Bringing a myriad of resources to your table, we're unique in our approach to guiding you through issues. Myriad accesses not only the knowledge but also the skills and experience you need to acheive success. This page is dedicated to sharing with you some of our day to day learnings and tips for survival in today's office.
If you have anything you would like to share, please feel free to forward it to us at info@myriadconsulting.ca
The next couple of months are that time of year when we take some kind of break and re-charge. It is a time to enjoy family, have some fun and just relax. So to help you along with that, I am reminding you of “Ackerman’s 1 second rule”. Here is how it works:
• Do you find that you are constantly banging your shoulder as you head out the door in a rush to get somewhere?
• Are you constantly reaching behind to turn that light switch off as you leave a room?
• Are you always approaching that yellow light with the intention to beat it?
• Are you always finding yourself cutting people off while they talk to you so that you can get your next point in?
• Do you get impatient with waiting for someone crossing the street in front of you because they are walking too slowly?
• Do you find yourself rushed all the time?
Well here is one remedy that you might want to try – take that extra second to do everything you want to do. Instead of rushing through the door, take one more second and see how much a difference it makes. Slow down that impatience by just one second and you will be surprised how all of a sudden you are more relaxed.
I am not saying that this fixes all the things in our fast paced world but it will help- give it a try.
For those of you in the non-profit sector, I had a great book recommended to me the other day-
“A Guide to the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Volunteer Boards” by Doreen Pendracs. It is a good read and a helpful guide to those who are thinking of joining a volunteer Board.
I received this during the past month and thought that this would be a great piece for the newsletter. Too often we find ourselves buried in our work and we forget to give ourselves a break.
. . . Something To Think About . . .
THE SITUATION
In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
About 4 minutes later
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
At 6 minutes
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
At 10 minutes
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.
At 45 minutes
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
After 1 hour
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
This experiment raised several questions:
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?
A great book to read is “blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. It is about the power of think without thinking and on the value of using our “gut instincts” when making decisions.
Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting and hearing Peter Legge speak at a conference. If you don’t know Peter, he is an inspiration to anyone who meets him. In his most recent book, Make your life a Masterpiece, Peter says that we are all born with seeds of greatness but it is up to each one of us to manifest those seeds and achieve all that we are truly capable of.
Peter is the President of Canada Wide Magazines & Communication. He is the recipient of many awards for the work he has done in his community as well as in his professional life. If you too are a decision maker in your professional or personal life (so that means all of you,) you need to read his books.
There are three essential elements that Peter claims are contributing factors to the success of any business and they are:
1. Always be ready to adapt to changes in and around your industry – understanding that these may occur on a weekly basis.
2. Treat your staff with great respect. Empower them to succeed and then get out of the way.
3. Stay focused on what you do best and then build strong partnerships with complimentary organizations in your chosen profession to deliver an unbeatable product or service.
“A mind that has been stretched will never return to its original dimension”
Albert Einstein
Find a book that will help you to stretch your mind. Set a goal to read two per month. Make a list of the ones you want to read. Prepare yourself for a masterpiece of a life. You are the only thing standing in your way.
Winston Churchill once said “To every man there come in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour.”
March 2010 Newsletter
As I am writing this, we are all in the afterglow of the Olympics. The analysis has already begun and what I am hearing is that although the games had a rough start, they were a resounding success thanks to the entire team from the athletes to the volunteers.
So how would you company or organization size up against the Olympics? Do you start every day with the gold medal on your mind or are you already thinking of silver or bronze? Or do you get started every day thinking that I am going to do my best no matter what the result will be? To be successful, you need to do the latter and the results will speak for themselves. But to be there, we also have to invest in ourselves and our companies and that means personal and professional development. It means ensuring that your corporate attitude reflects your short and long term goals. It also means that everyone in the company or organization is working together with a good corporate attitude.
Have you taken the time to reflect on these things in the past year when many companies and organizations are facing challenges in these economic times? If so, you might want to give that some thought. I attended a conference in Grande Prairie recently and was privileged to listen to a number of speakers who provide us with some though provoking quotes. Included in this group were David Emerson, Dan Gardner and Arlene Dickinson (The Dragon’s Den). Here are some of their quotes:
1. “We need to be constantly thinking globally if we are to succeed.”2. “I know that I am bound to be wrong and therefore am more likely to correct my mistakes. “- George Soros
3. Arlene Dickinson:
a. “ A life spent making mistakes is better than a life doing nothing” b. “ We need to put a stake in the ground and then reserve the right to get smarter”
c. “Life is a journey, not a destination”
d. “ People are important, companies are not”
e. “You are the brand of your company or organization”
Can your organization or company measure up to these words of wisdom?
February 2010 Newsletter
I was recently asked a very good questions concerning marketing your business or organization. It had to do with that “elevator thing”.
The “elevator pitch” as it is known is something that describes your business, service or market within 5-8 seconds. About the length of time you would spend meeting someone new in an elevator.
There are a lot of ways to market your business or organization but one of the most effective ways is to develop your “elevator pitch”. Imagine yourself at the upcoming Tradeshow or Energy Conference. You are out there busy networking and promoting your business but how often have people asked you what you or your organization does and you either a. go on for 20 minutes giving a detailed description of the company, its services and personnel or b. draw a blank and miss an opportunity? Well, here is a surprise, even if you nailed everything in the 20 minutes, you lost them after the 8 second mark. There is a way too much to distract them!
What would be some key aspects of a good elevator pitch? Here are a few:
• A short but concise description of what you do. Make it very easy to understand.
• Important facts about your business or your organization. Examples are:
“ We focus on business management practices and specialize in assisting companies to merge with others.”
o Our organization services 1000 clients per month and provides specialized services for parents struggling with literacy”.
Practice in the mirror and remember that practice makes perfect so continue to practice and refine your pitch. Ask for some healthy feedback from your spouse or staff. Tell them you need to be the best you can. Consider your body language too, where are your hands; are you smiling or scowling? The key here is to have that pitch for any elevator taking you another level in your business.
The business card is one tool for establishing relationships that are important to your business or organization. Have you taken a good look at your business card lately? Some good questions to ask yourself are:
• What does it say about your company or organization? A business card should tell a potential client or business contact what you do in very few words. This could be the Vision or Mission of your organization or the tag line of your company.
• Do you have a logo and is it meaningful? There are many very attractive logos out there that say a lot about what the business or organization does. Don’t hesitate to explain it. That is sometimes the ice breaker that you need to get their attention.
• Is the card colourful in a way that attracts attention? Colour is very important. Try to stay away from all dark colours. Many card scanners do not scan those colours well.
• Keep the font clean and simple enough that it can be read by anyone even in a dimly lit room at an evening function.
• Is your card too busy so that your contact information is lost in all of the words, etc.? Keep it as simple as possible and don’t be afraid to use both sides of the card.
And of course all of this is lost if you do not carry your cards with you or you don’t have a backup supply in your briefcase or computer bag. There are some very stylish and functional card holders that can keep the cards crisp and clean. Remember, a trip to the hardware store can result in an important contact that you meet while in there.
And of course the presentation of the card will depend on the culture. If you are travelling abroad, take the time to learn about the culture – it will make or break your entire trip.
My friend Howard Olsen advises that the presentation of your business card should be with both hands with the card facing the reader. This allows the person to remember who they have just been introduced to and it is also a sign of respect in many cultures to present with both hands.
Darcy Rezac, Managing Director of the Vancouver Board of Trade and co-author of “Work the Pond” will tell you to ensure that you have no less than 8 cards (enough for everyone sitting at a table with you) in your left pocket. As you are shaking hands, you can present one with your left. This with your name tag high and on the right will reinforce your name.
Remember the old adage, dress for the job you want not the job you have, your card is you so make sure it represents you in a professional way and practice presenting it
January 2010 Newsletter
The New Year is historically a time to renew some of those commitments you made to yourself and to review how to move forward from here. Now this may mean that you start from the beginning because the trouble with most New Year’s resolutions is that they are short lived. Usually because so many of them are made on the spur of the moment and there is really no strategic thinking down or follow through.
Planning for your future is no different than a large corporation planning for its. You need to look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Be honest about them. You will only be fooling yourself. Then your opportunity to create a viable and focused plan for your future will become easier.
This year Lori and I are developing strategic plans to help us grow individually and as a couple and this will ultimately resulting in Myriad’s growth. In general, take a holistic look at life, respecting all our commitments. So what types of things might you consider in a personal plan? Let’s take a look.
• Focus on the positive: Sometimes the path of least resistance is the low road. Don’t take it! You may wonder why there is apathy in the world? What is it we are teaching our children and grandchildren. Many people create a “gratitude list” to assist them with this focus then list those positive things that you want to concentrate on and develop a plan to do that.
• Time for family and friends: How about strengthening those family ties and reconnecting with your friends. Respect that your children need to develop their own healthy relationships outside of the family.
• Take more time for yourself (yourselves). How often during the day do you take a short time out just for yourself? Schedule it in if necessary. How about some time once a week for a movie, coffee, reconnecting with friends, etc.? Put those holiday plans in your calendar right now and that includes such things as going camping. If you put it on the calendar, it becomes a commitment.
• Slow down: How often have you had to stop and step back to turn out the lights as you are rushing out the door as opposed to walking a bit slower and getting those light switches on the way out? One or two seconds slower and you can accomplish all you have to in the day.
• Smile: This is good therapy for both yourself and those around you.
• More patience: With everyone, those you love and care about, the world in general. So what if you miss that green light and you have to wait all of another 3 minutes for the next one. Use that time to relax a bit. Have you ever noticed that shortly after people go flying by you on the highway, you catch up to them? They saved themselves all of about a minute or so and could have possibly put themselves in danger while passing you. Have you done the same thing?
• Get more rest: Many of us go to bed too late. That leaves us with less sleep than we need and it is just not healthy in the long run.
• Do a good turn for someone every day: Sound like the Scout motto? Well it is and why not? It is contagious. Pay it forward.
• Say thank you: We don’t do this enough. The world is full of critics and people need to know that they are appreciated for all of what they do. Just a simple “thank you” works really well. Take the time and see the results.
• Your health: Are you looking after yourself and up to date on medical exams? Are you putting any off that you have “heard” about and don’t want to do? Well in the words of Lori when she was in for a test and the young radiology technician was apologizing for the discomfort of the test and the temperature of the machine, “The pain I may feel right now for these few moments is miniscule in comparison to the pain that I would suffer if something were to go undetected so let’s just get it done.” Then smile and say thank you. Those technicians didn’t invent those examinations; they just do them for those of us getting older. And don’t forget to exercise. A 30 minute walk every day will do wonders for yourself.
As with all strategic plans, set out your goals and objectives and make them realistic and set a timeline. Of course you need to write them down and keep them handy. Review them every month or as each timeline dictates to monitor how you are doing. It will also make you smile at how much you have really accomplished. Think of how you can celebrate the end of 2010! Mission accomplished!
So what does this have to do with business? Everything! A happy and positive person makes for a more productive individual and workplace so encourage your employees and colleagues!
Try it and see. Have a great January.
Andy Ackerman
Have you considered:
- Color coding projects
- Taking time at the end of every day to file things away and organize your desk for the next day
- In a time crunch? How about going on a "need to know" diet - turn off the radio; have one day of no emails; have one day of no phones.
- Do something to keep your brain active, take a course; read; or do puzzles.
Looking to increase your customers?
- Host events to showcase your services
- Add value for your customers - that extra bit goes a long way.
- Get their permission to use their quotes on your webpage.
Looking for a good book to read?
- The Business of Kindness by Olivia McIvor
- The World is Flat, Version 2.0 by Thomas Friedman
- Values Shift by John Izzo. Ph.D. and Pam Withers
- Your Roles and Responsibilities as a Board Member by John Carver and Miriam Mayhew Carver
- The Perfect Board by Calvin K. Clemons
