High Performing Business – Service – Moral Compass
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
I’m putting the finishing touches on a new course we call Project Micro Greens. It’s been a whirlwind as we designed and use the system included in the course. But teaching how to build it is quite another task. Especially since I have been sufficiently traumatized from poorly documented how to guides from others creations. No way do I want another to suffer like that while building one of our creations.
There is an axiom in Agile Project Management to do the least possible to get the desired result. I keep reminding myself of this as I document the various elements of assembling the micro green system. Yes there are going to be people who want to gold plate their system, but what is the least effort here someone has to make to be able to grow micro greens year round? To get to that stage may require me at this stage to put in more effort. To make it as easy as possible for the most amount of people to grow their own greens year round. Even someone like me who does not have a green thumb.
What even drove me to get into this in the first place? It was a desire to have more nutritious foods available year round as in Alaska it’s hard to get fresh vegetables when all our food is shipped here on a barge. By the time we get produce its already two weeks old. Fine for root cellar type veggies, terrible for greens. I figured if we are paying for the energy to ship our produce that arrives past its sell by date, why not pay for the energy to grow it here?
We stumbled on this micro green idea which just took off and took on a life of its own. They grow super fast so in under two weeks we had viable product. And they are up to 40 X more nutritious than regular greens so a little goes a long way. They are super easy (and tasty) to incorporate in really regular things – like scrambled eggs – a tablespoon of a Swiss chard micro green adds a huge flavor and vitamin boost. We’ve been growing a whole assortment of them from basil to corn (yeah wow on that one). The more we get into this the more we discover the options and choices.
But what does this have to do with being of service and a moral compass? It’s time consuming to create a program that helps others get the same phenomenal results we are having. I have to take a step back from the excitement of the doing to document what we have done and are doing in a way that is fun and easy for another to replicate. This is not so easy. Being committed to others success is what drives me to go this extra distance. I want people to experience the thrill, the value, and the same sense of accomplishment I have with this.
This is where the moral compass comes in to delivering exceptional service. You cannot fake a genuine thirst for making someone else’s life better from your efforts – it’s either three or it’s not. One of the things I totally love about running Cheetah – we attract the same in the students who find us. Working with people who share our same moral compass for making others lives better because of our mutual commitment to service creates an upsiral of goodness. It’s a great place to live.
