HOLIDAY MOTIVATION IN THE POTTERY STUDIO

Running the Race-

Today is the October 1 and we are already gearing up our pottery production to get the year-end inventory on the shelves for the store, the kiosk, and the anticipated online orders for Christmas. Now is the time that we need to set the pace of production so that when we are close to Christmas, we are not running out of the most popular hand thrown pottery that would affect sales and disappoint our customers. We really want to be about people, but in order to be about customer service, there are times when we must deal with the realities of the production end of our business.

This can almost be equated with a cross-country race. We evaluate the distance with the hills and then try and set a pace that will get us to the end without being dead on the last hill!

We are working with a relatively new studio staff who have never been through a Christmas season, so it difficult for them to realize just how many pottery mugs, soup bowls, blessing jars and snowmen, we really need to have on our shelves to get us to the New Year. Every year, unfortunately, there are popular items which we run out of before Christmas, and every year we vow to make enough so that we don’t come up short. 

Our goal is to encourage the team in such a way that they have the intrinsic motivation to get the work done but not hate their workload in the process! On January 1, 2015 we will know how successfully we did our job.