Sandra, the factoryemployee I’m observing, works tirelessly and methodically at her station.
Reaching into a large cardboard box filled with hundreds of teabags, Sandra pulls out enough bags to fill tea-bag-sized indentations in a tray situated in front of her on the workbench. Once she fills each indentation—15 for this job — she carefully transfers the teabags from the tray into a smaller box destined for supermarket shelves.
Over and over during her shift, Sandra accurately fills the smaller boxes with the consistency and reliability of a computer-controlled robot … yet she is blind, cannot hear, and cannot count.
Sandra is blessed to work for an organization called Pride Industries. Founded in a church basement in 1966 in Auburn, California, Pride Industries hires and trains people with a variety of physical and mental challenges, the “differently-abled” in our society. Using massively creative training programs, Pride Industries helps transform often-ignored groups of people into purpose-driven, contributing members of society.
The overwhelming success of PRIDE has proven what its foundingleadership teamsuspected all along: When people are nourished by the power of purpose, andset up for successviawell-designed training, their spirits soar, their talents blossom … and their disabilities disappear.
So, you can only imagine how I recently responded to a complaint voiced by an owner of multiple restaurants across the United States:
Owner: “These young kids today can’t communicate with our customers.”
Me: “Look in the mirror, your lack of leadership and creativity iswhere the problem resides.”
Business owners, leaders, managers, and supervisors need to stop playing the post-Covid victim card. It’s time to move from the excuses-laden, creativity-killing position of, “No, we can’t do that because,” to the possibilities-rich mindset of“Yes, If.”
Sandra would be the first to agree.