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 …
The KISS Principle
Ever read a letter or email, gotten to the end only to say to yourself “I have no idea?” Maybe you have no idea what the writer was trying to tell you, or no idea what the writer wants or expects you to do, or you are just totally confused by its purpose. Too often, particularly in written communication, people “waffle”. If it is something the writer is familiar with, because they either deal with the situation or the language every day, to the receiver it can seem like another language. A bit like internal acronyms in an organisation. When …
Reciprocity
At a recent conference I heard Dr Robert Cialdini, Psychology and Marketing Professor and author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion speak about the concept of reciprocity. He spoke about the importance of giving first if we want to receive. When we show effort, people appreciate it more. In the workplace when you help or support a colleague by sharing ideas, insights or wisdom that helps someone’s life or work, the giver tends to feel good and the receiver, who may have not felt good, usually feels better. Whether it is a sounding board for dealing with a challenging client …
The idea of rejection
No one likes being rejected, told no, or that they aren’t good at what they do. We often do everything we can to avoid the possibility of it by not asking for what we want or not saying we don’t know something. At a recent conference I heard Jia Jiang speak. Jia spoke about his fear of rejection and his 100 days of rejection therapy that he undertook to desensitise himself to rejection or hearing No! If you haven’t heard or seen Jia’s story take a look at his Ted talk on the topic, it has over 5.7 million views …
Who says ideas don’t come cheap?
The iconic Nike swish symbol is said to have cost only US$35 yet it’s contemporary concept has delivered value globally for years for the brand. Whilst this is a rare example, I believe most organisations expect that to achieve spectacular results requires significant investment. Depending on the circumstances and the outcome you are seeking, that may be true, but in many cases ideas can and DO come cheap, it’s just human nature is that we tend to overlook the obvious. When working with clients, one of the early things I show them is how to leverage ‘Find and Select’ in …
Stop sending, start talking
One of the challenges facing businesses today is the sheer volume of e-mail we send and receive and dealing with it. It’s easy to send an email asking a question to get something off our to do list and into someone else’s, but it does two things. It creates more work for you AND the receiver. They have to deal with your request in some way, even if it’s just reading it, and you have to ‘pick up’ the conversation when you get the reply. It stretches the response time. Unless the other person has their email open waiting for …
Is it necessary?
Ever had one of those days or weeks where meetings and appointments just seem to be one after the other? Regardless of whether someone is taking minutes or notes, there is often no time to reflect on what happened and your actions items. It can seem like you have no time to get any actual work done! The default timing for meetings, particularly face to face, has traditionally been an hour. Rather than schedule or participate in a regular meeting, if it is in your control it is worthwhile considering: Is the meeting necessary? If it is, could a mode …
What’s your release valve?
Sometimes it feels like we could work 24/7 and still not catch up! Whilst working long hours may be necessary in the short term to meet deadlines, in the long term losing the balance of having life outside of work can be damaging to product as well as our physical and mental health. Having a release valve, an activity that releases stress and frustration is vital to enable you to recharge and bring you back to a productive state. It could be as simple as time with family, walking your dog, or a boxing class. Whatever allows you to get …
Leap of Faith
Ever been on the edge of making a decision but a bit fearful just in case it doesn’t work out to plan? A timeless technique my mother used to always do was balancing the pros and cons. What are the positive things if all goes to plan, and contrasting it with the negatives? Sometimes the simple act of getting things out of your head and onto paper (or your preferred device) allows you to logically consider which way to go. How does this make you productive you might be wondering? When you have ideas, thoughts, fears or worries running around …
