by Shawn | Apr 19, 2021 | Podcast
Today, we’re going to have a little fun and this episode is going to be a little bit longer than normal. Today, we’re going to talk about the workforce solution you didn’t know you needed.
Right now, as you hear this very sentence, there is a business office that is struggling. Maybe it’s yours.
You’re struggling to find the right team member. You’re looking for someone with confidence, curiosity and determination who can come in and transform the way you do business.
Meanwhile, across the country (or maybe just around the corner), there is a young mom of a toddler that is also struggling.
She is struggling with the tiny human that has come in and turned her life upside down… both with his cuteness that melts her heart and with his insatiable appetite for destruction that melts her energy and hope.
COINCIDENCE?
It’s not hard to look at these two situations and see that there is a perfect solution for both parties staring us, defiantly and with a little jam smeared on his cheek, right in our face.
What if?
What if that toddler is exactly the kind of worker that your office needs?
And what if the toddler being out of the house is exactly what that young mom needs right now?
I’d like to propose 3 reasons why the toddler would be a great fit for any office… and 1 reason why they wouldn’t
1. TODDLERS ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS
The very thing that drives every parent of a young one crazy is the exact same skill set that is missing in so many workplaces.
They’re willing to ask “Why?”
It’s the power of asking questions that is so often missing in our current workforce.
Good questions are preferred, but in this day and age, any questions will be accepted.
We live in a world where fewer and fewer people know how to dig deeper, to do a little investigative work or to solve a problem or come up with something new.
Often, when encountering a roadblock or just a tedious task, typical employees just rely on their own personal Google (read “supervisor”) to solve everything for them.
Rather than ask “why didn’t that work?” or “why do we do things this way?” or “what would happen if…?”, they just plod through and try to get things done, inefficiently or not at all.
But that toddler… oh man… what that little boy could do for that office.
From day, one he’d stagger in there, look around and start firing off “Whys” like bullets from his pint-sized six-shooter.
“Billy, you need to fill out a PRN before you can do the TFSP, but you need to use that computer there…” “Why?”
“Billy, that’s just the way we’ve always done it…” “Why?”
“Billy, you can’t just eat the sugar right out of the packets…” “Why?”
A toddler would be that disruptive force that would bring about real change by questioning the status quo and allowing people to re-imagine what their work could be like.
He would be awesome.
2. TODDLERS ARE WILLING TO SAY NO
If asking “Why” is a toddler’s peanut butter, then loudly proclaiming “No” is their jelly.
Like a 25 pound prize fighter, “No” is like their upper cut to their question-asking jabs. “Why, why, why….NO!”
Knockout.
One skill that can be hard to master for most people in the workplace is this very ability to say “no”.
We all want to be helpful, to go the extra mile, to do our part.
But along the way we add on extra tasks to an already full plate, thinking that we can do it all.
Or we agree to a deadline that we know we can’t meet to try to make someone happy or to look good in their eyes.
But too often all of this leads to the opposite. Deadlines get missed, workers get stressed, the workload falls off the overloaded plate and onto the floor.
And that’s where the toddler comes in.
First, they will eat that workload straight off the dirty floor because that’s what they do.
But then, they will begin to do one of the things that they do best. Say “No”.
They’ve been practicing this skill since they could first speak the word….
“Billy, let’s get your shoes on…” “No!”
“Billy, stop throwing spaghetti on the wall…” “No!”
“Billy, it’s time to go to bed…” “No!”
Drop Billy into that office and he’d have no problem working efficiently and staying focused and on-time.
“Billy, I know you’re trying to finish the Miller project, but can you give me a hand with this?…” “No!”
“Billy, I need you to come to this two hour meeting where we’re going to plan out what we’re going to discuss in our four hour meeting next week…” “No!”
“Billy, we just had to order another case of glue because you ate the last one. We need you to stop…” “No!”
Billy would be the “Noer” that you’ve needed in your organization, to
Billy would rock that.
3. TODDLERS ARE PERSISTENT
Often our greatest breakthroughs come right after we’re about to give up… but don’t.
Unfortunately, many workplaces like yours can struggle to build that into the culture. To not give up when things get tough.
That’s when the best ideas often come — when we’ve exhausted the “logical” solutions or feel like there just isn’t a solution at all.
That’s when innovation dips into our decisions, our conversations, our meetings and when change truly happens.
When that persistence is missing, things just stay the same, productivity slowly takes a nose dive and companies aren’t as able to offer their best to their customers.
But where can you get someone with that kind of “not-back-down” attitude?
Enter our little friend the toddler.
Toddlers have a will like no other and will keep banging against that wall until it comes down or they get what they want.
They’ve never met a roadblock that they didn’t think they could get past.
Drop them into your office and sick them on your toughest project and they will push and strain and plug away until it gets done.
Barriers, rejection and resistance just seem to melt in the wake of the determined toddler.
They will get their way. And if you can get them on board with your company’s mission, they will wear down anything that opposes them.
Just ask anyone in your office who has ever had a toddler taking up residence in their house, or holding a standoff in the busiest part of the mall… or at bedtime.
Yep, toddlers have exactly the type of “don’t give up” attitude that is needed today to keep your team and initiatives moving in the right direction.
Okay, so, even though toddlers bring with them these three awesome strengths, there is still one big drawback:
TODDLERS ARE MESSY
I’m not exactly sure how to put this, but toddlers like destruction.
Imagine a tornado meeting an earthquake and having a baby. A literal baby.
Unleash that offspring into your office and within minutes every drawer will be ransacked, every door opened, office supplies everywhere, plugs unplugged coffee spilled, and more….
That new little teammate will jump from one crime scene to the next, giggling all the way.
Oh, your vendor brought in donuts? Oh, I think you meant sugar-coated, smashed up floor pucks.
New box of paper clips? Wonder how many can he stick into your USB ports at once.
New cartridge of ink toner? I won’t even describe what’s about to happen there.
You get the picture.
If you can survive the mass destruction and weather that storm, the upsides will far outweigh the mess. I think.
Well, there are still some barriers to all this. Child labor laws, ADA for toddlers in the workplace, purchasing all shatterproof equipment.
But, boy, once those are in place, just find your nearest frazzled toddler parent and you’ve got your next great employee ready to come in and make things happen.
Just make sure you get stocked up on the Cheerios first.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love to hear from you. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 16, 2021 | Podcast
Today’s episode is a public service announcement that it’s OK to make work and your workplace fun.
I’m hereby giving you permission to have fun in your emails or your meetings. To add some laughter to your powerpoints and charts. To liven things up even while staying focused on the tasks at hand.
Because, honestly, I believe you’ll get more done and have more motivated people in the long run.
Now, personally, this is a big one for me. I usually have to try to reign myself in because I often have something humorous to add in a meeting that half of the time just might not be appropriate or necessary.
But it’s OK to add in that humor, to make light of what can be stressful things at work.
No one is meant to just carry a load and trudge through the hours each day and be super serious about everything.
So, have some fun with your team and your organization. Be the spice that brings some flavor to the daily work grind.
It’s OK.
Tell a joke. Play a prank. Make a funny video. Write an ode. Leave a humorous note for your coworker who often forgets their tea mug in the microwave, written by their mug, saying that you knew they would come back for you. You know, just some random suggestions here.
Whatever it is for you, bring some new life to your work and let others know it’s OK to have fun. Work can be fun… if you make it.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 14, 2021 | Podcast
“Spiderperson!” he shouted from across the office.
I can still picture it, even all these years later.
I was standing up in my cubicle looking over across the vast cube walls to the far side of the room as our HR director passed through, saw me and called out his nickname for me.
I laughed, partly because of the name, but also because it didn’t seem to matter to him that I was most of the way on the other side of the large office. He was still going to give me a shout out.
To give a little background, I played pick-up basketball with our company and earned the name spiderman for my ability to… actually I can’t quite remember why, other than I was quick and could get to the basket with the ball.
Somehow or other, the name spiderman came about.
And from there, our HR guy Matt decided that I would be a more general “spiderperson”
And on that day, as he did quite often while passing through on the far side of the office, he said hi or gave a shout-out to anyone he saw peeking their heads above the cube walls. It didn’t matter if they were a few feet away or on the other side of the room.
What he didn’t know was that, for me, that really meant a lot. As one of the newer guys there, to get a shout out from Matt made me feel valued and one of the team.
I say all of this to challenge you as a business leader to make the extra effort to help your team members feel included and valued. Even if it means something kind of crazy like having a conversation across a busy office with a single person.
Maybe you have a person or two in mind that could use that kind of a connection with you. Look for ways to give them a little boost or find a fun nickname for them.
Then shout it out across the office for all to hear… just like Matt did all those years ago.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 13, 2021 | Podcast
Back in episode 23 we talked about an app called Evernote that is a great tool for not only collecting and finding notes but has a ton of other uses as well. If you haven’t tried it yet, do a quick search and try it out.
On today’s Tech Tuesday, we’re going to take a look at a slick, cross platform task management tool called Trello.
Like Evernote, Trello is one that I’ve been using for years and still use here and there.
I love it because, again, it is cross platform and lets me enter, modify or retrieve my task info from my computer, phone or wherever.
So, what is Trello.
At it’s core, Trello organizes tasks inside Boards and then grouped by Lists.
A board might be a certain department or area or product line of your business (say Customer Success or Accounting or Manufacturing).
So, when you select a board, picture that board being like a cork bulletin board, filling your screen.
Then, on the board are a series of vertical tiles called lists. These can be for specific sub-areas within the main area. Or they could be each tied to a status of specific tasks for that board.
Each of these lists can be clicked and dragged to wherever you want them.
And then on each list are the tasks. Trello calls them cards. The same is true with the cards. They can be clicked and dragged, edited, whatever.
And you can add labels to cards to tie things together easily.
So, let’s say you have a board for a specific project.
And on that board your lists are titled “Not Started”, “In Process”, “Waiting” and “Complete”.
You would create all your cards (or copy from a template) in the Not Started list and then as they change status you can drag them onto the appropriate list.
Meanwhile, you can use the tags to connect items by type or category, you can assign due dates, add attachments or notes, add sub checklists, whatever.
And on top of all that, you can share boards with other people and assign specific tasks within the group.
It’s so clean and easy to use, is just as easy on a phone as a computer, and is just a great way to track things.
If you haven’t tried Trello yet, check it out at trello.com today.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 12, 2021 | Podcast
Slow motion video seems to be more and more popular as time goes on.
It seems that everywhere you look, you can catch some phenomenal feat happening in frame-by-frame action.
Maybe it’s someone jumping from one building to another and impossibly landing right on a ledge before rolling to safety.
Or a perfectly placed volleyball floating up in space right before a player rises up behind it to crush it to the floor.
Or an arrow being shot through colored water balloons that seem to explode in a way that we never could have seen in real time.
When the action is slowed down, we not only have a greater appreciation for what is happening. We also are able to see things that we would have missed before.
That’s one of the reasons why slowing down is a great problem-solving tool.
This can really apply anywhere, but I’ve especially seen it play out in manufacturing. Over and over again.
For example, the problem as it looks to the naked eye might be that a machine is erratically acting up and not doing what it’s supposed to.
On the surface, watching in real time, this does indeed seem to be the case. There isn’t any apparent rhyme or reason to it. It just seems to happen in no particular pattern.
But when you slow it down, that’s when the magic can happen.
Especially when you couple slowing down with zooming in.
I use these two together often. And what happens is that what couldn’t see because it was too fast or to small suddenly makes sense.
With the machine we mentioned earlier, when we took video and slowed down and zoomed in we noticed that one of the pieces wasn’t able to fully drop into place every time. And it was because one of the guides was loose.
I never could have seen that otherwise and would have wasted valuable hours and manpower to try to fix something with a solution that wasn’t addressing the root cause.
And you can apply this too, no matter your situation. If one of your processes isn’t giving you the results you are looking for, especially if it’s erratic, try zooming in, slowing down, taking it frame-by-frame.
It could be an issue with some coding in a program. Or an automated sequence in your email system. Maybe it’s a communication or instructional issue.
Whatever it is for you, it’s worth the time to walk it through slowly and zoom in to the details. That’s when you can find that one thing that is wreaking all the havoc.
And when you’ve solved the problem, you have my permission to capture a slow motion victory dance to share with the world.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love to know what you find out as you slow down and zoom in. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
