I once had a baseball coach who insisted, in all seriousness, that ground balls should be fielded “the Army way, by the numbers: 1) knock it down; 2) pick it up; 3) throw it.”
That’s not exactly the way Cal Ripken would teach it, but it always stuck with me (and in the heat of the moment, it actually came in handy a few times). Things presented in list form can have that effect, which explains why “The Book of Lists” and David Letterman’s Top 10 Lists have become such often-imitated phenomenons.
In the business and management worlds, though, lists tend to repeat the same tired old pablum (“know your customer,” “communicate effectively,” etc.). But I recently ran across a couple with some interesting twists. Since I know many of you like to start or end staff meetings with quotations or other forms of memorable, instructional and/or inspirational thought, I thought these might prove useful for stimulating some different types of discussion:
1) Stop being a control freak (five sets of hands will always get more done than one)
2) Strive for incremental improvement (start small and build on early successes; quickly dump the stuff that doesn’t work)
3) Think about a problem the last thing at night (you’ll harness your subconscious to work on it)
4) Treat computer systems like a critical factory line (if you don’t back them up or maintain them, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be shut down and in a production crisis)
5) Make yourself be your own accountant (schedule a regular time to give your numbers a self-audit)
Five Possible Problems with “Perfect” Employees (taken from an article by Ken Burgin on hotelnewsresource.com):
1) Will they burn out by taking on too much? (work-life balance should be a goal for all staff)
2) Are they good because everything else is bad? (sometimes “super staff” is needed because a system is faulty or chaotic)
3) Could they actually do damage to morale? (solid “B team” workers who just don’t share or exhibit the same over-the-top enthusiasm can come to resent the do-gooders)
4) Are they doing a ton of shifts to hide something? (the reason behind why they want or need to work so much may be none of your business—until it becomes your problem)
5) How can we defend against someone else stealing them? (stressing the advantages of your club’s reputation, work environment or solid standing now can help protect against a dazzling offer that you won’t be able to match)
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