I want to share with you a story about how Timberland and its employees saw the real deal.

Timberland the shoe company decided to do their annual sales conference in New Orleans , a year after Hurricane Katrina. The company wanted to build teamwork and camaraderie by challenging and engaging employees to help rebuild New Orleans. The second day of the conference was reserved for community service, they invited City leaders to come and talk about what the City needed to rebuild, about how everyone needed to come together to put New Orleans right.

Properly motivated, the Timberland employees soon headed to the site of a famous restaurant owned by a famous jazz musician. It was a landmark of the City, and the employees eagerly rushed in to help. They spent the whole day helping hammer, saw, attach, or by doing anything that they could physically do to help rebuild that restaurant. They felt a lot of joy and peace and were congratulating each other for doing something vital and directly helping New Orleans.

One of the senior executives, however, saw something different. She saw that the employees, especially the younger ones , did not really see the situation for what it was. They did not understand the devastation as well as the pain and the continuing stark reality that residents of New Orleans still were living.

She gathered 200 of the young sales executives and commissioned three buses. Together they rode the buses deep into the city, deep into the areas most severely hit by the flood. Along the way, the young executives were shocked into silence when they saw the effects of the devastation. One year after that great flood, you could still see the grime and the waterlines of the buildings, the broken glass, the garbage, and most of all, a general sense of fear and desperation.

They hardly saw scenes of normal American life, instead they saw scenes that they thought only happened in the third world. They were suddenly hit by a massive wave of guilt and shame upon the stark realization of how little of an impact they had really made earlier when helping rebuild a restaurant. The buses stopped in front of a small dilapidated community center and they shuffled down.

One of the young men saw a volunteer in front counting a stack of water bottles. The former immediately approached the latter and volunteered to help. He asked what they needed, as it was in his power , to requisition more supplies such as bottle water, clipboards, etc. The volunteer looked at him and looked down, and said, “We need boots!” Then the young Timberland executive noticed that the volunteer was almost barefoot. He and his family had lost everything. They now lived in a trailer with almost no sanitation. But every day, the volunteer would walk to the community center to help out and had worn out his shoes. He also went on to explain, that they really needed boots and shoes because so much of the City was still a mess, they had to walk over debris, nails, glass, etc.

The young sales executive removed his boots immediately and gave it to the volunteer, with tears streaming down his eyes. Everybody else that came in the bus, immediately upon seeing and hearing this, started removing their shoes. They were so moved and ashamed that they did not realize how bad the situation really was. Somebody took a picture and sent it by mms back to the rest of their colleagues back at the hotel.

On the way back, everybody was quiet. Some were in tears. They were reflecting on how they could physically help the desperate people of that city and how to assuage the pain that they felt within.

But when the buses arrived back in the hotel, they were surprised to be met by a large crowd who proceeded to hug them and thank them for their small sacrifice. The mms picture that was sent had been sent and resent until everybody in the hotel knew what had happened. It was poignant moment where people just connected and realized the true situation of the City. As if someone had suddenly peeled off their blinders. They had finally seen the real deal.

Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at
stirspecialist@gmail.com , or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com .