Right FIT Ideas #279 – This week: Presentations, Back to the office, Gardens
GREG’S BUSINESS GROWTH NEWSLETTER #279
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Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.
In this issue:
– Techniques for FIT
– Being Human
– Random Stuff
Techniques for FIT
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- The problem with most PowerPoint presentations is the listener reads faster than the presenter can talk. To prevent this, before the presentation, replace most of your text with graphics that enhance your message.
- Some companies ask for a copy of the slide deck to share. In this case, you need the text on the slides. Send a second sharable deck after the presentation. You’ll know the parts important to the audience and can highlight accordingly.
- The moment your presentation ends you’ll hear from your team about what could have been better. Before changing anything remind yourself you gave it your best shot, which is a big deal. You showed up. Then get to work on the re-work.
- How you are perceived by the right people is more important than how you are perceived by all people. A lot of effort is wasted worrying about peers or teammates. Directing this effort to customers gets better results.
Being Human – Getting back to the office
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“Google focused on three trends: Work happens anywhere and not just in the office; what employees need from a workplace is changing constantly; and workplaces need to be more than desks, meeting rooms and amenities.” – NY Times 4-30-21
(image NY Times)
As the USA vaccinates and spring turns to summer, the question is whether the office, as we knew it, is dead. Is remote work here to stay or will there be a demand for a hybrid of in office and remote work?
Looking at the clients I spend time with, there is evidence of these scenarios taking place. A company leaning into remote work loses a few employees who need human connection. A company announcing everyone will be back in the office June 1 gets a half-dozen resignations.
Some thoughts:
- If remote work is truly more productive, is 12 months enough evidence to prove it? Will results hold 24 months from now when the pandemic is a distant memory?
- If your office wasn’t a place people liked to hang out in pre-pandemic, why would they be eager to return?
- Mature employees who know their work-lane and have a support system at home (partner/kids/pets/friends) are less likely than young employees to enjoy a return to office life.
- The workplace shift is less about the tasks involved and more about the mindset of the people doing the tasks. Your hiring practices need to adjust accordingly.
- A hybrid concept will work best if modeled by senior management. If the CEO simply returns to 7am-7pm office hours, the hybrid culture won’t take root.
It’s anecdotal, but the new hire interviews I’m part of suggests job searchers are pickier about job fit/work culture than pre-pandemic. The pandemic is giving them an opportunity to re-think what they want from work. Your current team isn’t immune to these considerations and neither are you.
Grab the leadership team, imagine a point in the future, and check-up on your strategy. Visibility is returning and you know enough to change the strategy from execution to something more transformational. Invest time in fast strategy sessions. Things are changing, let’s not be caught flat-footed.
Random stuff
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I see my neighbor in the yard watering her plants. I also notice Wilson the ABC isn’t at the fence, jumping, gnawing, barking, or giving his Flippy Flopper toy a death shake for attention. He’s just watching her from the porch. If she were the next neighbor over he’d be in a frenzy to get her attention. I wonder what he thinks?
This disregarded neighbor is an excellent gardener. I know this because my lovely bride and I have been binging episodes of the BBC show, “Gardener’s World.” Monty Don is a wealth of horticultural knowledge and there is something very comforting about watching him tend to his garden, Longmeadow, week-by-week, throughout the year. (Did he start the garden after the name? Or, did the naming happen once the garden was established? Hmm.)
Last year, at the start of the pandemic, I tried my hand at some landscaping. Monty would call it hardscaping because I dug up turf and created some planting beds. After seeing his garden, mine is sparse, almost minimalist. The neighbor’s garden is more like Monty’s. Dense and lush. Watching Monty and my neighbor, I’m learning gardening is a lot of work. It takes planning, effort, and a lot of patience.
Another thing I’m learning is while gardening on the weekend, neither Monty nor my neighbor partake in a mid-day tipple, let alone three. This may be where the road to my aspirational garden and my actual garden diverge.
I’m ok with that.
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