imagine the effect this was having on employee morale.

In our next team meeting, we brainstormed for ideas on how to help the harvesters understand the actual pounds calculation and payment method. We considered:

• Reviewing the pounds calculation with the harvesters, as a group or individually
• Weighing each basket, by the harvester, instead of using a daily group average
• Spot checking and weighing baskets for each picker
• Posting a report of lug weights by the picker

We ultimately settled on a combination of the last two.  Our controller and HR Manager, Lisette Garcia, and the Harvesting Manager, Gilberto Gutierrez, worked together to implement this project. They purchased a scale, made a worksheet, and began recording lug weights, by picker, for each room we picked. I created a database for this data to be recorded and made a report that the department managers could print for the harvesters to review daily. On the report, any harvester that was below 10 pounds per lug was highlighted in red.

From Understanding To Accountability

We saw three immediate changes in the harvester's behavior after we started posting this report.

1. The harvesters started filling up their baskets to ensure they picked over 10 pounds per lug. They did not like seeing their name is red in the report for their coworkers to see. At this writing, our trailing twelve-month average lug weight is 10.40 pounds per lug.
2. Because they were being paid with an average lug weight, any harvester that was under the average was being paid more than their fair share. The harvesters quickly caught on to this and started holding each other accountable to fill up the baskets.  Within a month, the number of names in red went from 15 per day to 1-2 per day, on average.
3. The harvesters now understood how they were being paid, and their morale improved significantly.  Many of the harvesters expressed how they felt like they got a pay raise. This was, of course, purely psychological because nothing had changed in pounds calculation or the payment method.

Aside from the boost in morale, this also resulted in an operational improvement. Our product cooler capacity was effectively increased by 20-25%. The baskets were 20-25% fuller while maintaining the same physical footprint in the product cooler.

This experience taught me that employees need to understand how they are paid, appreciate knowing where they stand, and help keep each other accountable.

A couple of months ago, one of our truck drivers, who makes deliveries to our customers, had a rough weekend and went AWOL. It started on Saturday morning when the driver called our assistant packing supervisor to tell him he had run into a parked van at one of his stops in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also said, “I quit!” The supervisor told him to bring the truck back to the farm, and we could talk about it when he got back, to which the driver agreed.

The supervisor called me after he got off the phone with the driver and told me about the situation. A short time later, I received a call from the owner of the damaged van to begin working on the insurance claim for repairs and a replacement vehicle until the vehicle was ready.

Fast forward to Sunday evening, about 10 pm, the packing supervisor called me and said the driver had not returned to the farm and he could not get a hold of him on his cell phone. He was at the County Sheriff’s office filing a missing person report. About an hour later, a deputy called me to get more information about the driver and the truck. I was anxious about him and wondered if I should travel to Salt Lake City to start looking for him that evening. The deputy said he would issue a statewide alert for the driver and hold off until the morning before deciding about going to look for him.

After a restless night, I went to the farm for our team huddle and discussed the issue with my team. After the huddle, I found the emergency contact phone numbers for the driver and made a call. The first number I called was for his mother, who was living in Idaho. She was crying when I called and said her son had just called her and told her he was “leaving the truck at the Salvation Army in Ogden, Utah.” He didn’t tell her where he was going or what happened, which upset her.

At this point, we knew the truck was in Ogden, and we needed to get it back to Fillmore. So, the packing supervisor and I hopped in my vehicle with the mission of retrieving the equipment. (The supervisor has a CDL, so he plans to drive the tractor and trailer back to the farm.)  In the meantime, I received a call from our sales manager who called our customers all morning to see if they had seen our driver.  One of our clients, located in Odgen, responded that the driver had been there that morning to make a delivery, but he didn’t have any mushrooms and was not scheduled to make a delivery.

We later found out that our driver who was expected to make the delivery to that customer saw the missing driver at this client’s dock, and he had blood on his face and was acting “crazy.”

“He was acting so crazy that I didn’t get out of my truck to talk to him and left as soon as I could,” said the other driver.

The deputy who had interviewed me the night prior called me to report that they had not found the driver but that the cell phone he had been using was reported stolen to the Salt Lake City Police. I gave him the new information and told him we were on our way to retrieve the tractor and trailer.

At this point, we located the truck, the driver’s cell phone had been reported stolen, and that the driver’s behavior was erratic, and he appeared to be disoriented.  We also think he is still in the Ogden area.

We thought that’s what we knew. Shortly after that, the packing supervisor called the missing driver, who told him that he was moving the truck from the Salvation Army to the Flying J gas station on 21st Street and I-15 in Ogden. I then called the Weber County Police Department to report the incident and asked them to secure the truck until I got there. They called back 30 minutes later and said they could not find the truck and trailer at the gas station. I asked them to check the Salvation Army. They found the equipment at the Salvation Army, and they secured the vehicle until our arrival. Only now are we sure we have located the truck.

We make our way to the Salvation Army in Ogden, and as we pull up to the truck, I see the missing driver sitting in the truck?!  I thought they had secured the vehicle? I pulled into a parking lot across the street and got out of the vehicle. He sees the packing supervisor and me and gets out of the truck to visit with us. As he approaches, we are standing in the parking lot, and he has a black leather jacket on with something under the jacket, which makes it stick out awkwardly.

I asked, “Are you okay? We’ve been trying to contact you for two days? What happened?”

He was agitated and pacing back-and-forth and from side-to-side about 3 or 4 paces, and he would not look at either of us. He said, “Sorry about this Dave, I know I screwed up here, but when this all settles down, I need to talk to you at the farm about this job.” My name is not Dave, and he was agitated. At this point, I felt like he was on drugs. I was concerned.

He went on to tell the story of his weekend. He describes how after he hit the parked van and called the supervisor to quit, he went to one of his friends in Salt Lake, as he put it, “to get a lady friend to watch him sleep.” Well, he got two ladies-of-the-night to join him that night at a hotel in downtown Salt Lake. He assured me he just wanted them to watch him sleep. But while he was asleep, they stole his cash, cell phone, and his last paycheck. The following day he took the truck to Ogden. He said he “needed to find a gun so he could take care of some stuff.” At his point, I immediately said, “Do you have a gun on you?” He avoided the question and went on. I repeated more firmly, “Do you have a gun?” He said, “no, I’m just talking smack.” (In his more colorful language.)

He went on to describe how he met “Pastor Dan,” who was helping him out. He pointed behind the trailer, and there was a man in a hoodie sitting in a car, watching our conversation. He was in the getaway car. I asked, “What church does “Pastor Dan” preach from?” He replied,”the Salvation Army church,” as he pointed to the building behind us.

At this point, I told him I needed to call the cops to bring us the key so we could take the truck back to the farm, and they needed to ask him some questions because of the missing person report we had filed.  He argued with me for a minute about how he could see the cops, and then he turned and ran to the getaway car with “Pastor Dan” and drove off. The packing supervisor wrote down the license plate as I called the Weber County Police to report the vehicle information and details about the incident.

We then retrieved the key to the tractor, and the supervisor drove it home. As we inspected the tractor before the supervisor began the trip, we found the CB Radio was missing. I can only assume that is what the driver had under his jacket. Also, you may be asking, why was the driver sitting in the truck when we pulled up? The cops took the keys out when securing the vehicle, locked the doors, and left the windows down 4-5 inches. So, he was able to reach in and open the door.

Learning Experience

What did I learn from this experience? He mentioned when we saw him at the truck that he needed to talk to me about the job. I can infer from this comment that he was having some issues with his job. It’s clear to me he was having personal problems, as well, with the tale of sex, drugs, and guns over the wild weekend. What I gleaned from this is that my communication with this employee was not open enough to talk to me about the issues he was facing, both personally and professionally. I wish he would have told me before he went AWOL.  You never know how you can influence someone with a thoughtful word or conversation.

The driver mentioned that he had been off-the-grid for seven years, meaning he had spent time in prison. He said, “for the past three years, I’ve had to bust my @$$ to stay out of prison.” My response was, “Why is that so hard? Just make good choices.” I don’t completely understand his background, and I wasn’t trying to pass judgment. But I do know this, who we are in this is a direct result of our choices. This experience reinforced this idea in my mind.

Have you found that one idea that has dramatically changed your life, either professionally or personally? About three years ago, I found one idea that significantly improved the communication at the farm, team huddles. The increased and improved communication has eliminated many mistakes and increased accountability on my team. Looking back, I’m not sure how we made any progress before implementing this practice.

Team Huddles

At our facility, we have daily huddles with all managers and supervisors at the farm. The format is simple, and the meetings never exceed our 15-minute threshold. When things are clicking, we can be done in 5 minutes. Since its implementation, we have modified the agenda to best suit our needs. In our current format, we cover the following three topics:

1. Positive Focus – We start the meeting with good news either personally or at the farm. This practice sets the tone for the meeting.
2. Critical Numbers – We look at the metrics vital to our operations and help us make management decisions. Currently, we review Customer Fulfillment, Yield (pounds grown per square foot), and Picking Estimates.
3. Hurdles – What are the issues of the day? With what do team members need assistance? Is there an event or problem coming up that we should all be anticipating?

That’s it.  It’s important to understand that we don’t solve the hurdles in this meeting. If help is needed, resources and time are set aside to address the issue further. A simple example of a hurdle is if an employee quit the day before and we need to post the job in-house. The HR department can get the job posting up in a timely fashion. Other departments may have an employee that might like to transfer to the new job opening. And so on.

The Origin of the Idea

As I look back at how I found the one idea, it came from the book “Mastering The Rockefeller Habits” by Verne Harnish. It all started with a conversation with our health insurance agent, Dave Anderson, over lunch in 2009. He asked me if I had heard of Jim Rohn, a personal development guru. He shared a few of Mr. Rohn’s ideas with me, which inspired me to research online, which led me to Success Magazine. This monthly magazine focuses on individuals to exhibit success principles.  I subscribed.  Part of the subscription includes a bonus CD that includes interviews with some of the magazine’s subjects.  In one of those CD’s, I heard a message from Dan Sullivan about how to entrepreneurs manage their time with the Entrepreneurial Time System (ETS). This idea was part of the curriculum of Mr. Sullivan’s business coaching program called Strategic Coach. I was in the process of purchasing the farm at the time, and I promised myself that the first thing I would do after I closed on the farm was to enroll in this coaching program. I settled on the farm in November of 2012 and attended my first session in January 2013. In this program, the first fellow business owner I met was Troy Royster, a commercial cleaning business based in Connecticut.  After several sessions, Troy shared some ideas with me that he had been using from another program called Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Our discussion prompted me to purchase the book, and that’s how I found the one idea.

It is an exciting exercise to dig deep about where the big ideas come from or, more precisely, that one idea.  I’ve learned that my network, along with my interest in continuous improvement through coaching programs and reading good books, has led to this idea.  And it only takes one idea to make a breakthrough.