I've been pledging to myself the last few weeks to attain and maintain a higher level of overall positivity. While this is absolutely relevent to my personal life, as well, as it pertains to what I'm sharing now, this is specific to my life at work.
My job is rooted in the interaction with other people. If there was simply ONE word to describe what I do - not my job
title, but rather my
actual job - it would be the word
people. People of just about every calibur cross my desk or my phone line in the course of just a single day, for a list of reasons I wouldn't even want to begin detailing. There are moments that drive me to what I often think to be the end of my wit, but more frequently there are floods of gratification to be had from the fruit of my labor. Correction,
our labor.
I am part of a machine which, at times, has had broken pieces, mis-calibrated gears, and of course, days during which it seems to be completely out of commission all together. Like every good office, the most productive days can only be measured agains the comparative scale of menial and tedious crap through which we march day in and day out in search of success. Without divulging unecessary detail, I'll simply say that most recently, the overall functionality of my work-life has taken some dramatic leaps both down, up, down, and back up, and I'm proud to be part of what seems to be a stretch of improvement.
Again, even in the realm of internal functioning
, people have just about 98% of the determining power as to whether or not any collective endeavor will be effective in its originally intended form. [That other 2%? I'm convinced it's failed technology.] Well, as it so happens, I work with a group of
people, with whom I've seen good, bad, ugly, and everything in between. I will consider them my
work family, simply because we do in fact spend a third of the hours in a work-day week hanging out in the same office. That's
more than enough time to experience the way a person is wired and how they can contribute to an overall effort.
ALL of that being said, we allotted a portion of today to
Office Training, with Wendy- a gal who used to work on the corporate side of my company, conducting training for all the newbs [such as myself, a few years back] and consulting for the franchise owners and developers. She's pretty awesome. Her passion now is consulting, and that's probably what landed her in our hands for an hour today.
Kids, I'm a skeptical person, slightly by nature but more subliminally by experience. When it comes to anything formatted as a "formal group exercise," I'm unfortunately
that person that needs to be sold on it within the first few points in order to absorb its content. Well, I already like Wendy from previous encounters, so I had no doubt walking into this that it would be worth it.
Good call, Cori! :)
Wendy wasted no time digging right in - deep, but with a goal no more zealous than to identify the exact fundamentals that drive our process. I was pleasantly surprised. I'll spare the more involved details, but I eventually wanted to share this with the world, because I'm
sold.... that it's beneficial.
 |
| "daily gratitudes" |
May I introduce: Daily Gratitudes.
Nothin' like starting from scratch.
The assignment is this: Moving forward, each day, take 5 minutes before and after the day passes to answer those questions, and see if it doesn't start to make a difference.
Sure, it's kiiiind of "
woo woo" things, as Wendy coins them, meaning they're a little cheesy in both theory
and presentation, but that's not to void their effectiveness. I get it, it's a little elementary, but past face value [I took my first go at it this afternoon] it's actually kind of neat. My brain functions consciously on the most recent information to pass through it, so keeping a running and constantly-revised draft of this at the forefront of my brain has been helpful.
Example 2:
Identify any given group of people, issues, or functions in your day-to-day routine, and then list, in no particular order, any and all one-word descriptions that would encompass that person, issue, or function. For instance, we used, "
associates," referring to the group of people who are either current or prospective employees of ours. There was a vast,
vast range of adjectives in that regard, and rightfully so, on both spectrums. Once we'd poured out enough honesty to hold us for a while, we were instructed to review the list and cross off all the derogatory descriptors. After that, make a committment to refrain from using any/all negatives, while simultaneously focusing on only building from the positives.
Reality check.
Like I said, totally basic, totally applicable, and above all, totally
doable theories.
I didn't realize how much I would appreciate Wendy's visit today, but as it looks right now, I think I'll be consulting that consultant on a frequent basis.
And... I'm encouraged. I needed an extra little pick-me-up, and that was it. Thanks, Wendy :).
Welp, Mo was here earlier and will be back again after TeamKid; I suppose I'd better get to packing for the weekend before she gets back... one more day at work before it's O-H... I-O! bound!
I. Can't. Wait.
xo |
cmd
