Yesterday I came home from Open Arms of Minnesota in a fantastic mood because I got to use one of my core skills and fulfill one of my dearest ambitions: I was part of a learning, multi-leader team that solved a problem with real and meaningful impact for other people.
At Open Arms, the chefs frequently develop new menu items for clients. When that happens, as I’ve learned from Chef A., first they start with a recipe. Then they scale it up to a hundred meals. Next, they scale to several hundred. Each time, they check that the counts come out, the meal tastes good, and it presents well in the packaging. When the new meal goes out to clients, its label carries a request for feedback.
On yesterday’s volunteer shift under Chef D.’s supervision, things weren’t packing up right for us. We stopped, assessed, troubleshot, and D. made the call to ask Chef A. With new direction, we volunteers tried again and hit on a “best case” for the current iteration of the meal. We repacked the several dozen suboptimal meals, learning more along the way. By the end of the shift, we had experimented, suggested to each other, and taken up each others’ ideas. We understood Chef A.’s and Chef D.’s vision and we approximated it as closely as we could. The next time they make the meal, they’ll change it based on what we learned and on what the clients say in their feedback.
The best part? That wasn’t throwaway work. That’s a delicious meal. It will feed the clients whom we support as though they were our own community and our charge of service–which they are. It all happened within a two-hour timeframe, and one meal might seem trivial. But it was important to me. This is how I want to feel all the time. This is what I want to do at work as often as possible. I can’t wait to find my opportunity.
Finance Graduate | Analytical Thinker & Problem Solver | Customer Service & Business Operations Specialist
8moGood luck!