INTO THE FURNACE

A few years ago I was invited to visit one of Boart Longyear's fabrication facilities in Northern Canada. My training company had just secured a large contract to produce more leadership and safety training and I was asked to travel the world to various facilities and meet some of their global leadership team.

On this trip my client showed me one of their processes for strengthening drill rods. They took already hardened steel rods, which I couldn't imagine being any stronger than they appeared, and lowered them into a super-heated furnace and let the rods bake for several hours. As they lifted the drill rods from the furnace they were over 1,700° F and glowing red like the sun. You could feel the heat from across the room. It was a powerful and humbling thing to witness. 

I was amazed how something so seemingly destructive like nearly molten heat was actually making something stronger. I couldn't help but think how this applied to other aspects of life. In life or work, when difficulties arise we are put in the furnace. Wise individuals and organizations learn how to harness the heat from such experiences and find ways gain strength from it. 

I have always believed the most telling thing about a people or a group isn't that we stumble and fall, but the manner in which we rise again.

Like this super-heated steel, we will be made stronger.