Are you slicing too thickly

At the bakery today they asked me if I wanted the loaf of bread sliced for sandwiches (thinner) or toast (thicker) ... OR a new thickness, ‘cafe style’. 

It’s big, chunky, super thick slices!

We may think in a maximising super-sizing more-is-better way, that thicker is indeed better. 

But when it comes to work, almost none of us are slicing thinly enough. 

We carve off huge thick slices of work... chunky, lumpy cafe-style slices. 

It’s why our to do lists are overwhelming, our minds are full and we end up distracting ourselves, losing focus and giving up. It becomes too hard and unachievable. 

Big chunks of work take us sooooooo long to work through and complete, we lose our way, lose momentum and motivation. 

So, set the slicer to ’thinner’. 

Slice off thinner pieces of work. That is, smaller steps and more easily achievable tasks. 

It’s not a competition for who can take on the biggest or who can eat the most work all at once. 

You won’t miss out. In fact you’ll get more done, sooner. 

Thinner slices of work are better. 

Would you work in a tent

Leave a door open and someone may scold us with, ‘Were you born in a tent? Close the door!’

Tents and forts made from blankets and furniture are a playful memory from many childhoods. 

And while there are pro and anti camping camps out there (you know, ‘I don’t do camping/We only do glamping’) there’s an interesting use of tents that’s popping up. 

Providing shelter, protection, coziness and keeping people safely distant at work ... how about this: would you work in a tent? 

This article shares some of the thinking and benefits to segregated spaces in covid safe workplaces. 

As a long time camper, I am here for the tent!

And don’t get me started on caravans ... particularly the retro allure of an Airstream. I reckon that’s got productivity and creativity written all over it!

Would you? Work in a tent? 

Face to face ➡️ Online How did you change

As many face to face workshops and meetings shifted online over the past year, it’s curious to look back: What did you change? 

If you’d planned an agenda, how did things need to adapt? 
Did you change the duration? 
Or the time between breaks, or length or number of breaks? 

Did you change what was planned?
What about group activities and collaboration? 

Did you accelerate and make things faster? Or did you need more time, multiple meetings instead of one? 

Many meetings and workshops that went online, only changed mode: sadly, they remained as disengaing and unproductive as ever!

But now as more hybrid arrangements begin - some people are online, some people are mobile or onsite - we need to consider, adapt and change things again. 

How did you first adapt meetings and workshops that moved online? 

Better ways for who

Imagine if your team started trying some newer ways of doing things... 

How might it impact customers? What additional value might you all bring? 
How might some frustrating customer problems get solved? 

The dramatic value that can be delivered to the customer, member, patient, user, client, can get forgotten. 

Perhaps it gets drowned out because the changes WE have to make are tricky and challenging for us. You know ... change!! *Groan* “It’s hard...”

Every team that tries some new ways of working gets a boost : 
🔅productively
🔅collaboratively
🔅effectively
🔅creatively.

And customers get a boost too!

Services become easier to use, sooner. 
Products get into their hands quicker. 
Interacting with the business becomes less frustrating or complicated... and things generally make more sense and work better. 

Better ways are available to us in how we go about:
🔆Thinking
🔆Understanding 
🔆Acting...
everyday. 

It’s not about using a new app or trying a new tool. There are new ways available at all levels of how we think about work, why we do it and how we do it. 

This is why adopting new and better ways is a cultural shift. 

Yes, it might take awhile. But your customers are waiting on you. 

Hard work is too hard on us

Burnout, overwork and the drive to ‘do more’ can be a never ending and dangerous loop. 

There are clever and ingenious solutions - or hacks - available to us, if only we’d take them up. 

A hack is a smart short cut, a streamlined process or focused advice to make things easier. 

So, if you knew of a better and easier way, would you take it? 

Some people like to see others do it first ... to see if ‘it works’. 

That’s what the diffusion of innovation curve is all about. There are always some trailblazers and early adopters who take a risk and trust their ability to cope with the new. 

And then come the early and late majority ... once the idea has been ‘proven’. By that time though, the trailblazers are often on to something newer, and easier. 

There’s another hack someone has uncovered or discovered!

Rather than waiting until more people have tried it and your risk is lower, jump in a little earlier. 

Play on the easier side of the curve for awhile.

You can wait to see how something turns out for others ... or run your own experiment, play your own game and live your own experience. 

It could be easier at the other end of the curve.