It’s a cool spring morning as I pull into Robinson Nursery Inc. in McMinnville, Oregon. Gabriel Mendoza greets me with a warm smile and a cup of freshly brewed coffee. What a welcome!
Gabriel was the first employee of Robinson. He is now the production manager, helping prioritize tasks for over 100 employees. I’ve come to learn what improvements and insights he can share.
We hop in his truck for the first of his daily tours of the nursery. He greets everyone he sees by name and asks what’s happening with them. This is the first lesson Gabriel teaches me: the value of everyday interactions. You can see his team respond. “If you see someone three times, you need to say hello three times,” Gabriel tells me…