What you can't hear
When I worked at White Pages, we'd encourage businesses to list their trading hours in the phone book so customers wouldn't have to call simply to ask "Are you open?"
Many opted not to.
They preferred being interrupted because it reassured them that people were interested.
What they couldn’t see was the time they wasted answering such calls.
What they couldn't hear were the customers who went elsewhere because they didn’t want to call.
In your role, are you...
Other people's meetings are a waste of time
Have you noticed that it’s only other people’s meetings that are a waste of time?
We lament having them, but we’re the ones calling them. Meetings are up 13% since the pandemic, largely due to distributed teams.
There are lots of ideas about how to make meetings better, from having an agenda (rare) to limiting the number of attendees.
Here’s a reality check when it comes to meetings.
- People are often back-to-back in meetings, so the idea they will...
Five realities of work
As author Liz Wiseman writes, there are five realities of working in an organisation.
- Messy problems
- Unclear objectives
- Unforeseen obstacles
- Moving targets
- Unrelenting demands
A small percentage of the burden you carry is actual workload – it’s the muck that comes along with it.
And in my experience, most of the muck involves people.
Imagine then, having clarity about why people behave the way they do and how you can influence them for the better?
Imagine how...
McDonalds salad
Healthy snacks in a vending machine can backfire, leading to more people choosing the unhealthy option.
This is an example of ‘vicarious goal fulfilment’, where doing a small thing makes us think we’ve done the big thing.
In this case, merely seeing the healthy option can be enough for us to indulge ourselves for our ‘good behaviour’.
McDonalds knows this. Sure, they have salads, but perhaps today you deserve the burger?
Vicarious goal fulfilment is...
The 60% employee
You already know there are employees you are not getting the best out of.
What may surprise you is it’s not the lazy ones. It’s not the shirkers. The ‘all talk no walk’ types. You probably have a plan for them, or you should.
No, I’m talking about those conscientious, hard working members of your organisation that are doing good work, but they could be doing GREAT work.
These are your 60% employees.
I know this because I was a 60%...
Why we stick with things too long (Focus on the sunk cost fallacy)
I was watching the popular TV series Lego Masters, and something one of the contestants said really got my attention.
Welcome to Focus On, a focus on a specific topic, business or issue for the month.
So what did she say that captured my attention?
“I’m just terrified I have spent this time building something that now won’t be used. I don’t want that to be wasted building time”.
This is the “sunk cost fallacy” - the predicament we find ourselves in...
