Looking for the bird

There are lots of trees near our home and the morning air is filled with the sounds of birds that inhabit them. Many different varieties are regular visitors to our garden and bring with them their instinctive pecking order. Recently there have been some brightly coloured newcomers that we did not recognise and decided to look up in a reference book of birds.
While the book might be a helpful reference for experienced bird watchers it's not so practical for us as the pictures are in black and white. More practical is a no longer updated reference point on a BBC website page It not only shows colour pictures but provides a sound recording of each bird.
Listening to those recordings brought to mind a piece of advice i was once given on how to slow down a busy lifestyle and be in the moment. The advice was simple: When you hear a bird, look for it.
Now that's easy for the large doves that think they own our property and for the magpies that cackle noisy warnings of approaching cats. It's a different matter for those smaller birds singing from those nearby trees. They are not that easy to find and it can take five minutes or so before eventually spotting one.
The advice is sound. The search is relaxing and takes your mind from everyday concerns for a while.
Got 5 minutes? Why not spend them in the "hear" and now?


Note: This post first published on my Improving with Age blog..

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Better looking at it than looking for it

We had some electricians at home recently.  They were fitting extra power points and  we talked about where the new sockets would be positioned.  That decided we also agreed that rather than remove some existing sockets we would leave them in place in case they were needed.  The electrician sparked something in my mind when he said, "Better looking at it than looking for it!"

That got me to thinking about applying that notion to working life; to office equipment in general and desktop organisation in particular.  How much time do we spend looking for one item or another that if it was close to hand might actually make us more time-effective?  Where do we keep that stuff?  On the desktop? In a drawer?  And if it is shared office equipment, are we quick to return it to where we got it?  That brings to mind another piece of homespun wisdom, "A place for everything and everything in its place?"

Question?
What items of office equipment do you think should be close to hand when you are working?  What do you think you are better looking at than looking for?

Curiosity in the workplace

 

A friend of mine, a former co-worker, turned natural curiosity to advantage and avoided a potential embarrassment.
What would you do if you saw an envelope labelled like this on a desk?
I couldn't resist it for long and so approached him and said, "I have to ask...what's in this envelope?" He asked me if I was sure I wanted to know. Then he said that before he showed me I must agree not to tell any of our co-workers. I agreed.
The envelope contained... A book of ballots! One of his children had asked him to sell some at work and that was something he really didn't like doing. So rather than ask around, he avoided embarrassment by posting this envelope near his desk where it would be easily visible. Colleagues saw it and approached him.
Of course I bought some, kept quiet and by the end of the day the envelope was down, mission accomplished.
Clever? I think so. I wonder in what ways middle leaders could arouse curiosity in their workplace. How might it be used in problem-solving? To support learning?
Curiosity, just the ticket!
Feel free to share ideas. I'm curious.

 

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Entrepreneurs in the workplace

Entreprendre: It's a verb that had given us the word entrepreneur with all its many connotations of business success. It is reported that George Bush once complained that the problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur although the truth of this statement is contested here. The noun has come to mean many things since it was first coined back in the early 18 century. See Wikipedia article here
I like the French verb entreprendre. It breaks nicely into two parts, between and to take. To take between.
For middle leaders, managing their teams and being managed themselves the verb seems appropriate. Taking between.
Does that make middle leaders/managers entrepreneurs?

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Slowing for sold in the workplace

You know that busy supermarket moment when you decide which check-out queue to join? That happened me a while back. The almost full car park that greeted me on arrival was a sure sign that there would be a lengthy wait. Still I had a list, needed the stuff and joined the fray.

Picking the check-out

The supermarket I use most has a long line of checkouts and I've noticed that the longest queues seem to be the ones nearest the exit. Further along the line, away from the exit, queues are a bit shorter so I tend to aim for one of those spots. I noticed on this visit that one of the operators was chatting to her customers as she scanned their purchases. That queue seemed to be moving fairly quickly so I joined it.

Sure enough. She smiled, talked to kids in the line and engaged their frazzled parents. Here's the thing though, she worked smoothly, organising the throughput of items and slowing from time to time to match the shoppers' bagging pace. The result was that payment and packing were completed in neck in neck time. Glad I joined that line as I crossed it to finish in no time.

So what?

Well, so many of us in busy workplaces, feel we have to work harder and faster. The Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger could apply, couldn't it? However, the check-out operator was going for gold in a different way. She made haste slowly.

What ways could we slow down the conveyor belt of things to do in our workplaces? Pacing processes to match our customers? Finding the time to engage? It is said that regardless of what job we do, we are always negotiating, selling. Are you slowing for sold?

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Timpson: Running their business upside down

Needing some extra keys the other day, I called in to a nearby mall to get some cut. The kiosk, Timpson, supplies keys, does shoe repairs and provides other services. The person in charge was friendly, keen to please and offered a money off deal. He then handed me this simple thank you note. I don't recall any service providing me with that before. Sure, you'll see it on a till receipt but nothing quite so upfront as this.

The thank you note included some commonly asked questions about the business. Is it a franchise? No, their outlets are run by colleagues trusted to serve customers in the way they think best. The note goes on...the bosses don't make the rules round here. That's fresh.

Then, in response to the question, Do colleagues get their birthday off? Apparently so and they say it's a great way to say thank you to colleagues.

Reading on, we learn a little bit about this family business... Father, the Chairman and son, the Chief Executive before turning over the note for details on how to claim a Mystery Shopper discount voucher.

To get the voucher, you have to say which outlet you used, say something about the service and provide an email address. That's it - a 10% discount arrives immediately in your inbox. I'll be using mine tomorrow when I bring some shoes along for repair.

So what?

What I like about this is that by handing out a small, thin piece of paper the business has thanked me for my custom, shared its business model and promoted its values: family, collegiality, turning normal practice upside down.

What if you and I were to take our own small piece of paper and do something similar for the service or product that we supply?

Would that be the key to better customer relations and repeat business? And if our business is a little down at heel in these cash-strapped times would that little piece of paper be a simple first step to putting our best foot forward?

Thank you for reading, colleague!

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Out of road

Couldn't resist taking this picture. We had arrived at Cairnryan, Scotland and were waiting in the queue to board the evening ferry to Belfast. The satnav was still on and I noticed that we were out of road.
Now there's a metaphor - out of road.
Sometimes when we run out of road, reach the edge, it can feel as if there's nowhere to go but back. This road, the Belfast way, continues on the other side of the North Channel and heads for home.
Next time I feel like I've reached the end of the road, I'll be checking for a bridge, tunnel or ferry.
With or without a satnav.