Hopefully you’ll never have to deal with floods like the recent ones in Nebraska. But if you do…
Evan is the manager of the Orscheln Farm and Home store in Seward, NE. One morning Evan and his team showed up for work to find most of their parking lot under water… and frozen. Inside the store there had been two inches of flood water and though it had receded, it left the entire store a muddy, sloppy mess.
There was no way they could open that day and not only did that mean loss of a full day’s revenue, the local community was depending on the products Evan and his team sold in order to dig out and recover themselves.
Luckily, Evan had recently heard my “What IF Keynote Experience,” and he followed it exactly as I teach it: Evan gathered his team together and in the face of every adversity asked, “I know this is crazy, but what if we could open today, by 8AM, how would we do it?
How “What IF” Works…
[Pause the story. Here’s how this works: When you ask the “What IF” as I teach it and as Evan executed perfectly, it changes everyone’s focus from one of scarcity and focus on the problem, to one of abundance and focus on a solution. And you have fantastic problem solvers if you give them a chance… and the ‘What If Mindset”]
So here’s what they did: There was no way they could clean the whole store… but they could clean out the entrance near the registers. So, they brought customers in to the front, an employee would find out what they needed, go through the store gathering those products, bring them to the front, ring them up and they’re on their way.
Instead of closing, Evan and his team opened on time, had a great day of business, and MOST IMPORTANTLY… they built a new bond and partnership with their community as everyone saw them going out of their way to serve.
That… is the power of the “What IF Mindset” for problem solving.
To give your teams the “What IF? Mindset” email me: mike@mikerayburn.com or call 1(403) 398-8488.
Let’s create the perfect event for you.
Live truly, truly live,
Mike Rayburn
Click here and watch the second video “Rayburn’s Reel (5 min).”