Like most smart phones mine has a built in camera. Recently I made some adjustments to the settings and the result was that my pictures were not as good as they used to be. I decided to look at them again and it was then that I noticed a check box that allows you to reset to default factory settings. Now I figure that the folks in the factory know a great deal more than I do about what the optimal settings are for a great picture so I restored to the default positions. Result? Brighter, sharper, more pleasing pictures.
This got me thinking about settings in the workplace. What maybe worked well a few years ago probably need adjusting now. Or perhaps we need to return to previous settings: honesty, integrity, service. Taking the camera as analogy I wondered how sharp my own settings are these days. Sharp? Am I up to date with what's going in my area? Or is my picture blurred or distorted in some way? How sharp would I look if someone were to take a picture right now? Poised and alert? Or tired and jaded?
The ISO settings on a camera determine speed and responsiveness to light. So how do I respond? Quickly or slowly? In the gloom of an economic uncertainty can I turn my lens to light from other sources? The "optimalist" effect.
The camera on my phone has a zoom function. So how do I focus on challenges at work? In detailed close-up or zoomed out to the big picture? Do I use the flexibility of the zoom function or treat it as a fixed focus which only sees the challenge from a single perspective?
There is a feature that I rarely use. You know the timer button on the camera that allows you to delay taking the picture so that you can move to be in it. This brings to mind terms used in NLP; associated and dissociated. In the first you you form a picture of your experience as if seeing it through your own eyes. In the second you experience it by seeing yourself in the picture. Association can be great if your experience is a positive one. Less so if it isn't. The ability to dissociate and see yourself in the picture may allow you to become more resourceful by zooming out from a negative experience to gain more information, insight and even objectivity into what's going on.
Allocating time and space to recalibrate settings is an important skill in today's workplace squeeze. Take a moment to consider your own settings? What is working well for you? What could you adjust, replace or tweak? What one thing do you do really well and could you upload and share that picture to appropriate people in your workplace? What would you like to set as your new default positions?
Got a picture of that? So do I. Worth a thousand words, isn't it?
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