by Shawn | May 13, 2021 | Podcast
I’m a big advocate for trying new things. Most of the time.
One time I tried kale chips.
If you haven’t tried them yet, I’ll save you cash. Just rip out a sheet of paper from a notebook, tear it into smaller pieces, sprinkle salt on them and eat them.
Then use that money you saved to go grab yourself something worth it… like a twinkie.
But other than kale chips (and liver… give me a second, gulp), most times there can be a big payoff to trying something new.
In the business world, one of the barriers to trying new things is that people are waiting for an invitation to do it.
They may want to try something new… a new technology, a new process, a new tool, but unless they’re empowered to just try it, they will often let it just sit right inside their cranium as it slowly gnaws away at them and then dies.
Whether for good or bad, I’ve usually been someone who will just try something new or do something differently regardless of if I’ve been given that invitation.
Sometimes, I will ask if we’ve ever used or tried this tech or app before, but other times I will just give it a shot. Especially if I’ve used it outside of work and know the power it could bring to our current situation.
The other day I did just that.
We were in a meeting… an in-person meeting if you remember those. Several of us were all in one room discussing some different options for a project.
The nature of the discussion and meeting had us each sort of mocking up our own ideas on paper to share with the group.
The problem was how to effectively gather around and look at everyone’s version, make changes and have meaningful discussion without being too close and also being able to see each idea clearly.
As we were starting to get to the stage where this was going to happen, my brain was up ahead seeing the issue we were going to run into and that it was going to be difficult to do it that way.
So, on the fly, I pulled up the meeting room computer, turned on the projector, logged into my Outlook and then started taking pictures of each of the ideas and emailing to myself with my phone.
OK, side note here. I know it’s 2021 and maybe I shouldn’t be blown away with the speed of technology like this, but can I just say that it still blows me away that I can hit send on my phone and see that email instantly show up on the screen on the wall. Like, seriously, how does it go all over wherever it needs to go to get from phone to work to network to computer to projector… THAT FAST?
I often don’t feel like I can get thoughts from my brain to my mouth that fast. Just crazy.
OK, so back to the meeting…
As the email showed up on the screen, I began to pull up the pictures one by one and it made it so much easier to discuss as a group, blow them up bigger and even make quick modifications and repeat the whole process.
It also helped us come to some really good agreement on some key decisions and plans we were making. And I’m just not sure it would have worked out that way originally.
I think the same thing happens every day in your organization as well. Your people are faced with multiple situations throughout their day where they might have a better way to do it, a new tool or app or technique that maybe isn’t currently used in your company.
You can do so much to help your team thrive by being an encourager and someone who empowers them to think outside the box.
If their idea has anything to do with kale chips, then I’ll leave that direction up to you.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Connect with me on Instagram @shawnwashburn7
by Shawn | May 12, 2021 | Podcast
If you’ve been out in the business world for any length of time, you’ve heard someone mention that their door is always open.
The message is that if you have an idea or question or even something that’s bothering you, you can go to them and they will listen.
And I’ve known plenty of leaders at places where I’ve worked where this was legit. I knew that if I went in (and I often did) and wanted to talk, they would be receptive.
The problem in business comes when the door is open, but the ears are closed.
I wonder which is the case for you today?
Bottom line is… are you approachable?
Do your people, your team members colleagues and peers feel OK coming to you and sharing what’s on their mind?
It’s a huge question. And it’s one that people figure out the answer to pretty quickly… especially if the offer of an open door is put out there in conversation.
If it’s just a gesture that you have no interest in backing up, then you can almost make things worse than not offering at all.
I’ve known plenty of friends and coworkers who had basically just shut down because they had something to share, were offered that open door and when they went in to share it was clear that they weren’t really being listened to.
That’s a great way to drive people off.
But… on the flip side. When your door and ears are BOTH open, it can be one of the most powerful and empowering things for your business and team.
That’s because there is tremendous value and knowledge, ideas and questions, insights and thoughts bottled up inside of each of the people in your organization. With some exceptions, most people want to be there and be a valuable part of the organization.
And when the word gets out that you are someone that truly listens and will take those words to heart and seek to take action, you’ll unlock more and more of that potential inside each of your people.
So, before you go opening your door, make sure your heart and ears are there first. Then see what follows.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
by Shawn | May 11, 2021 | Podcast
At home, we have these small square plastic containers with lids.
We often use them to bring along some kind of dip or peanut butter or whatever.
Simple little things.
Container. Lid. That’s it.
Unless you add in the fact that there are two types that look almost identical.
And the fact that their lids are not interchangeable. So, if you grab the wrong lid, even though it looks like it should fit…. it won’t.
I need to come up with a better system to keep them straight and not get myself frustrated when I grab the wrong one, but this is what happens time and again in businesses. Maybe ones like yours.
I’m not saying that your business uses small square plastic containers (though if you did want to tote in some peanut butter with your apples, I highly recommend them).
But rather, it’s little variances that exist, little gaps in your standards and processes that open the door for frustration, scrap, customer relationship issues and more.
It’s why it’s so important to have clear, established instructions and rules in place when they are needed.
Sometimes, of course, there is room for creativity or personal preference and you might even rely on that being the case for specific parts of your business.
But it is those other areas, those crucial tasks that need to be done a certain way but aren’t. That’s where the problem can come in.
Like those lids that looked very similar, you might have wording that is open to interpretation or documents that aren’t exactly clear.
Your people are trying to put the wrong lid on the container and it’s getting everyone frustrated as well as causing lost hours and worse.
So, identify those gaps, shore up your standards, and invite others to help you create the right wording or signage or steps that leave no doubt what needs to happen.
As for my containers, what would you do? Permanently mark them to identify? Keep them in separate spots? Something else? Let me know by shooting me a message on Instagram at shawnwashburn7.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
by Shawn | May 10, 2021 | Podcast
Have you ever recorded a podcast episode?
There are a ton of podcasts out there in the world today. I’m not sure how many, but I know that chances are some of my listeners have their own podcast. As an aside, if you’re ever interested or think you have something you’d like to share with the world via podcast, I’d love to talk to you about it.
If you’ve ever recorded your own and then edited it, you’ve had the chance to see what a waveform looks like.
When you record your audio into an audio editing program, it creates a visual waveform that is a translation of sorts of what you just spoke into your microphone.
It’s really powerful, because it lets you see pauses in the conversation, spikes in the volume and more. In fact, the more you get into it, you can even get to where you can start to identify actual patterns, like a lip smack or an “um” or an inhale. It makes me think of the movie The Matrix where they watch these green rows of characters scroll down the screen but are able to translate those in their minds into a park bench or a steak or… bacon.
Anyway, I don’t edit my current podcast very much but recently I was thinking about how difficult it would be to try to do any editing if the waveform was just a straight line.
If you were trying to find specific spot in an interview or conversation, the whole thing would look the same and it would make it very difficult.
That’s one of the reasons why the visual waveform is so powerful.
And the idea carries of over to your business as well.
So, I’ve talked before about the power of visual communication in the workplace.
It’s one of those things that I’m really wired for and passionate about.
The more visual you can make things, the easier for everyone to know a status or communicate in the same way.
This can be using project management tools that let you know what is due next, or conditional formatting (one of my favorite Excel features) in Excel to highlight cells that meet a certain criteria.
It could be clearly marking where physical things should go on your desk or on a manufacturing floor, so that if the space is empty or the wrong thing is there, you can see it without too much searching.
It can even be including a screenshot of a dashboard of an Excel file that is sent out to a large distribution list, allowing people who only need that basic information to get it without opening the file itself, while others can dig deeper if they’d like.
The key is to take some time to try to identify areas where either a lot of miscommunication is happening or if there unnecessary effort being put in to get answers to questions that could have been answered by more visual posting or communication in your organization.
I will keep coming back around to this one because I’ve seen what can happen over and over when miscommunication or not enough communication happens.
So, why not ask some of your team members today where they have seen miscommunication or extra work happening and let them get creative about how to solve it with visual communication.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
by Shawn | May 7, 2021 | Podcast
On today’s Ode to the Office episode, I’m paying tribute to our long-time companion, the Undo button.
I honestly don’t know what we’d do without… well… un-do. We’re so used to being able to make a mistake and just undo it.
We owe so much to this special function that has retrieved and revived and saved us from ourselves… time and time again.
And now, Ode to Undo
Ode to Undo
I’m not sure what we did before you came into our lives
It’s hard to think of how the world was then
Unable to recover losses even though we tried
We were lost and helpless, time and time again
But with one click of a button you erased away our fears
Or better put, you brought back what we lost
Deleted files or words or phrases, no longer brought us tears
You saved the day, no matter what it cost
So thank you undo button, you have been there through it all
Picking through the trash of our mistakes
And even though you cannot save us from a REPLY ALL
At least you give us hope for second takes
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. If you’ve got an idea for a future Ode to the Office episode, shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
