Honey, I Cleaned the Garage.

I recently have been part of family’s struggle to maintain an organized garage.  In order to protect the guilty I will change the name of people in my story.  But those of you familiar with the story will likely see through the hidden names.

You see at some people’s house the husband and the wife have different views of what is garbage and what isn't.  The exact place where this battle takes place within the house can change from home to home but it seems to happen to some degree within most every house I know of.   For some the battleground is the closet of the master bed room or the basement.  But for the couple in my story it was the garage.

The husband, Donny, likes to save things.  Until this weekend the place he kept these valuables was the family’s garage.  The wife, Marie, thought that her car should go into the garage.  But alas Donny and Marie's garage was too full to fit any cars.

Although the things in the garage didn't make Donny happy they did make Marie sad.  She wondered why he can’t throw away those things.  They are trash and they are in the way.  He is never going to us them.

Donny couldn’t bear to get rid of these valuable.  He looked at the items and thought “someday I can use that for something special.”  To him they were worth something because potentially the items in his garage had a future use.  Donny thought “if we save it we won't need to buy it later.”

Donny also looked at some of the things with a sentimental eye.  The items brought back happy memories.  (That reminds me of a different couple that has a Porsche that hasn't run since before they were married over 15 years and 2 houses ago.  He won't get rid of it and she says it reminded her of his old girlfriend!!! But that is another story.)

This weekend Donny decided to clean out the garage and make room for Marie's car.  It didn't take long and soon enough the garage was clean and everybody was happy. 

I asked Donny what he did with the old stuff expecting to hear about a sale and how much money he made.  Instead Donny said that it all went in the trash.  (So much for the items being worth something.)

Marie is quite happy with Donny now.  Instead of holding on to these items Donny decided to make Marie happy. 

So what is the point of this story beyond being a good spouse that wants to please the other spouse? 

Donny is also happy.  He wasn't forced to clean his garage.  Marie had let it be in the current condition for years. But now the garage is clean an organized. 

That doesn't mean that you have to throw everything out to be organized.  I am sure that if something truly still had value Donny found it an organized place with their garage.  But if an item had lost its usefulness it was discarded.

It is Donny's organizational skills that make him such a valuable team member and co-worker at Willmar Electric.  Willmar Electric promises our customers that we will be on-time, organized and approachable.  It was has bringing that skill home that made his garage clean and his wife happy. 

No Need to be Afraid

My oldest daughter has a pet turtle.  The turtle stated as her accounting class's pet before to came to live with the Chapins.  They named the turtle Petty Cash.  We call him PC (To be honest it could be a her, it's a turtle so we aren't sure of the gender).

Inside PC's tank he has a few trinkets and things to climb on top of.  If he makes it all the way to the top of the tank there is a platform that is out of the water and close to the heating lamp.  He like to "sun" himself there.  If you walk up the stairs at our house and look into Anne's room you can catch the sight of him sunning himself but once you move closer to PC he scurries away by diving in the water and swimming to the furthest corner of the tank. 

PC isn't very approachable.  Like I said PC is a turtle.  They tend at pull away or get into their shell at the slightest sign that they might be attacked or in danger. 

I don't live or work in a tank.  (I'll be honest and tell you that I am frighten by things that are 200 times my size.)

Instead I work at Willmar Electric.

What do Turtles have to do with Willlmar Electric?

Approachability. 

As far as I know all tturtles are like PC.  They all lack approachability. 

At Willmar Electric one of our brand promises is to be approachable.  We want our customers to see us as approachable and open to getting input from others.  We seek to be a place that when a conflict arises on a project others feel safe approaching us with the issue so that we can be part of the solution. 

We want our customers to include us in the process of coming up with solutions on how to accomplish what is best for them and their project.  If the plumber or HVAC contractor has conflict with where a pipe or duct is potentially going to go on a project we want them to feel that Willmar Electric is approachable and hopefully we can reach a resolution before a problem develops.  Approachability is an important part of those things.

It means we can't be defensive (hide in our shells) or hard to contact (run away at the first sign of trouble).  Being approachable isn't hard work and doesn't really take a lot of effort.  Even in the case of the turtle all they would have to do stay right where they already are.  In our case as humans it means we have to trust others and be willing to be vulnerable.

It is hard to arrogant and approachable. 

I hope others see Willmar Electric as approachable.  I am going to try to continue to get the message out that we seek to be approachable and hopefully anybody that doesn't see us as approachable takes what they might consider as a risk and approaches us and let us know what they are thinking.  At that point it is up to us to respond to them in a way that shows we are approachable.

I don't think PC will ever be approachable but Willmar Electric will continue to seek ways to become more and more approachable.