Choice Mindsets

Choice Mindsets

23 Mar

Posted at 14:49h in Uncategorized

 

“What happened to the Canteen?! It’s like a grocery store before a blizzard.”
-Greg Albers
You know how it is: the weatherperson reports that a “blizzard” (read: two to four inches of snow) is coming, and everyone rushes out for groceries in a panic in case they can’t get out of the driveway for three days. The last to the store might find that all the staples–bread, milk… beer–are gone, and that poor sap is left to choose between a questionable jar of pickled eggs and a dusty case of Milwaukee’s Best Light (unsurprisingly, one of Tony’s favorite beers, not because of taste, but because of frugality).
Brian Barhorst operates the Canteen here at Choice One, an honor system “vending machine” that gets a little barren occasionally. Since we all know that Brian hikes Canteen pricing up for profits to fund personal trips to tropical places, we know he’s not unprepared (for fear that he might lose a sale to the gas station down the road). He just hasn’t been to Sam’s Club in a while.
Being prepared for every outcome is impossible (and exhausting), so at Choice One we try to act as a Boy Scout would, and pack our pocket knife and matches: responsiveness, a sensible, realistic outlook, and lessons from past experiences.
Now, if only that Canteen was stocked with some of that dusty Milwaukee’s Best Light today so that Tony wouldn’t have to drive down to the local carryout.

09 Mar

Posted at 14:55h in Uncategorized

“It’s the easy connection that’s leaking!”

– Tony Schroeder
The new coffeemaker at Choice One has been a bit of a…challenge, we’ll say, to install. Our resident plumber, Tony, isn’t the most experienced, but who knew hooking up a coffeemaker would entail so many trips to the hardware store? (If you’ve tried to plumb something yourself before, you may agree with Tony’s further statement: “No matter how many parts you buy beforehand, you NEVER have the right one.”)

 

Often, tasks that are supposed to be “easy” are the most challenging: think of the top competitor losing to the supposed-to-be-terrible,
12th-seeded NCAA basketball team (there’s a little free advice for your bracket next week, my friends). Sometimes the easy connection leaks because making that connection is taken for granted.

 

For instance, Choice One has designed hundreds of projects, but each one needs specific details and attention, even the “easy” ones. We can’t design cookie-cutter projects for the sake of time or laziness, because that’s when the “easy” details are missed. We circumvent this phenomenon by having plans reviewed by engineers not involved in the day-to-day design to look for obvious “leaks.”

 

Thankfully for Tony’s sanity (and ego), the coffeemaker is now up and running. (As you can imagine, every affected employee gave Tony a hard time about his ineptitude at plumbing. And the lack of coffee.) And thankfully for those of us who sit near said coffeemaker, it’s up and running without any faulty water valves thrown in frustration.

24 Feb

Posted at 15:09h in Uncategorized

“Guess I’ll have to get over my fear of heights.”

-Mary Borchers

 

It may sound like an oxymoron, but our 5’-11” administrative assistant Mary is afraid of heights. And not just the looking-over-the edge-of-the-Empire-State-Building kind of heights. She’s even nervous when climbing a stepstool to hang some signage at the office.

 

When facing our fears at Choice One, we certainly go at it head first (I mean, that stepstool Mary is on is a good two and a half feet off the ground). But in all seriousness, even if we each face our personal fears in baby steps, we collectively commit to helping each other when things get tough. When an individual makes a mistake, we all take responsibility for the failure. There is no “I” in the Choice One Team. Well, except for the “i” after the “o” in “Choice,” but you get the idea.

 

Taking baby steps is easier when you have friends to catch you if you fall. Mary may never overcome her fear of heights (apparently spiders freak her out too), but at least she knows that if she stumbles, all of us at Choice One will be here to catch her. Or at least point and laugh before helping her up. 

10 Feb

Posted at 15:11h in Uncategorized

“What did we do for entertainment before we hired Brittany?”

– Holly Fannon

Yep, if Brittany dares Kaye, those long, goofy legs WILL fit in a cardboard computer box.

 

Having fun at work is important to the people at Choice One. We regularly do ridiculous things to make each other laugh, and as Holly has pointed out above, Brittany is no exception. Having fun and enjoying our jobs develops lasting relationships, breaks tension in challenging situations, and helps what could be mundane workdays pass a little more pleasantly. We like to think that the fun we create at the Choice One offices spills over into our relationships with those outside of our organization that we come into contact with.  And hopefully this makes Choice One a more enjoyable company to work with.

 

Choice One will be without Brittany for the next few months, as she and her husband Mark welcomed their son, Hudson, into their family on February 6. If that means that someone else will have to dare Kaye to fit into a cardboard box, rest assured there will be no lack of available instigators at Choice One.

27 Jan

Posted at 15:17h in Uncategorized

“Diaper Genies and wipe warmers…it’s a whole new world!

-Nick Sanders

 

Choice One Engineering recently held its first ever baby shower for Administrative Assistant Brittany Clinehens. Believe it or not, in our 17-year history we’ve never had a pregnant employee. As you might guess, Nick was commenting on a few “luxury items” that obviously weren’t available to him when his children were young.

 

We’ve probably all heard our elders “reminisce” about walking to school in six-feet of snow, uphill both ways. But the truth of the matter is that each generation feels, perhaps due to new technology or apathy, the subsequent generation has it easier. Whether or not this proclamation is true, there is one constant for each generation, new and old: change.

 

Change is always inevitable, often overwhelming, and sometimes downright scary. But at Choice One we take the challenge of change and create opportunities to learn, push ourselves to adapt, and make every effort to be flexible.

 

Of course, we also try to remember that overwhelming, scary changes can lead to luxuries like Diaper Genies and wipe warmers. And who doesn’t want a clean, tidy nursery and a toasty rear end?

13 Jan

Posted at 16:07h in Uncategorized

“That’s what Tony can do when he retires: put on a funny hat and chauffer all of us around.”

– Jeff Puthoff

For those of us at Choice One who spend a lot of time driving to construction sites and client meetings, we often fantasize about the luxury of having an assistant who drives us around so that we can do work in the car. “Windshield Time” feels unproductive.

 

While on the road, obviously, multitasking is dangerous. Off the road, however, multitasking can be dangerous, too. In our experience, multitasking pitfalls can include missing something, rushing, or not being available when needed. To counter that at Choice One, we work together to multitask. Each project has one or more team members who “chauffeurs” to keep the Project Manager’s juggling balls in the air: reviews, deadlines, client questions, etc. We like to think it keeps us responsive, timely, and dependable. And hey, if it gets Tony in a funny hat as well, why not?