This is a story told by Mike Losicco during the Day of Renewal at The Family Foundation School on January 19th, 2010.

Mike speaking:

“When I was at The Family back in the early 80’s, I had on my rotation the job of breakfast cook.  Working with me was a young man named Phil and Phil was the “juice guy.”  He had the responsibility of making the juices, filling the glasses and getting them out. Phil had a hard time getting his job done in the time allotment and was often late. As the breakfast cook, I went to Betty and complained that Phil wasn’t doing the job.  Her response to me was to hold Phil accountable and I told her I didn’t know how to do that.  She suggested that I work with Phil as a way of teaching and encouraging and to get the job done in the allotted amount of time. I resisted that suggestion since I had my own job; in this case to make 70 or so omelets.  I thought that her request was unreasonable and impossible. Just as Phil would continue to say back to me that it was impossible for him to get his juice job done in the allotted amount of time.  So Betty’s response to my resistance was to suggest that if I can’t work with Phil to teach and encourage him that I should do both my omelet cooking and the juice preparation myself as a way of seeing how to do the job and to see how I could push myself.  Needless to say, I learned to work harder and get my job done as well as my mentor job with Phil.”

“She helped my being accountable to my job as breakfast leader and didn’t let me quit. As an outcome, I learned that I had self-imposed limitations on myself that were false and that with a little encouragement and pushing, I was able to meet the standard.  Likewise, by holding Phil accountable to his job description, he too was able to see that it was possible to do the job.  Therefore, he also had an opportunity, by being accountable, to a new perception of what his capabilities were. From this I learned that often by holding ourselves accountable to principles and ideals, even though often these ideals represent perfection, we are able to continuously experience progress and have the satisfaction that comes with personal growth.”