Impossible to possible.... An example of leadership and team work... 15000 South Indian Filter Coffee/Tea produced in a day
My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...
This is about teamwork and leadership. A team making the impossible to possible. We have enough articles to talk about teamwork and leadership. How is this going to be different?. … hold on. :)
This is our team. Please see below picture. Did you notice anything?
Lets move on...
Winter is here. What lights your day in the morning? A coffee..? If you are from south India, how about South Indian filter coffee or masala tea? OK!. that would be a great treat..Isn't it?
But, during a winter walk, if someone is providing south Indian filter coffee, would you stop at one?
We are a team of 10+ people, from different background, but
get along well for various reasons. One
fine day, while having breakfast in Mylapore Cafe, Fremont, we came to know about “volunteering request at Concord Temple, Bay Area, during Thaipoosam walk”, preparing coffee/tea for 15000 people, "particularly" South Indian filter coffee/masala
tea in one day.This should be live and good quality.
What?... South Indian filter Coffee for 15K people?. That too, in one day?. Is this possible!
Look at the smiles below.. Is this possible? :).. Jokes are jumping across...
That was our start!. Sitting in Mylapore cafe Fremont, we started planning, by having south Indian filter coffee.
First, team lead was identified along with project manager. It is important to have correct lead in place for any successful mission. Moreover, the most important thing is, the energy, mission and passion, commitment of the lead/manager, plays a crucial role in any execution.
Please note that “kitchen plays an important role” in any cooking. Our team leads fixed a nice place for our teams to execute this comfortably. Place plays a role for big production. We visited few places to finalize the production place/kitchen. For any successful team execution, leads should make sure that ambience is comfortable for teams..
Various “small teams” were formed with specific tasks. For example: all the big vessels, gas station, big spoons, coffee powder, coffee filters, milk, water, tea spices and ginger. :) … Please note that, small drops make a big ocean. Small efforts collectively make a significant impact. Scrum teams are similar, and play an important role in any product/organization. :)
OK, all set!. We are going to make 15K south Indian coffee/masala tea. All planning in place. Remember, we need all the vessels, coffee decoction, water and milk. Decoction is very important in south Indian filter coffee!.
"Cookbook" was ready and circulated to everyone. Everything is "organic" to ensure quality and healthy. It is important to have teams aligned.
Just to mention the scale: We need 300 gallons of milk, 100+ gallons of water, many liters of decoction and many packs of tea spices. Decoction preparation started few days ahead, without disturbing our regular schedule. :)
Big day started… all were up at the kitchen by 4 am PST, ready to make coffee/tea. Look at below picture. :)
We arranged 8 stations with 8 individual volunteers to take care. Lights up! Thank GOD for keeping everyone healthy on the day.
Look at below picture... Our team at work: 4.00 am PST :), with a freezing temp.
As we started making coffee/tea at each station, we immediately packed those into cambros as per the instructions. Project manager was making sure that all cambros are reaching the required coffee/tea station.
Few behind the kitchen secrets: Milk was boiled till 208°F, measured and validated at every station before mixing with decoction and milk. Quality and safety measures were followed at every cambros level.
Here is the video in actions...
After each cambro of coffee/tea was prepared, the vessels were completely cleaned for next cambro, and every cambro was cleaned before packing those. Quality was key. :)
Another interesting fact is: Costco opened at 6.00 am for us, supplied 300 gallons of organic milk and organic gingers. Do you believe this? - Thanks to Costco, Concord team. We were very particular about A2 milk, since quality is our key metrics.
Few more clicks from our team: i.e. how individual station was operated...
It was back-to-back coffee / tea preparations from 4.00 am. All were having fun, good humors across the stations and jokes around breakfast time. Good lunch was served for us, and day went really smooth as per plans… For example: Tea spices were measured, packed in small bags and we were given clear instructions on execution. It was like a game!. Every execution is a game and we really played our role.
Please look at below picture, folks consuming our coffee/tea: It was around 20K people in Concord on this day.
Feedback: This is really important, We started getting good feedback from folks had our coffee/tea and that really motivated us throughout the day. - if we deliver good quality with integrity, good feedback is guaranteed…. "Feedback loop is very important in any team.."
Day was going very busy…
As the sun started setting, we heard more demands coming our way. We planned for 15K only, but there was a compelling request to make another 3K to 5K. However, our lead decided to call off, though we had little bit of stock remaining. This was a shock for everyone of us. Lead knew our strengths, noticed us closely, we were losing our energy and made a call. But, this is an important point. A leader should know, when to say NO and "protect" the team..
BTW, if you are wondering, why did we make 15K coffee, it was for recent “Concord Shiva Murugan temple”. Our team made coffee/tea for all the 21 mile and 7 mile walkers... Our coffee was served throughout the day on 8th Feb for all the devotees. We were blessed to serve Lord Muruga’s devotees.
Temple website: https://walk.temple.org/
Morale of this blog:
1. Everything is possible in the world, with a correct team, positive attitude, and passionate, energetic team lead...
2. Volunteering is fun, resets you, and you will learn many things, if you go with good intention. :)If you need more details about this event, how we accomplished this, please reach out me. I have the cookbook and document.
OK, everyone. Thank you for reading this.... :) Sharing is caring!... Sharing what I experienced in last week..
We will catch up in the next blog and take care!
Bye, Nandri. Take care!
P.S - Special thanks and hats off to all our team members and team leads for making this as a special moment in life. GOD bless you all and take care. Thank GOD for bringing us together, and allowing us to serve his devotees.
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