How beautiful are Manuel Bandeira‘s (Brazilian poet) words about a flowing river:
To be like a flowing river silent through the night, not fearing the darkness and reflecting any stars high in the sky.
And if the sky is filled with clouds, the clouds are water like the river, so without remorse reflect them too.
The flowing Illecillewaet River in BC, Canada.
Personally, I love these words. We often have the tendency to ‘fight’ against something or to ‘try harder’. When the water [in the river] comes across obstacles, like rocks, it smoothly flows around them in stead of trying to push the rocks on the side. Birds never try hard to sing, they just sing, and flowers never try hard to bloom, they just bloom. That’s the law of nature, or existence if you like. And we’re part of that. No, we ARE that! How perfect is this?
Maybe it’s worth trying to literally ‘go with the flow’. Pretty soon you will find that it’s not a matter of ‘trying’ anymore. Please let me know how this feels to you.
That sounds like a no-brainer to me. Like ‘the Bike helmet law’ is a no-brainer (but that’s a funny one when you think about it). My personal experience is that ‘do it right’, or ‘on purpose’ if you like, is not so much part of our culture these days. If you ask me ‘why’, then my answer is simple; ‘we are not proud of what we are doing anymore’.
Steve Jobs was always passionate and proud of what he was doing
Quality professionals know the importance of the phenomenon ‘do it right the first time’. And they often develop complex theories about this subject. We love to make things complex.
It’s not just a ‘quality issue’, as damage repair is usually more expensive than the cost of the original process. Japanese companies like Toyota follow the Kaizen principle and are highly successful with this. The word Kaizen means “continuous improvement”. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. In most cases these are not ideas for major changes. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness. And that adds up when you think about it.
Tourism is not any different I am the co-owner of a receptive (incoming) tour operator in British Columbia. This means that we buy products and services, package them in a smart and consumer-ready-for-consumption way. We sell these travel packages to travel agents in Europe. So we’re right in the middle between the suppliers and the travel agents. Managing a smooth process here is key for the success of our business. I often like to tell our people that ‘the magic is in the process’. Although we can have full control over our internal processes, we won’t be able to manage our partner’s processes and work ethics. But I can tell you, there is lots of room for improvement.
Caring If you are proud of what you’re doing, whatever this is, it also means that you care. That you are passionate and doing things on purpose and not merely see it as ‘chores’ that come with the job. Actually, I don’t care so much about the cause, nor do I buy excuses like ‘this fast paced, ever changing world often outsmarts us’. We ARE the world and therefore we can’t outsmart ourselves. I rather concentrate on changing our personal belief system. Passion and caring is something that comes from the inside. From the heart. For some this comes completely natural. But you can also learn it. And it’s fun!
It’s never embarrassing to be passionate about what you do
Pain & Pleasure We as human beings are so transparent and so easy to fool. Everything that we do, every day, every hour, every minute, is something that makes us comfortable and feel good. This is what I call our hang for ‘pleasure’. We try to stay far away from something that makes us feel uncomfortable or generates pain. No-brainer? Sure! But it’s that simple.
So, here comes the trick. If you like to see more passion in your employees and reduce the number of mistakes, then you will have to find out which elements will make them feel good, but also what they tend to avoid, because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
Example: A person might have ‘taught’ himself that it is quite scary to deal with responsibilities. Something could go wrong and then he will be held accountable for it. This can be a cultural or family influence or he might have had a bad experience in the past. In one word, its ‘scary!’
So when you know this, it is really fun to do a brief brainstorm session together (or as a team) and try to come up with the positive side effects of taking responsibility. This could be: 1. that you feel really good when you know that your boss fully trusts you in working on a task 2. that it is pretty cool to come up with some possible solutions on your own and try them 3. by the time you finish the task successfully, you are so proud of yourself and so will your colleagues and your boss be 4. you want more of this! 5. and if you don’t complete the task the way you want it the first time, it is a great learning moment that will certainly help you to do it right thereafter.
Did you notice something? You suddenly start to care about what you’re doing, because you feel good about working on this task. And when you start caring about things, you automatically WANT to do them right. It’s part of our pride. How cool is this? A sudden shift in your personal belief system. It is of course very important that you encourage your employees to take initiatives and let them know that you value this highly. That you’re proud of them. We all know that a compliment and a hand on our shoulder means so much than for example a single pay raise. You can of course also apply this exercise to yourself.
Simplify As you might have noticed, I like to simplify things and situations. It is easier and more fun to work with it and I know it works! Always. When I was working for American Express in Europe, I used to manage a large team of experienced consultants. Consultants love to make things complex (and then they come up with their solution). But I don’t believe in complexity. And the ones that were highly successful, were the ones that took a step back and just used their common sense.
I wish you good luck, lots of passion and caring, but foremost ‘fun’ in what you’re doing. Drop me a mail when you have any questions or feedback. I appreciate it.
