On the holiday break between semesters of college, I found a job loading 50-pound bags of synthetic fertilizer into train cars. That first day was tough. I stood at the end of a conveyor belt, picked up every other bag and stacked it in the boxcar. Lee, my co-worker—a man probably in his fifties—stood opposite me and did the same thing. At the end of four hours, I could hardly move my arms while Lee seemed to have plenty of energy.
“Lee, how do you do this work without being utterly exhausted?” I asked, as I wiped sweat out of my eyes and flexed my extremely sore muscles.
Lee smiled. “I use the momentum of the belt to flip the bags into place,” he replied. “You are lifting and carrying each one.”
Needless to say, I handled the next round of bags much more efficiently after making that adjustment.
Of course, that wasn’t the last time I learned a more productive way of doing a job. In fact, I can’t remember how many good people have corrected my efforts in a variety of areas. But, the list would include
- A speech teacher who helped my enunciation
- A logician who taught me about flow of thought
- A boss who improved the way I gave employees bad news
- A board member who increased my awareness of group dynamics, and
- My parents who corrected my behavior.
The reality is that we don’t always see ourselves with complete accuracy. Therefore, we benefit when other people observe our behaviors and help us make changes for the better.
CHAMPS, when corrected, make adjustments.
