This is the 2nd of a 10-part series on Customer Leadership.
In this LEADERSHIP MINTS series, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Steelcase Inc. (founded March 16, 1912) and salute their Customer Leaders (a.k.a employees). Those highly motivated Customer Leaders have consistently helped the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company reign as the office-furniture industry leader for most of its 100 years in business.
By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy
Here’s an example of a Customer Leader making the manufacturing work environment more engaging.
Craig, the Steelcase janitor, pushed more than a broom. He wielded a brush with the flair of an artist. His murals brightened the walls in what was then called the Systems II manufacturing plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
No doubt the janitor-turned-artist and brightened the spirits of hundreds of fellow factory employees. And no doubt those reinvigorating seascapes and sunrises enhanced the employee morale and resulting quality of their production work.
Craig volunteered to paint the mural on his own time. Craig painted a 12-foot wide, 8-foot high seascape mural that features a bright orange sun. The sun is setting and spraying its orange and yellow hues across the seagull-filled blue sky. There’s a sailboat silhouetted in black on the calm sea.
The mural brightened up a windowless portion of the plant where workers would pass by every day on their way out of the plant. Continue reading
Filed under: Creativity | Tagged: brightening work areas with art, brushing up the work environment, employees who volunteer as artists for the company, janitors who wield an artists brush, murals, murals in manufacturing plants, painting smiles | 1 Comment »
