Lawrence Fine

Communication is so important in business (and in life) yet we frequently make it difficult to do well.

How many times have you attended a meeting over lunch where you are being interrupted by the servers (who are simply doing their jobs), having distractions from other customers and not having the proper space or equipment that is needed. Why not meet before lunch and then if you choose, go have lunch afterwards.

When meeting in an office or conference room, try to arrange people to have as few barriers as possible. Too often people sit on opposite sides of a conference table which makes the table a barrier to communication both figuratively and literally. The same is true when meeting in an office. One person sits behind the desk and the other person sits in front of the desk and the desk is the barrier.

In some cases, people want to use these barriers (to create an adversarial relationship or when sitting at a desk to show some form of dominance) but if you are trying to create a better environment to communicate in, work hard to eliminate the barriers.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Everyone has limits. For some it might be how much alcohol they a consume. For some it might be how much sleep they need. For some it might be how much pressure they can handle.

The challenge is that we each have different limits and our limits have different levels. Too often we assume other people have the same limits we do so we treat them as we would want to be treated but this doesn’t matter if their limits are different

Be careful in assuming you know other peoples limits, while you might be correct there is a better chance you aren’t and once a person is pushed beyond their limits you never know how they might react

Just something to think about.

Unrelated to the above post, this will be my only post this week.

Have a great week

Lawrence

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Is settling giving in or making things work?

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Profit margins are nice. Finding a way to make sure profits are a certain percentage of expenses is wonderful. The thing to keep in mind is that when all is said and done, profits are more important than profit margins.

I started thinking about this the other day when I unexpectedly had to stay over in another city. I went to the closest hotel and they were full but suggested I go to the hotel across the street. The front desk clerk at the full hotel was extremely nice and told me what she thought the other hotel would charge.

Since I had to go somewhere else anyway I decided to login to hotwire.com and was able to book a room at a comparable hotel that was 3 blocks away for 25% of the price I had expected. I booked the room, walked to the hotel and it was a very nice hotel that certainly looked comparable to the first option.

The question is, did this hotel sell this room too cheaply? If they hadn’t been on hotwire.com I wouldn’t have even known the hotel existed and would have saved elsewhere. As long as the fee I paid was more than the incremental expenses (the expense of the infrastructure and front desk clerks and security etc don’t change for one extra room rental so it really is just the housekeeping expenses plus fees for the reservation etc) than it was a good deal for them. It might reduce their average profit per room sale and reduce their profit margin over selling at their normal prices but isn’t it better to make a small profit and hurt profit ratios than to make no profit and keep ratios high?

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Upcycling

Recycling usually refers to taking an old product and converting it to another product. A simple example is when they recycle paper and are able to turn it into a different form of paper.

Upcycling is when you take an old product and find another use for it. A very common example would be when people find old products and use them for various types of crafts.

The reality is there are so many ways we can upcycle old products which frequently results in less pollution, higher quality products and cheaper prices.

Look to see how you can upcycle whenever possible. It will help yourself and help the world

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Organizations frequently have an organization chart but there comes a time when it might be worth looking at a reorganization chart.

A reorganization chart would involve starting with an empty sheet and then not worrying about the current chart, write up a new chart without names. This new chart doesn’t need to be the same as the old one and is for positions and not for people. In doing this, you would determine where the marketing director would be positioned, or whether there is a need for a marketing director.

Once you determine the positions needed, then figure out who should report to whom. Keep in mind that just because the position currently reports to one position doesn’t mean they will report to that same position in this new chart.

Once the new chart is created rather than filling in the people from the old chart, consider having people reapply with a simple application process. This might mean something as easy as a one page form.

This might seem to be unsettling to some but wouldn’t you rather work to make sure you have the right positions reporting to the right positions and having the best people for the job in each position?

This is not an easy thing to do or one that you will get complete buy in for but it can be extremely valuable if done correctly.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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You want to replace a manager due to poor performance. You finalize the Evaluation, document the issues and then initiate the termination. Next you have to find the replacement.

While the above method is used by many organizations, when possible wouldn’t it make sense to make sure you have the replacement first?

There are times it’s more important to get rid of someone quickly (such as if illegal or unethical activities are involved) but when you have the choice, work on having a replacement before initiating the replacement

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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