It’s a new calendar year and, as at the time of writing this, “all of a sudden” 7 percent of it has gone.
We took some time out on the proverbial “charger” during January, as many people do, which was excellent. If you’ve done something similar I’m sure you will be familiar with what appears to be a “mountain of washing” when you get home. We had one.
Into the washing machine the first load went. About two thirds of the way through the cycle it stopped. Error message and alarm beeping.
Simple solution we thought; turn it off at the wall, reset it and try again. Same result.
Perhaps, we thought ( without of course consulting the operating manual or googling the issue), simply resetting the machine without turning it off and back on at the wall might do the trick. It didn’t.
Does this series of events sound familiar so far?
Being inventive we thought “let’s try it on a different cycle”. Same result. It stopped two thirds of the way through with the now familiar error message and alarm beeping.
We did however, in a need to extract the now well washed clothes, discover that the short Spin/Drain cycle worked where the longer cycles did not.
After a call to the appropriate people a capable and knowledgable man arrived, diagnosed the issue in about 30 seconds and had it sorted in about 15 minutes. There was something partially blocking the outlet. It could cope with a short effort but not a long one.
Could I have fixed it myself if I read the manual or googled it? Possibly. Did I have the right tools to do that. Absolutely not!
I’ve heard it said, and said it myself; “there is a seminar in every event in life”.
I think often people, and teams, are like that washing machine.
When we have had a break and we have a lot to do on our return, we can start off well but we are not always able to finish. Or we can do small parts of the task at hand but not the whole thing.
A simple intervention from someone who has knowledge and experience can usually quickly point us in the right direction and we are up and running again. Without that intervention there can be frustration, poor or inferior performance and a lack of results.
As the year kicks into gear perhaps a self review is a good idea? Maybe a session around your Team’s Values and Culture or a Sales refresher would help everyone get focused again? If you have the people and tools around you to do that then I encourage you to do it. If you think you might need some assistance then I might just be able to help!
Have a great 2018. May your “washing machine” work well all year!
