A Big Little Thing
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer
I was listening to a podcast this past week and they discussed ‘Big Little Things’. The ideas that were shared in the podcast resonated with me so much that I realized I needed to share it with my weekly email family. The concept behind Big Little Things is that little things we can do for others might just be really big. Please let me share a personal example with you.
In February 2012, our first grandson Silas was born at 25 weeks gestation. That’s right, Silas was 15 weeks premature and spent 108 days in the NICU at Akron Children’s Hospital. My family was very stressed, and I was often not in a good place emotionally as Silas’ life lay in the balance. Each Wednesday, one of my responsibilities was giving our brass bar requirements to purchasing for Lisa to pass them on to Chase Brass in Montpelier, Ohio. If I did my job correctly and on time, the brass we needed would be in our loading dock when we opened up Monday morning. I forgot two weeks in a row, and Chase had to remind us. On week two, they must have asked Lisa what was happening with me. She simply asked them to be patient with me based on what my family was dealing with. The following week, I went to our company mailbox, and a package was sitting on the snowbank with my name on it.
When I opened the package, I found a baby blanket and bib with the Chase Brass logo and a card that simply said, “Dear Dave, Please know that Bethany, Silas, and your entire family are in our thoughts and prayers. Your friends at Chase Brass. “It brought tears to my eyes, and I told our owner and purchasing that as long as I was at the company, we would never stop buying Brass from Chase.
What they did didn’t cost them much money, but they took the time to ask Lisa for my daughter and grandson’s name. It has been eleven years, and that handwritten note proved that little things can have a big impact. The podcast I was listening to was At The Table with Patrick Lencioni—episode 178. What little thing can you do that will have a big impact on others?