IN or FOR?

This time of year it is easy to be thankful. There are reminders everywhere to make sure we are thankful and giving thanks and saying ‘thank you’. That isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it is such a good thing that we should try to do it a lot more often throughout the entire year and not just around Thanksgiving. 

I will be the first to admit that I get caught up in moments that I am not so grateful for. I can fall victim as much as the next person to lamenting what isn’t going so well. I am even prone to getting a little more worked up than I should about little things that don’t go as planned. So, this is not a lecture as much as a self diagnosis that is worth sharing. I read a devotional recently emphasizing our responsibility to be grateful IN everything even when we aren’t grateful FOR everything. The point being we don’t have to like every situation specifically but we should always find reason in each circumstance we face to give thanks.

In the hardwood lumber industry, there is a lot to be irritated about. Trade wars are negatively impacting our business. Non-wood materials are encroaching on key customer segments within our industry. Enough qualified labor is impossible to find. Everyone of these statements is true and they should not and cannot be ignored. However, there is also a lot about this industry to appreciate. It is still a relationship business and we get to deal with a lot of people from different parts of the US and different cultures of the world. Business (economics) is the ultimate peacekeeper. People all want to succeed and trading a product that can benefit our US companies and companies in other parts of the world can provide motivation to work toward a common goal instead of focusing on differences.

Wood is beautiful and creates a look and feel that is desirable and adds value where utilized. Look at the appearance that ceramic and tile flooring is replicating, it is wood grains and characteristics. Yes, these substitute materials are taking market share from solid wood, but imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery. Consumers in the US and world like the appearance of wood, and that keeps the door open for real wood utilization in the right application.

Wood has the best sustainability story available among natural resources. You cannot get any greener product than wood. Third party certifications of harvest practices and growth to harvest ratios in hardwood forests support that wood is a truly a renewable and renewing resource. 

Agreeing on these positives about our industry isn’t the challenge. Shifting our focus from griping to grateful isn’t even the challenge. Seizing on the opportunity each of these positives presents is the challenge. As individual companies, but more as an industry, we have to take control of the messaging the world is receiving about hardwoods and particularly North American hardwoods. Combatting negative campaigning about harvesting trees, comparing the carbon footprint of solid hardwood flooring versus ceramic tiles, extolling the responsibility that the industry has adopted, and creating an emotional connection with the warmth of hardwood products in a home is a bigger task than any single company in our industry can or should handle alone. The industry has to pull together and pool resources to brand hardwoods as desirable and irreplaceable.

Yes, this sounds a lot like a check off, and maybe it is and should be considered again. Admittedly, that created a lot of negativity and division within our industry, but the concept of banding together for the purpose of branding wasn’t the divider.  Again, there is positive to salvage from a negative experience, something to be grateful for.   The ‘how to’ is what divided the industry, so that is what we need to rethink and use the previous attempt to learn and reshape how we accomplish something that most in the industry would agree is needed.