Happy Sunday!

I originally started writing these Great Idea emails in an effort to help other landscapers, but also selfishly because I wanted to start a community that could help me and my team to get better too. And no matter how many of these tip emails we send out, I never want you to believe we have it all figured out. 

A few weeks ago, we were short a few pallets of pavers for a hardscaping project at Grunder Landscaping Co. Our production team noticed the issue when they went to check the pallets before the crews loaded up for the day.

I'm not exactly sure what went wrong: if we ordered the wrong quantity or if the delivery was short of what we ordered. Fortunately, the issue was in one of those two places and not a miscount on the bid because that would've been a bigger problem. 

I'll be transparent with you: when I was younger this issue would've sent me into a tailspin. I would've wasted time being upset instead of just fixing the problem. 

I'm proud of how my team handled this issue. They got online, they found the pavers in stock at a local SiteOne, and then they sent a team member to pick it up in a spare truck and bring it to the crew. This solution meant the crew could get started on time, and by the time I knew about the issue it was already fixed. 

Now, ideally, we would've caught this issue when the pavers were delivered, and we could've had the missing ones delivered before the job's scheduled start. We have systems in place that should've caught this, but we're all human, and humans make mistakes. Our team will work to make sure it doesn't happen again, but we'll do it calmly and with a focus on what the problem was rather than who was to blame. 

Keeping a cool head when mistakes happen helps us to get to a solution faster, so we can move on and get back to our day. This is one of the many lessons I wish I had learned earlier in my career. As leaders, the way we react to problems sets the tone for the entire organization. It impacts team member retention, a team's willingness to take accountability for their mistakes, and how our team interacts with each other. 

I'll be in Birmingham, AL this week with the teams from NALP and Landscape Workshop for our Field Trip on June 11-12. If you're signed up, make sure you say hello when we're together! If a last-minute trip is calling your name: registration is still open 😜 

I'll talk to you next week!

Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.