I mean,
really. Change is scary. It might lead to success or even
recognition. Change does strange things
to us.
I’m going to
write about my horse now. Please bear
with me, prepare to saddle up, don’t go wandering off into the sunset, try to
shoe a pig. I’ll do my best not to be cliché.
Sam is a
draft horse. Sometimes draft horses are
known as gentle giants. There was a TV
show that told us that. Big draft horses
are gentle, kind souls at heart. They
never get upset and are gentle with kittens and small children.
Sam is a
gentle giant. He is big and strong and
gentle with the barn cats all of the time.
He tends to enjoy small children most of the time. When he is not being a gentle giant, he is
being mule-headed, stubborn and obnoxious.
In the time that he has been my companion and friend, he has tossed me
from the saddle five times. Each time
was due to a disagreement as to who was directing whom. We have our moments.
While we’ve
managed our way through most of the troubles, Sam has a couple of habits that
are absolutely unbreakable. One issue in
particular drives me around the bend.
Sam likes to eat grass whenever I am leading him in his halter. It never fails that, as soon as the halter
goes on, his head drops to the ground and he goes after the grass.
It is not
such a bad habit as habits go. The
trouble is, it is something that I don’t want him to do. I have my reasons. The reasons are valid so don’t go all
judgmental on me.
I have done
just about everything possible to get Sam to stop grazing under halter. By now, I’ve found that the best I can get is
that he will lift his head when I jerk on his rope. He also pays attention when I say “Stop!” in
my dad-voice. If I say nothing or just
keep walking, he’ll drop his head to the ground and stop to grab a bite. When that happens and because Sam is about
1300 pounds heavier than me, I also stop, often very suddenly.
They say
that horses will change habits within six or seven weeks with steady and
consistent training. Sam has hung on to
his habit for five years with absolutely no sign of giving up. Even for a horse, that’s a long time.
I know a lot
of people who are like that. We have
clients who insist on calling with orders, expecting us to just record
them. Each time, we ask for a valid
purchase order. Responses vary but
everyone does at least give it lip service.
They are always shocked when they call back a week later and the verbal
order has not been started.
My response
is always the same. “I can’t do it without
a purchase order”. Heck, I can’t even
remember that we ever discussed the logo if I don’t have a purchase order. When they finish being upset I will quietly
repeat that we can’t keep track of anything without a purchase order. And their response is typical. “Well, it’s the way I’ve always done things.”
In the 25
years Team Mates has been doing business, we have made many changes to our
processes. We have adapted to the
requirements of our customers and we have reacted to our growth by streamlining
our systems and through the improvement of our processing. We do this in order to be of better service
to our customers. After all, our goal is
to listen to our customers, consider their needs and react through change and
adaptation. That is how we provide
service.
Sam will
never change. He is a horse and has a
different thought process. He can’t
communicate with me to tell me why he won’t adapt. He might have his reasons for not wanting to
stop eating under halter. It might be
that he just doesn’t understand. No
matter the reason, I don’t ever lose patience with Sam. He is a horse. I am not.
My
customers, though, are humans (for the most part). They are reasonably intelligent and we take
the time to explain the reason for needing to change our policies and procedures. We also explain how the changes will benefit
them.
Those customers
that see the value of change are usually the most successful in their
businesses. The ones that continue to
call in their orders and never change are pretty well guaranteed never to be
successful.
Fortunately,
Sam will manage quite nicely.
