The Integration of Faith and Chicken

While limited to a mere two months, an internship at Chick-fil-A is certainly not without excitement. I had opportunities ranging from working in a Chick-fil-A restaurant for a day, to sleeping on the streets of Chicago with the president of a multi-billion dollar company, to driving an excavator. On top of these, and many, many other extraordinary events, I even worked. Not only did I have the chance to participate in a number of unexpected events, but I also had the chance to do actual work, contributing greatly to a Chick-fil-A information technology project. My experiences at Chick-fil-A can (but should not) be boiled down into these three categories: (1) there are extreme differences between working for professors and working for professionals, (2) if you are introverted, Chick-fil-A culture sucks energy like a banshee sucks the hope of Irish maidens (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=define%3A+banshee) , and (3) the Taylor bubble is absolutely not limited to Upland.
The stem of the differences between professors and professionals is this: expectations. While these differing expectations can be seen in all professions, there are a few specific to the staff/prof paradigm: the ten percent paradox, the temporal ternary, and the BYOB bifurcation.
First, we will address the ten percent paradox: in academics, the last ten percent of the work (the difference between an A and 100%) is extra and therefore optional; however, in the workplace, this ten percent is completely expected, and therefore a pain in the butt.. a necessary evil.. a very important thing to not forget. Actually, I absolutely understand the importance of the last ten percent; it’s what separates a secure production application from my half thought out hack of a program Throughout the summer, I found it exceptionally difficult to work once I crossed the ten-percent event-horizon. I always wanted to push through into new development, rather than spending extra time making sure that every detail was fully programmed. Still, I would argue that academia in NO WAY encourages you to go that “extra mile,” especially when merely attaining an “A” is good enough. Overcoming the ten percent paradox in academia was a very difficult paradigm shift for me.
Next, a part of the industry world that I did not understand was the temporal ternary. When work is assigned, especially if it is a small, menial thing, one is given at least three times longer than should be expected. For example, if my supervisor were to ask me to send him an email that would take me a half hour to plunk out, I would be given until the end of the day to complete it. This, again, was completely baffling to me, a student, since I am always expected to exact results immediately in course work.
Finally (and most excitingly), as an industry-level worker, you are allowed and expected to BYOB. As a student and student worker, I find that, all to often, I am forced to drink the Kool-Aid that I’ve been handed by my professor. What he says is what I do. If I were to offer my own refreshments in return, I would be asked to re-do work or tweak my thoughts based on a professor’s request. That second “B,” of course, refers to my brain. (Bring Your Own Brain).
I am certainly not trying to be hard on professors here; it’s not their fault. Countless years of schools creating, refining, and impressing assignments have boxed students and their brains into so many corners that point values can even be assigned to the mushy organs. I, myself am a relatively decent 3.61/4.0. The standard of excellence for college graduation and assignment of credit force the hands of professors to do so, but we should find creative ways to avoid boxing students in with menial assignments that teach only one thing at a time -- that which the professor wants the students to learn. This model of learning does not prepare students to “run with it,” like I had got to so many times while working for Chick-fil-A. Creative control as to how to bring an application into fruition is a very freeing and empowering opportunity. When I was told by my co-worker/supervisor Mark Presley to, “Do what you think is best,” because he did not know how to do it, I thought I was going to fall over in my seat; I had my own brain! I could contribute in the way that I thought was best. Empowerment like this encourages deeper learning, because it develops ownership and drive.
Once I adjusted to the differences of work styles between professors and professionals, I had a chance to step back and examine Chick-fil-A culture. There are a few unique things about the way that Chick-fil-A does business that give it such a unique culture: Chick-fil-A staff (1) schedules meetings before composing emails, (2) do their best to stay relevant, and (3) do not compose a Christian company.
“You are one of over three thousand applicants..” At least, that’s what they told us during our final few interviews and conversations with members of the HR department while we were preparing to leave the company. Chick-fil-A Inc is selective to say the least; Mark Miller, director of training and development, informed us that Chick-fil-A always prefers to hire based on high moral standings and obvious strength of moral characteristics. The rest -- individual skills -- are even less important. Skills can easily be taught while morals, work ethic, and character take a life-time to develop: “That’s what your parents are for,” he coyly commented. Upon further reflection on my interactions with the people here at Chick-fil-A, this has become an obvious fact. The people here are wonderful. Too wonderful. Being introverted, by nature, causes me to eventually succumb to the need for personal space and inner reflection; however, culture at Chick-fil-A requires an obsessive, obstinate, and obligatory outward expression of oneself; you must interact with people.
Meetings rule the world of Chick-fil-A. I have not taken the time to go back through my calendar to see how many meetings I attended during the day, but I can recall a number of days where I spent meager minutes at my desk; the entirety of many days was consumed with many meetings. I may have been harsh with my need for introversion -- I was fine. In fact, I greatly enjoyed the chance to interact with, learn from, and share amongst other members of the company. Andrew Stohrer, my “coach” (as Chick-fil-A calls him) for the summer reflected very highly on the matter: “It’s just Chick-fil-A’s way of doing business.” After taking a few minutes to reflect on the culture developed there, the annual income of the company, and the retention rates of its employees, it is clear to all that Chick-fil-A is a successful organization. Dan Cathy, COO and president, indirectly argues for the meetings by claiming that, “[Chick-fil-A] need[s] to stay relevant”. What does he mean by this?
Relevance is one of many keys to Chick-fil-A’s success. Relevance is the act of analyzing and understanding people, interacting with other companies, discussing alternatives, and making changes to the status quo of the business. Many, including Dan (by the end of the summer, he asked that we --the interns-- be on a first-name basis with him), argue that face-to-face meetings encourage discussion, differing opinions, and ultimately a more refined and relevant organization. I would argue that this is the main reason for such a great number of meetings.
Clearly, Chick-fil-A, Inc has a very strong focus on people. All of those people are of quite upstanding moral character. Thus, coming from a place that stresses the integration of faith and learning, we beg to ask the question: is Chick-fil-A a Christian company?

The answer is quite simply this: “No.”

Dan Cathy states clearly that, “It’s not a Christian company.” (http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/at-chick-fil-a-845950.html) He states this citing the fact that a company cannot be a Christian, but the people can. As a result, Truett, Dan, and the Executive Committee have done everything in their power to push the company in the direction of glorifying God. Their corporate purpose, why they are on this planet doing business, resonates the following: “"To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A) The result of this carefully planned strategy and intentional community is that there is an integration of Faith and Chicken. It’s certainly true that not everyone that works at Chick-fil-A is a Christian, but a large number of beliefs that Chick-fil-A as a company holds line up with the beliefs of Christians. Does Chick-fil-A hire only Christians? No. Are many people at Chick-fil-A conveniently Christians? Yes. The Christian and Chick-fil-A world views form a serendipitous syzygy.
Not only does Chick-fil-A align well with Christian world views, but it also seems to reflect Taylor University’s culture with a corporate twang. Intentional Community becomes intentional meetings. Floor tables become team tables. Intramural sports become walleyball games. Pick-a-dates become bi-weekly wedding or baby showers. These are just a few of the community-building things that I experienced while working for Chick-fil-A. Throughout all of this, Ashley and I had the opportunity to spend time with four Taylor graduates and their families outside of work. We all got together three times for movies, and once more for dinner.
One of the absolute highlights of the summer truly was our opportunity to interact with members of the Taylor family outside of work. After one movie night, Ashley, myself, and eight Taylor husbands and wives stayed up late sitting in the Vanderwalker’s living room chatting way past our median bedtimes. I remember commenting to Ashley as we drove away that night that, “I love these people.” The experience that I had was that I was truly part of the family. For example, the experience I had was more like I was spending time with family around the Christmas tree than hanging out with long-time friends.

Throughout the entire summer, I had the chance to experience a great deal of events, people, and activities. Having the chance to interact with and learn from professionals instead of professors has taught me much about working in the corporate environment. In addition, I was given the opportunity to experience and learn a little about how to create the Chick-fil-A culture. Finally, the highlight of the summer was learning how large and inviting the Taylor family truly is.

Streets of Chicago

If you've been following me on Twitter or getting the occasional bizarre Facebook update from me about sleeping on the streets of Chicago, I felt like I'd at least give you a little bit of an explanation. It's kinda a funny story, really.

Backstory:

-- I'm doing an internship with Chick-Fil-A's (CFA) information technology department at their international office

-- Dan Cathy, President and CEO of CFA, invited myself and a few other interns to join us to Chicago for a CFA restaurant grand opening

-- Grand Openings are a big deal at CFA

So. T-minus 4 days till takeoff for Chicago, myself and the other interns knew almost nothing about how the trip was supposed to work, and the person that we were supposed to be communicating with about it (the intern supervisor for the summer) was headed out to Florida for the entire week -- she was totally outside of communications. Here's what we knew:

-- Bring a sleeping bag.. if it's raining.

-- If it's not raining.. you won't be able to use it

-- If it's not raining.. you will be sleeping outside

-- if it is raining.. you will be sleeping inside with the sleeping bag that we may or may not be able to fit on the plane

-- If we can't fit it on the plane.. you will be sleeping on concrete

Basically, that's how the progression went. The rules were like this for everything: dress code, arrival times, directions.. You name if. If you are confused, that's what I was going for: that's how we felt, too. Basically, we kept recieving cryptic emails of that nature that really didn't help prepare us whatsoever for the trip.

Don't worry. That was fine. We at least knew where to be and at what time.

On the day that we were leaving, my friend Andrew and I carpooled down to the airport where CFA had their corporate hangar. Yeah. Corporate hangar. How cool is that? Inside of the hangar/office, were contained two corporate jets. After getting some clarification from the on site staff, we boarded the jet. There were nine of us going, and nine spots on the jet. 4 spots in front, 5 spots in back. It was pretty cool: often we'd be sitting there on the jet, glancing around, grinning, and mouthing to each other, "What the crap are we doing here," and "HOLY-cow!" It was during this stage of bewilderment that Dan came over, plopped down on the ground near our feet, and struck up a conversation about our workdays yesterday. That was a little bizarre.

We landed. Drove. Sat in traffic. Drove a few feet. (yes, feet). And Sat in traffic more until we got to the corner of Chicago and Wabash streets where the new CFA was located.

Alright. Now we're starting to get to the streets of Chicago. Sorry about all that detail.

The confusion continued. Because all of the employees were on a mission to make sure that everything was ready to go, they were doing all sorts of training, and really had no information to give us or tasks to assign to us. The night turned into us waiting around to be told what to do. Poor little interns.

Eventually, the first 100 people showed up that would each earn their free CFA sandwiches for a year. Once they did, their mission was to camp out, in front of the restaurant, on the streets of Chicago, all night long. Normally, people would be allowed to bring tents and chill out inside of them, but since we were in the middle of the city, and we couldn't get permits to section off the street, that was not allowed. For anyone. So people just brought chairs and sleeping mats and chilled on the side of the street. In much his own fashion, Dan grabbed his sleeping bag and air mattress, plopped down in the middle of the line, and joined them. (he was out within 10 minutes-- it was crazy impressive.) Myself and a few others decided that it would be an awesome option to join him. We did.

So. Here I am. Laying on a wet, cement sidewalk in the middle of Chicago, staring off into the sky/skyscrapers, and wondering, "What the crap am I doing here?" It was a very weird experience. But it kept getting weirder.

We were accosted by the following people:

..A drunk chick, that was so bewildered by the scene that she proceeded to tell us about how she got hammered because the kid that she was babysitting was very frustrating.

..A gay couple, that was so excited to see a CFA that the less drunk of the two stated that, "I know you guys are Christians, but I rounded that corner and said to ___name here___ Holy f***!, they're putting in a CFA??" (I could barely contain myself because it was so hilarious.)

..A homeless man that was very confused (and so very high) that one of the attending police officers almost had to escort the man away.

..A very, very large woman, that was up so late that she decided that she would take her pet Hedgehog out for a stroll. Yes. Hedgehog.

It was during all this that I managed to find some rest. But, I just wanted to let you know a little bit about my interesting experience on the streets of Chicago.