when does anyone start to examine how we do things, to look for inefficiency? If we eliminated that inefficiency, how many hours of unnecessary processing, running around to find things or people, sitting in pointless meetings, etc. etc. could be done away with?
What's being done right now to make sure that the workforce they have today will be able to meet the needs of the future, or will we be hearing about this labor market mismatch in the future, too? Are businesses really just hoping that the right graduates come out of college with the necessary skills, or that mid-career pros will be able to utilize existing skills in entirely new ways, or are they providing guidance and resources so that the labor pool stays stocked with talent?
What I've come to realize, is that we all waste an awful lot of time doing nothing value-added. When I say "time" (or anyone else for that matter) is being wasted, I start to think "life" instead. Every minute we spend just sitting - accomplishing nothing of value to anyone - is a minute of our lives lost and gone forever. It doesn't come back, it doesn't get recycled, it doesn't break down or compress and eventually turn into a diamond. It is just simply gone.
My 6-year-old son has show-and-tell at school every Friday. The night before his most recent presetation, I asked him what he wanted to bring to school. He simply said, “Hmmm….I don’t know!” and shrugged his shoulders, waiting for me to give him something he could use. It was then that my improvement genes went into hyperdrive, not to mention my parenting genes, too. “Well, let’s just come up with some ideas.” I told him. “You know, just some brainstorming.” “Umm…geee, I – I really just can’t think of anything.” “Really??” I said, “you have no thoughts at all??” “Well,...
"I Don't Know how" is, usually, a defensive reaction. It's far easier to use ignorance as an excuse for not trying to learn than it is to admit that we might not have the capacity to learn. That, however, might be a matter of self-deception. It's not that we're incapable of learning, it's that we simply don't have enough time to learn what we perceive is needed.
Everyone likes to show off their ability to put their backs into it and come out a winner. In the end, it's all about "Look at me! I am tough, and I can take it." But why do you want to? Any number of organizations have figured out that no one should have to, or want to. From Toyota and its fabled Production System to Best Buy and the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), there are places that have realized that overcoming the "Look what I can do!" aspects of human nature.
Let's say a doctor has to have surgery. Do you think he walks into the operating room, holding his surgical gown closed with one hand and examining the instruments with the other? Does he look at the sheet that will cover him, checking to see if it's sterile? Does he check the temperature of the room, ensuring that it's at a comfort level that will be conducive to a successful surgery? I don't know if all of that happens, but I know some rather intense scrutiny ensues when a teacher attends a child's Meet the Teacher night.
It’s late September, and that means it’s time to order up some firewood and begin stacking it for when the cold weather hits. This weekend, I had my wood delivered, and my father happened to be in town as well. He pitched in and helped me stack up my wood into a corral I had built last year, and we got the job done fairly quickly. It was interesting to watch his approach, as he was reluctant to begin since he had never stacked wood before.
In so many ways, we are who came before us. In many other ways, we are the antithesis of our ancestors, fighting to do better, have more, and be more than our parents and grandparents. Today I sifted through artifacts (trinkets, my daughter called them) of my grandparents' life.
We’ve all been put into situations where we need to take control of a situation early on. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves constantly looking up at a perch of credibility and respect we’ll have to work hard to climb up to, if we can even get there at all. With that in mind, I came across a post that offered some advice for getting hold of a group right at the start, and establishing the necessary sense of authority without turning yourself into a dictator. The author offered the following 10 steps that I thought seemed to encapsulate the principles...
Enter code "09lkl" at checkout & get Memory Jogger guides at 25% off regular list price
