Have You Named The Lobsters?

Ever hear of naming the lobsters?

You go to a seafood restaurant with one of those big lobster tanks by the front door. Your kid starts naming them, and suddenly you can’t eat one.

They have names. They’re now more than a market price dinner. They’re cute little Disney creatures with names and families and hijinks and adventures.

Your kid just kept you from eating that lobster because your kid made it a little more real.

Dee Pontious at Jansen’s Heating & Air taught me how to name the lobsters for companies.

I first saw the poster middle of last year. It was 24” x 36” brightly colored poster board covered with rifles and the lights of Vegas and boats and grills. They were surrounding a big number.

“What’s that?” I asked Dee.

“Well, I wanted everyone on the team to realize we all won if we hit our company goal this year, so I had everybody go through and cut out their dream toy if we got our profit sharing bonus.

“I had them think about, imagine, then make the effort to cut out what they wanted.

“We all had to paste them on this poster here, and then I put it up by the back door so it was the first thing everyone saw when they arrived in the morning and the last thing they saw before they went home at night.”

It’s not the first contest Dee’s done brilliantly. It seems every time I go there to visit, she’s got them all involved in some new scavenger hunt or bingo or team competition.

Dee Pontious is a genius. She’s not the only one there at the shop.

Coincidentally, Jansen’s is growing and growing and growing… wait, did I say “coincidentally?”

Wrong name.

Have your employees name their lobsters. Make their dreams real. Let us know if we can help.