Things aren’t always what they seem.
I recently worked with a client whose team member was about to head off on maternity leave. Whilst many organisations might question the “benefit” of investing in an employee who will be out of the business for an extended period of time, this organisation realised that the value of ensuring she had the skills she needed to perform her job effective in the months prior to her leave. The benefits being, she would be happier, less likely to be absent because of stress, would be more engaged would provide a thorough and comprehensive handover to her replacement she would talk …
Constructive Communication
I was interviewed on breakfast television about managing email when I was asked an interesting question. It wasn’t scripted or planned and, in fact, I’d never been asked that question before. “How do you know if the tone of your email is correct?” the interviewer asked. I paused for a moment before answering “if you are asking yourself that question, it’s probably a sign that you should be having a conversation instead.” After the interview, I reflected on the question. In business today we have become so email focussed. Whether it is to “cover” us from being told off or …
Choice – The Lens of Decision Making
We often find we are in a situation where we simply don’t know what to do. We may ask colleagues for input and ideas which we may take on board or disregard. In his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, former administrative assistant and renowned Leadership Development Expert Stephen Covey suggests start with the end in mind. Considering decision making as a choice made through the lens of “the end we have in mind” can help create clarity in the process. Questioning does the decision to do, or not do, move you towards or away from the end …
Workplace Productivity
The speed and scale at which data is sent and received means workers are literally drowning in data that needs processing. Even discarding irrelevant information, such as reply all emails requires time and decision making. A 2012 McKinsey Global Institute report, The Workplace Evolution1 found an opportunity lies in better utilising the technology organizations already possess. The report identified, the average interaction worker spends around 28% of their workweek managing email and almost 20% looking for information internally or interacting with colleagues to get assistance with specific tasks. Clearly, the answer to workplace productivity DOESN’T lie in adding more. In …
The Power of Internal Knowledge
After completing an in-house workshop for a client, I conducted a number of one on one and small group trouble shooting sessions. In one session, a manager and his two team members came along with a spreadsheet they were working on. Currently, to calculate the priority of various works based on dates and a grading criterion, they did manual calculations. Although they knew there must be a more efficient way, they were hamstrung by lack of time and lack of availability to sit down together and consider and explore ideas. Having a metaphorical “line in the sand” in the form …
Time for Thinking
There are points where organizations tend to take time to reflect on the past and the future. Traditionally these are at the end of the calendar and/or fiscal year. But reality is, regular thinking time is great for productivity. Management guru Peter Drucker once said “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection, will come even more effective action.” In a world of 24/7 ON, we often make the time to reflect and observe our experiences, decisions and interactions. We are too busy moving onto the next item on our to do list. It’s very easy to be …
It’s not a miracle, it’s doing the work!
When I speak with prospective clients about programs they want to conduct, many think it is a matter of simply coming in, delivering some skills and walking out the door. That somehow the result will be a miraculously regenerated team who are excited and engaged and will never require training again! Unfortunately, I don’t perform miracles. Rather when I present, I educate, motivate and inspire participants and their teams to look at what and how they can work differently to reduce stress and risk and make life easier. It’s easy to be engaged in the moment, but the real work …
The Freddie Mercury Legacy
Returning from lunch at a conference recently, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody played. It snapped the participants from their ‘food coma’ into a state of readiness for learning. It got me thinking about the legacy Queen’ lead singer Freddie Mercury left behind when he passed away in 1991. The music of Queen has been revived through the blockbuster movie We Will Rock You and the global tour of Queen with US American Idol runner up Adam Lambert as front man. It lives on despite it being twenty years since Freddie’s passing purely because Brian May and Rodger Taylor saw an opportunity to …
Are You Getting Better?
The promise of technology was that it was supposed to make our lives easier and simpler, but reality is it appears to have created more work and is changing at a pace at a speed we never anticipated. When I start work with a new client, we explore the outcomes they want to achieve for themselves or their team. Some want to analyse data faster, some want to create more sophisticated charts, others want to learn to automate common processes. However, these are all activities. What every single client wants for themselves and their teams is more time! One of …
