"I Don’t Do Clocks…"
A contact who invigilates exams for school-age children told me that, during an exam, a student who needed to know how much time was left said “I don’t do clocks,” when the clock on the wall of the exam hall was pointed out to them.
The “boomers” are coming up to retirement or have already retired. I’m guessing that the student in question was doing at least their GCSEs and would therefore have been from the end of the “Gen. Z” era or perhaps even “Alpha” generation.
What fascinated me was that this student is clearly of “that generation” that grew up with more exposure to digital timekeeping and, possibly, don’t wear a watch as their smart phone has a clock! This tells us more about how we ‘re developing as humans rather than that the younger generation are somehow “deficient” because they can’t read a 12-hour clock.
Is this a typically “first world problem”? How many students of the same age in what are called the “developing” countries of the world are lucky enough to have a smart device in their home, let alone own an analogue (12-hour) watch?
I see plenty of jokes about how to confuse this age’s children by putting them in a room with a rotary dial phone and provide instructions how to use it in cursive writing. Yes, there’s a degree of fun or irony in such humour, but it nonetheless illustrates that society has moved on. How many of my generation would know what a “mangle” is (for those interested, it’s a device that was used to squeeze water out of clothes that had just been washed before the invention of the tumble dryer)?
Equally who knows what a “dumb waiter” is? The answer: a miniature lift that communicated between the basement kitchen and the dining room of wealthier houses “back in the day”.
Society will continue to develop with time. If it didn’t, we’d still probably be living in caves and wearing animal skins.
Yes, it’s sad to see that young people these days may not know how to use a 12-hour watch or clock, but I bet they could ring run rings round many of us on social media and ChatGPT usage!
Conclusion: understand (even if you don’t like it) that they’re different and that they have skills that “our generation” will never fully master.
Much has been said, written and discussed about the “generation gaps” present in our society. We have the “Silent Generation” (those who survived WWII), the “Baby Boomers” (those born between 1946 - 1964). After them came “Gen. X” (1965 - 1979), “Gen. Y” (1980 - 1994), “Gen. Z” (1995 - 2009), “Alpha” (2010 - 2024) and last, but not least, “Beta” (2025 - 2039). Each has its own characteristics which were the subject of two articles in February and March 2024.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Social
Start As You Intend to Continue
Something my colleagues and I noticed in one of the organisations in which I worked was that, if somebody was “difficult” during the onboarding process, they were likely to be difficult throughout the relationship.
I can’t say if this was a case of “correlation” as opposed to “causation”, but what I can say is that we very often found this to be the case.
We all understand that different organisations have their own “way of doing things” and that, if we really wish to deal with them then we have no choice but to accept. There may become a point in time, though, when the phrase “enough is enough” springs to mind when we realise that the amount of effort involved to begin or continue that relationship is simply not worth the returns.
This applies whether one is the organisation “onboarding” someone or the one being “onboarded”.
Sometimes, we may have no choice, especially if dealing with monopoly providers, governments or other regulatory bodies on whom we depend for the continuation of our business or some service that no other organisation can provide. There have come points in time, though, when we decided in various organisations in which I worked that it was better to terminate the relationship than face the increasing costs of dealing with that counterparty.
Everybody needs their “bureaucracy”, especially where processing high volumes of material to deliver uniform services across a large body of customers. In the end though, such complexity costs the organisation in terms of money and resources to manage it as well as its clients or counter parties. At a time when business conditions are becoming increasingly challenging there’s a risk that we may lose business to bureaucracy. As business leaders, we need, where possible, to ensure that our process it:
- Result in the service we say they should.
- Are easy to use.
- Provide an enjoyable if not fun experience.
Doing this will result in increased productivity from our own people as well as growing and repeat customer satisfaction.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Teamwork
“We Can’t Afford to Lose…”
Do you have one of those “amazing people” who just seems to know everything, do it all, work long hours, never say no to anything, is vital to the business?
If so, how much falls on their shoulders?
How “vital” are they to the organisation in terms of their institutional knowledge, their customer knowledge, the trust that organisation leaders place in them, being a “backbone” of their function or the organisation?
If you can name someone like this in your organisation, you have a potential leadership issue coming up. This doesn’t mean there’s competition for the top slot (far from it!) The problem is that this person may be rapidly burning out and will leave at the worst possible time simply because they can’t “take any more”.
Laurie DeSalvo suggests several remedies in LinkedIn to make sure that:
The organisation retains that person and their knowledge/abilities.
Reduce the number of hours they work.
Build relief into the team.
Give that person space to lead instead of always “firefighting”.
Reduce risk.
Improve decision-making.
If leaders are “drowning”, they don’t need extra “coaching” or to be told to “prioritise better”, let alone “push more for just a little longer”. DeSalvo points out that the descriptions given above are not about performance, they’re about capacity. To quote the famous line from the film Avatar, “It is hard to fill a cup which is already full.”
As leaders, it’s our job to spot these “critical people” and to ensure they have the real support that they need. Yes, there’s a cost in hiring an additional person to support them. The question to ask, however, is, “if we don’t do this now and pay the price, what will the cost be to us if this person leaves?”
Different people have different limits; as leaders, we need to be able to spot them.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
