08/11/2024
Lessons in Leadership from the Sorting Table
The Scene: It was a misty morning in California’s Napa Valley as the semi truck pulled in slowly, heavily loaded with tons and tons of ripe Cabernet Sauvignon grapes harvested in the pre-dawn hours from the Cork Tree Vineyard. Two forklifts with eager drivers speedily approached the semi as it grinned to a halt in front of the crush pad at the winery’s production facility. Through the lifting mist, caffeinated workers prepared the nearby sorting tables with conveyors ready to accept the bounty of the harvest and carry the grapes past the team of sorters poised to pull out any material other than grapes such as unripe berries, leaves, twigs, stems, and the like.
The First Forklift: The first forklift driver carefully dismounted a bin of grapes from the semi’s large load, and brought it to the sorting table, gently working the load in the bin to thoughtfully meter out the volume of grapes pouring from the bin onto the sorting table as evenly as possible, while with focused attention the sorters quickly pulled out and discarded the unripe berries, leaves, and such with gloved hands. The high quality fruit now making its way further up the conveyor, unburdened by anything other than the best grape clusters headed for the destemmer, crusher, press, and ultimately the fermentation tanks.
The Second Forklift: The second forklift driver, rushing to the semi, hastily dismounted another bin of fruit and as fast as possible got it over to the sorting table quickly. The bin was emptied on to the table as fast as possible by the second forklift driver, who was eager to get back to the semi for another bin. The fruit arrived through the conveyor to the sorting table in either large clumps of mangled grape clusters intertwined with leaves and twigs, or with extended gaps between the large unmanageable clumps. The uneven volume caused chaos and panic amongst the sorting team as they were either stalled waiting for fruit to sort or they were overwhelmed and desperately trying to unwind the mangled clumps and hastily grab but a few leaves before the grapes were whisked further up the conveyor still burdened with a good amount of material other than grapes.
The Frustration Mounts: The dance between the two forklift drivers continued for a period of time; the more thoughtful first driver becoming frustrated by the hastiness of the second driver, while the second driver became equally frustrated with the slower driver- and the sorting table team becoming frustrated with the uneven pace and mixed quality results.
The Boiling Point: Now overly frustrated that the uneven removal of material other than grapes might compromise quality and reflect poorly on the sorting table team, between loads one of the sorting table workers waived their hands indicating a cease and desist signal and walked over to the conveyor switch, bringing the conveyor to a halt. Taking a deep breath they approached the second forklift driver, and with the biggest smile they could muster underneath their frustration they calmly asked the driver if they might be so kind as to try to gently work each bin to deliver the clusters of fruit as evenly as possible to the conveyor, gently sharing insights that this would help to increase overall quality by providing the sorting team with even flow allowing for more efficient handling. With this understanding of the ‘why’ behind the ask, the second forklift driver agreed to try.
The Result: Frustrations dwindled and throughput quality improved as the two forklift drivers evened out the pace, the second driver watching the first driver and mirroring their actions.
The Lesson: Examples of good leadership are found at all levels and in all aspects of the wine industry.
💡Leading by example.
💡Leading by being supportive.
💡Leading by sharing insights.
💡Leading by working together as a team to achieve results.
-How does show up in this story?
-What does mean to you?
