June Offsite 2017
Finding Our Sweet Spot On June 16th, the DISHER team set aside their typical work day to deliberately focus on the fundamentals. Members from every team and every office congregated at the HRM Gateway Center for a company-wide offsite. For seasoned team members, the day wasn’t a surprise. It was the continuation of a biannual tradition and a pause to… Read More
NeoCon 2017
From An Engineer’s Perspective For any engineer that works in and for the furniture industry, NeoCon is a must see. NeoCon is one of the largest trade shows featuring workplace furniture and the industries that support it such as seating, textiles, technology, and flooring to name just a few. A dozen folks from DISHER took a bus trip, organized by… Read More
All I Got for My 5th Anniversary was a Rock
Building a Culture That Thrives™ I just completed five years at DISHER. This milestone was recognized and celebrated at an all-company meeting a few weeks ago where I was given a rock. Yes, you read that correctly. They gave me a ROCK. And you know what? I was thrilled. Why? If you look closely, it tells a story. Do you… Read More
Effective Prototype Development
Don’t Waste Precious Resources During the space race of the 1960’s, as the legend goes, NASA engineers encountered a challenge. Astronauts needed to take notes in space but typical ballpoint pens did not function in a Zero-G environment. NASA funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into developing a pen that could write upside-down in space on either side of the… Read More
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Don’t Settle for Second Best After a design choice has been made, have you ever had the sinking feeling that you inadvertently settled for second best? The process can be frustrating. It always seems to take more time to piece together a complete and total list of boundary conditions and evaluate them properly before making a selection. I’ve often heard… Read More
A Strong Culture Brings Out the Best
A Strong Culture Brings Out the Best for the person, company, and customer Many companies are enamored with the word culture yet few fully understand what it is. Some believe culture is employee volunteerism. Others believe it’s about team meetings and company offsites. While others think coffee bars, exercise classes, and generous amounts of time-off define culture. The word culture… Read More
DISHER Lunch & Learns
The Perfect Way to Connect & Develop Teams How many of you bring your lunch to work, warm it up in the company microwave, and head back to your desk to keep working because you have so much to accomplish? Connecting with colleagues is not a high priority when our calendars are double and triple booked. We use the lunch… Read More
Manage Your Data Intentionally
Manage Your Data Intentionally: Don’t Let It Manage You Many product-related projects begin the same way. All relevant information is gathered and placed into the appropriate Windows folders on the company network. As the team is assembled, tasks are assigned to its members. Each teammate makes their own working folder and starts to plug away making progress rather quickly. Then… Read More
Finding Your Sweet Spot
A New DISHER Culture Characteristic DISHER’s mission, Make a Positive Difference, has driven our team behaviors creating a culture that was recently ranked 5th in the nation. These core behaviors are spelled out in our 12 Culture Characteristics (CCs), they’re talked about every month, and they’re lived out by our team members. When someone at DISHER says, Two Extra Things… Read More
DISHER Participates in MiCareerQuest 2017
Engineering Interns Launch Learning MiCareerQuest gives West Michigan students a unique opportunity to explore a variety of occupations, get to know a few colleges/universities, and meet potential employers from several industries. This year’s exhibition took place on Thursday, April 13th, 2017, at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. DISHER was one of several engineering firms with a booth that displayed… Read More