District 3 and Gooseberry Pie, Part I

Do you remember Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White made gooseberry pie for one of them. Well we just had gooseberry pie last night from gooseberries we picked in our back yard. So let me tell you about gooseberries.

They are on a beautiful medium green bush that is roundish. All the berries are on the underside of the limbs. This inviting plant has thorns, inch long thorns, thorns that are needle shaped and as sharp as any sewing needle and there are a lot of them.

If it wasn't for the delectable berries (they are really tasty), we'd have saved our skin and left them for the birds (but I believe the thorns keep the birds away as well.) I have little thornprick marks on my hands.

The pie tastes great!

If we work and overcome the thorns, we get something wonderful, gooseberries. I see problems as an opportunity in disguise, just waiting to be solved. One just has to go to work and find a solution.

When I worked in a distribution facility we had an obsolete system. It was a nightmare for whomever was assigned to fill the orders. I looked at the "problem" and thought of ideas for a solution. After many ideas, I imagined how each would work and thought of every consequence, good and not so good of each idea.

When the best idea had surfaced and I felt confident, I explained and showed the Superintendent the "problem" and explained the opportunity of my idea to him. He decided to implement my idea (actually a merging of three I'd worked through) and we went with it.

Order filling efficiency improved at least 15% and when your moving tens of thousands of items each day, 15% is gold. As a side, a friend who was in constant hot water with management for poor efficiency and had been threatened with termination was still there last we spoke. It wasn't him, it was the system.

Problems are opportunities in disguise. I find hidden opportunities.

I work past the thorns, pick the berries and we have gooseberry pie.

Stay tuned for part II.
Jeff