What’s in a Pepper Grinder?

It’s just a pepper grinder. When you see it sitting on a white tablecloth in a restaurant where they play soft, melodic music, you might not even really notice it. Sure, you grab it for a second when your meal comes but other than that, it stays on the table fairly unnoticed.

But what happens when you take a pepper grinder, from the quiet confines of a five star restaurant and put it in a different setting? What if you brought it home? What if you put it in a school cafeteria? What if you took it to a Chick-fil-A?

Those are the questions we asked and the answer was surprising. Because when we took the pepper grinder to a Chick-fil-A, it changed that simple device. It no longer faded into the shadows, it stood out. More than a quiet table accessory, it was suddenly a rock star. A bit of flavor flair that was impossible to ignore. A pepper grinder, a real live grind up gourmet seasoning pepper grinder in Chick-fil-A.

That to me is what creativity is all about. That to me is what business and innovation is all about. All we did was take something ordinary into an unexpected environment and suddenly it was extraordinary. A pepper grinder was transformed, a Chick-fil-A environment was delighted.

The question then, is what’s your pepper grinder?

As you survey your day, your job, your life, what’s the simple pepper grinder that’s hiding in plain sight? What’s that one small thing that could make a huge difference when applied to the right environment?

It’s out there. A new process, a new way of looking at things, a new pepper grinder.

Keep looking. You’ll find it and when you do, let me know. I’m a big fan of pepper grinders.

Who is Calling You?

We all feel stranded sometimes, stuck if you will by the circumstances of the day. We have to make a difficult decision or step out and do something risky, and we feel a bit lost at sea in those moments. But what if that wasn’t just a feeling? What if one afternoon, you found yourself afloat in an ocean without end and a boat without rescue? What then?

That’s what one group of people found one afternoon in Europe. They were off course. They had floated further and faster than they had anticipated. They were lost, stranded in an endless sea with land and hope long forgotten. So they did what everyone would have done, they contacted the Coast Guard.

As fate would have it, they couldn’t get through. The call wasn’t answered, the line never connected and the waves kept coming. What now? What would you have done in that moment? Who would you have called?

It’s an interesting exercise, but one group of people, it was more than an exercise, it was a life or death situation. So who did they call? Their travel agent.

Go ahead and read that last sentence again, because it’s unbelievable. Trapped on a boat, lost without imminent rescue, they called their travel agent. Why? Because they didn’t have an ordinary travel agent, they had a Travel Counsellor. Renowned the world, and ocean, over for their service, the Travel Counsellor sprung into action. They alerted the authorities and helped rescues the stranded boat. Crisis averted.

If you’re a leader, you can’t hear that story without thinking, “Would they have called me? In that situation, would the boat have trusted me or my company to help? What does it take to have a relationship like that?”

Those are great questions to wrestle with, and as we discuss them this year, I want to remind you of one thing – start small. In our quest to be greater leaders or raise stronger families or lead better companies, we sometimes get lost thinking about the rescue phone calls. Instead, I think we need to focus on the day to day, seemingly small decisions.

Was I kind today to people who were not kind to me? Did I operate from my strengths? Did I make it easy for a customer to tell me they were unhappy with something? Did I go the second mile when the first mile was all that was expected?

These are always the kind of questions we need to ask and answer long before we’ll get a call from the middle of the ocean. And as we do, each day, we’ll get better at both the little things and the big rescues we’ll all face as leaders.

It’s time to KO, TGIF

You see it on posters. It’s printed on coffee mugs. There’s even a restaurant that uses it as its name. But despite how often it pops up, it’s still one of the most subtly damaging ideas for your company and even your family. What is it?

“Thank God It’s Friday!”

Yes it’s playful and on some levels, just a silly phrase to say amongst coworkers on a Friday morning as the weekend sneaks into view. The problem though is all the ideas that ride on the coattails of that phrase. Because here’s what we really say when we say, “Thank God It’s Friday:”

• “I don’t like my job.”
• “My job is just something I have to do until I get to do the things I want to do on the weekend.”
• “Work is a chore and not fun and not enjoyable.”

Those are just three examples of what the TGIF phrase means in our jobs. There are hundreds of others. But what about our families? I mentioned it can impact us at home too. How so? Simple, little kids are little sponges. When they see you grumble on a Sunday night about not wanting to go to work, when they hear you complain on a Wednesday morning that you wish it was Friday already, they form a negative opinion of work. Work is unpleasant. Work is at best a necessary evil. Work is suffering.

They take that thought, they take those seeds you’ve planted and grow up learning to dislike work. They inherit the bad attitude and have a harder time seeing the joy and gratitude you can find in a job well done.

So what should we do?

I think it’s time to introduce a new phrase into our jobs and our families. I think it’s time for us all to remember the attitude Christ had when in John 17:4 he prayed, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” I think it’s time for an attitude of gratitude.

It’s time for TGIM, “Thank God It’s Monday.”

Let’s head to work happy. Let’s find jobs and careers that challenge and grow us. Let’s not pretend the weekends aren’t fun, but let’s not assume you can’t have fun during the week too. Let’s show our coworkers and our employees, our spouses and our children, that work can be a blast. That you can look forward to a Monday. That at the end of the weekend, you can even grab a coffee mug that says “TGIM” and say with all sincerity,

“Thank God It’s Monday!”