My oldest son’s working title is VP, National Operations Production Manager. Sometimes work titles can get a little ambiguous, meaning it’s sometimes hard to tell what a person actually does by their working title. Although I don’t know all the ins and outs of his job I think a production manager, manages production. How do you get others to produce? I assume you need to motivate and encourage them often. He recently sent me a copy of an email that he put out to his team and I wanted to share it, because right now I think we all could use a little motivation and encouragement.
Here is his email, the parenthesis are my words, the pictures are just added beauty.
Good Morning – Team! (I love the term team in a working environment. It implies that everyone works together to create success. This virus has put us all on the same team. We are all in this together. Right?)
With the announcement that our stay at home orders have been extended, I wanted to drop you a quick note this morning. I am sure some of you remember a few years back, during a team huddle, when we were asked to share what motivates us. We all took our turns and each topic was incredibly inspirational. I wanted to re-tell my piece as I have been going back to it lately and I really cannot think of a more fitting time to dig deep for some extra motivation.
For me, a big motivator is my faith. I know we are all cut from a different cloth and have different beliefs, but whatever faith means to you, I can imagine we are leaning in a bit harder during these times.
I told a story that to me really is a driving piece in my life. The recap – Joshua’s tribe and warriors are waiting outside the city of Jericho to attack it. They are basically ordered to “stay at home” in the camp unless they are an “essential warrior” in which they get to go for one walk a day, sound familiar? – These guys are hardened warriors. They know battle. They know the grind. They do not know or understand, staying at home.
For Six Days in a row they get up, get ready, go on their lap around the walls of the enemy city, then head back to camp. They do not know that the walk is going to be just that, a walk around the city then back to their home. Every day they set out fully prepared to battle, but when they get back they have an unusual amount of time to spend with their family, sharpening their weapon, motivating each other, or just as easily a time to get down, become frustrated and negative, and start to question “what are we even doing.”
Six days this continues. Then on Day 7, they start to walk like normal and Joshua tells them to make some noise. They raise the roof and BAM! The walls come down and they take the city. Look, the warriors did not know Day 7 was the magic day . . . they likely began to assume that this was just another daily walk then back to lock down, but they still set out with the mindset that ‘something big can happen today.’
In these uncertain times, we cannot really know when the moment of our Day 7 is going to be either. But what we do know is that if the army had gotten upset and given up on Day 6, they would never have achieved what was set out for them.
Keep grinding gang. Enjoy the little moments right now, sharpen your skills, motivate each other, and never stop on 6! Who knows when you will be called upon to make some walls come falling down – could be this afternoon, could be tomorrow, or the day after, or even after that. But do not get down on lap 6, because lap 7 is where it all happens.
Nate Melvin
VP, Operations Production Manager
Furtick, S. (2018, August). Steven Furtick – Don’t Stop On Six. Retrieved from https://sermons.love/steven-furtick/261-steven-furtick-dont-stop-on-six.html
