It was another weekend of purging old mementos at the homestead, and the only thing my mother's house had more of than mothballs was hangers. We had a proliferation of them -- three garbage bags full and counting. Apparently the donation centers have their fill of them as well, as hangers are on the list of items that are not accepted in their pickups. Unless someone has ideas for a large-scale wire art project, I'm afraid they are landfill bound.
As a society, we have made great progress in reducing the demand for plastic bags. Why could we not have similar incentives to stop the wasteful supply chain for hangers? Stores, dry cleaners and resale outlets could offer incentives for hanger return. Just as you now often receive a discount for bringing your own bag, you could save a few cents by putting last week's hangers in with this week's laundry service. Stores could revert to the sturdy wooden hangers that were reused for generations. We could stop selling those trendy plastic hangers that line almost every dorm room closet in America and make the trusty metal ones a hip/vintage, in-demand item again.
The hanger used to be a standby staple for fishing open the locks that were closed on the car door by mistake or for crafting an emergency set of rabbit ears for the television. With their secondary use market gone, and more clothes sold on hanger-filled racks in big stores instead of lovingly folded on shelves in the boutiques or hand-crafted at home, there are more of them around than ever.
Just like the theme of most entries on this blog, little things add up to make a big difference. Little steps in reduction of waste and consumption can have a meaningful impact. Let it start with you.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
There was an article in USA Today yesterday commenting on the decline in use of voice mail. Many users considered the retrieval of voice mail to be "a chore" and as a result callers are resorting to email or text as the preferred vehicle for leaving messages. In my opinion: hurray!
Voice mail has become like a landline for me -- it is reliable and dependable, but it is also logistically cumbersome. Just yesterday my sister left a voice mail on my cell phone. In contrast to most people today, I am not tethered to my phone. Unlike the unobtrusiveness of a man clipping it to his belt, I was wearing a dress and would have had to carry it around. I did not. So I did not receive her important message until evening and it may result in six hours of driving for me to do what she could have done if I had received her request.
Had she emailed instead, I would have seen it at multiple points during the day on my computer or iPad. Had she called my voice mail at work, I would have received an email message on my computer or iPad. (Ironically, I would still have to go through all the prompts to delete it from my physical phone so it loses points there!)
For many, email is as slow and bulky as voice mail is for me. They would much prefer the instantaneous, mobile accessibility of texts. There are others who have no email access during the day, so a phone message is much preferred. Many medical records and documents are still delivered by fax, and that method works well for the involved parties.
It used to be miraculous to be able to communicate across distances at all, and now we are all wanting our messages to be faster and delivered to us through the vehicle of choice. When you craft your message for delivery, even when it is only to another individual, consider whether your words should be recorded, texted, emailed or faxed. As the venerable media analyst Marshall McLuhan said in the 1960s: "The medium is the message." It applies today as well.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
We have interviewed several candidates lately and when asked what they would like in a supervisor, all of them say "someone who doesn't micromanage". It occurs to me lately what a fine line that is. How do you balance being the brand evangelist for your organization without micromanaging?
Leaders know that everything matters when creating or preserving your brand: e.g. handwritten signs, staff apparel, how the phone is answered, appearance of offices and publications. If a leader sees a detail that is out of sync with the impression or standard of quality that she is trying to establish, the natural tendency is to say or do something about it. And soon it feels like the leader is immersed in minutiae instead of focusing on the big picture or execution of strategic initiatives.
As someone who often finds myself seeing the details, it is hard to know when to comment about what I observe or whether to stay out of it and let it go. I often try to reconcile this internal tension by pointing out what I saw, without directly prescribing the solution to fix it. I lead discussions about the ideal state, and let people use their own observations to notice what is out of sync. I hold "lessons learned" evaluation meetings where groups can provide feedback-without-blame to improve details in future years. And, yes, I have been known to just tend to a few things myself.
I try to have my efforts as a leader focus on the impact of the details rather than the precision of how to execute them. Maybe that could be called micro-leading? I hope my potential staff would approve.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
The different between man and beast at my house revolves around delayed gratification. My dogs don't know how to save; they live in a world of "NOW".
> They wake up at 3am after a nice "nap" and don't know how to save their energy until morning.
> They have the day's treats devoured before I am out of the driveway because they don't know how to save them for more than a nanosecond after they get them.
> They barrel me over with affection as soon as I walk in because they can't save their love until I am fully inside the kitchen.
Obviously there is a distinction in our cognitive functioning, but often it comes down to how long I am able to wait for things. I wonder if we would be better off in our working environment if we did a little more waiting. Taking time to think through things and getting input from others before jumping in with a decision. Saving our resources until we have enough of them to truly do the project as we want it done. Holding back on our emotional response until some time has passed.
The world is moving fast and it often beckons for the effusive enthusiasm of my goldens. Many times this gusto is embraced in organizations and speed produces results. But often the best moment is when all is quiet and the dogs are curled up at your feet. Some things are worth the wait.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
Why does the speedometer on my car show to 160 mph when even half of that is speeding in all 50 states? Why does the tachometer display through 8 rpms when even 5 feels like I'm in a rocket ready for take off?
I fear that we have this obsession with "more". It looks better if we have more potential on the speedometer than we use, as if putting on the numbers means that the car could go that fast. It looks better if a company's website lists thousands and thousands of products, even though it only sells a few hundred different items. Universities list courses in their academic catalog that haven't been offered in years. Lists of bank fees outline obscure services that are likely never used, but portray them as a more comprehensive financial institution.
More is not always better. Don't fall into the temptation to hype your product or offerings beyond what is reasonably used. It just clutters what we truly use and value.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
A student employee was asked to cover the lunch shift of our Welcome Desk receptionist. "I can cover until 12:55," he replied. "I have a 1pm class and walking in late to that is like walking into an active volcano."
It is Week 1 of classes, but obviously this professor had established clear boundaries and expectations for behavior. The same principles were described by Danny Meyer in his book Setting the Table. Meyer likened supervision to keeping a salt shaker in the center of the table (i.e. setting expectations of desired action). Customers continually moved it (i.e. tested expectations). The job of the leader was to continually put the salt shaker back to the center through "constant, gentle pressure" about why it was important to be there.
Even if leaders set clear expectations, over time they will be abandoned without continual resetting and articulating the consequences for even a little variance. Coming to class at 1:02 becomes 1:05 and then 1:10. Some leaders believe it is easier to let minor transgressions slip, but by allowing the salt shaker to "scoot" a little each time it will invariably fall off the table altogether.
Think about what the salt shaker represents for you and take care to honor it -- over and over again.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
It's rare that I am "wow-ed" during a service experience, but I was yesterday. For the last six years I have been impressed with my Bose SoundDock, so when I broke it last weekend, I knew I would replace it.
From the moment I dialed the number at Bose, the tone was different than most calls. A man with a radio-quality voice welcomed me and said "to continue our tradition of service excellence, this call may be monitored." There was no wait. The phone tree had two choices and then a very helpful man answered.
Long story as to why, but unfortunately I was one of those complicated callers. I had to change the order. I changed my email address twice. I changed credit cards. I changed colors. I changed the shipping address. And never once did he get annoyed. "Not a problem, Miss" was his favorite line.
Bose sent me a pre-paid UPS label to ship my broken dock back to them, and as soon as the tracking number hits the system that it is en route, a brand new one (at the same price as a repair) will be sent to me. How many service enterprises have that level of trust?
Yesterday, they did continue their tradition of service excellence and made me wonder what my organization could learn from the experience. There was no delay. There was no informal language like "ok"; the manners were as impeccable as the service. They seemed happy to try and please me even when I requested multiple changes and had complications outside of the norm.
My experience exemplified the Bose brand of delivering their "acclaimed performance" -- in product and service. If someone called your organization, would they leave feeling the same way?
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
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