Monday Muses ?? ?? ??

I wonder if you know these names Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher or Anne Sullivan how about Alfred Wallace?

I will make it easier so you don't need to Google the answers. Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher formed the pacing team that Roger Banister needed in order to break the 4 minute mile. Anne Sullivan was Helen Keller's teacher and Alfred Wallace was a co-writer with Charles Darwin. The reason I opened with this ponderance today is quite simple: every one of us require support (in all its forms) to achieve all that we set out to achieve. I acknowledge numerous people helped and shaped my work in order to write Craig's Table. For now I want to acknowledge people who would not normally be given any form of thank you. There are most likely a lot more that I am actually aware of however I want to say thank you to 5 unnamed people who made and continue to attempt to make my life uncomfortable. For obvious reason I am not going to gift these people credence by the use of their names however I do want to thank them for being nay sayers and dooms dayers and for constantly questioning how someone without a University Degree could or should even be allowed to write something as simple and as complex as Craig's Table. It still amazes me after such a long period of time these 5 main "players" still believe all they need do is carp loud enough and I will stop working within the injured worker community do all the things that are not meant o be possible. Members of the injured worker community have no need to know my name, however that does not give me an excuse to stop working on their behalf.

This past week saw the continuation of providers reaching out to Corey and myself for help with various members of the injured worker community. The reason for the image is because one of the providers reminded me of a situation that I helped with in regards to a person who was feeling very debilitated with SAD. This person told me that he just wanted and needed sunshine back in his life even on the brightest wintry day he was unable to overcome the feeling of depression etc. My solution was rather off-centre. I purchased 2 packets of bright yellow tic tacs, a friend who worked at a chemist mocked up a prescription label. Take 2 tablets before getting out of bed each morning, take 2 tablets before lunch, take 2 tablets before dinner and take 2 tablets 15 minutes before bedtime. The mocked up labels were attached to the tic tac containers along with a mocked up repeat prescription . For the last 10+ years whenever this person feels a tad down he simply refills the prescription.

Neither Corey or I are surprised by the number of providers who continue to reach out to us. The providers know that we have answers and ways forward for the challenges that are being confronted by the injured worker community. and the providers know that the injured worker community trusts Corey and myself to put the needs of the injured worker community before anything else.

Many will ask why it is that providers are still reaching out to Corey and myself , this article may help to explain some of the reasons why. Carrot, Egg or Coffee: Which Are You? This article relates to Corey and myself- we can both be as soft as is required and we can both be as hard as is needed and Corey will tell you when I annoy him tooooooooooo much, he sends me for coffee. In reality we just get done what needs to be done.

One of the providers asked if I had something that would help an injured worker who just needed to know that not every day was 110% bad, that there are parts of the day that don't go to plan and other parts that just flow. Nothing the provider was saying was breaking through. As luck would have it this TED Talk arrived To overcome challenges, stop comparing yourself to others | Dean Furness plus I have agreed to catch up with the provider later this week and chat with the person who is having a bit of a down time.

I subscribe to countless newsletters, this past week Ann Andrews sent the following newsletter that I want to share with you.

PLEASE DON’T GO BACK TO NORMAL

We do things the way we do them because they work, until the day a pandemic hits or someone else does it quicker and cheaper or technology makes what we do obsolete. In my very first book ‘Shift Your But’ (1999) I quoted Tom Peters who said ‘The companies profiled in ‘In Search of Excellence’ were lauded for being close to the customer yet 14 of the 43 companies got whamoed. It isn’t that companies like Wang, Levi Strauss, Atari, Avon, Tupperware, Kodak and K-Mart weren’t listening, it’s that they weren’t listening enough.’ Some of those companies resurrected themselves, some didn’t.

Thinking your business can go back to exactly how it was before the pandemic hit could sound the death knell for you. Even businesses that have been around for years, can and do go belly up:

• Toys R Us was launched in 1948 and controlled one quarter of the toy market selling 18,000 different toys in 1000+ stores. However, the changing taste in toys, stores that had become dated and the rise of e-commerce ended their reign.
• Payless was once the largest foot-wear chain in the USA and in the mid 1990’s was selling 250 million pairs of shoes per year. They were wiped out by Target and Walmart
• 9000 Blockbuster stores were wiped out because of poor leadership and competition from Netflix
• Borders book-stores are now history. They had locations in airports and shopping plazas. They failed to create an online presence and didn’t invest in creating an e-reader as per the Barnes and Noble Nook or the Amazon Kindle, so they perished.  

NB: Target Australia is itself falling into decay – in Australia they are currently closing 167 stores or converting them into K-Marts.

In an article by Ben Peterson writing for Inc.com suggested that there are ‘3 signs YOUR BUSINESS IS IN DANGER OF BECOMING A DINOSAUR!

• Dinosaurs Get Stuck: Success can be a dangerous thing, especially if you decide that your current strategy will work forever. In today's world, the terrain can change in the space of a single innovation, and innovations are coming faster and faster.
• Dinosaurs are Cold-blooded. Apparently when Jeff Bezos acquires a company, he ponders whether the leader is a missionary or a mercenary. According to him, missionaries build products because they love the customer – love the product and love the service while the mercenary is building the product or service so they can flip the business and make money. He wants his leaders to be missionaries; people who have ties to the company and are passionate about the company’s future so they will work to ensure the company HAS a future.
•  Dinosaurs are Unchanging: In both nature and the corporate world, success depends on changing at the right time and in the right way. When you take your company in the right direction, hire and mould dedicated employees, and develop policies that give your company enough space to grow, you're creating an organization that can stay ahead of history.’

1.  A FEW QUESTIONS to test whether your business suffers from the Dinosaur Syndrome:
2. When did you last work on a new product or service?

• When did you last ask your customers for feedback and listen to it?
• When did you last ask your employees for ideas for improvement and use them?
• When was the last time you ever offered anything new?
• Do you rely on just ONE product or service?

RED ALERT. I recently upgraded by computer and couldn’t get my printer to work. The lovely man who was setting everything up for me suggested it was because I used ‘refilled’ ink cartridges (from Cartridge World – 35 franchises). My new computer system was set up to detect refills and simply wouldn’t function without brand new cartridges. I hope Cartridge World have a strategy for their franchise system otherwise they too will go the way of the companies above.

I know innovating takes time. I know you are busy; tired; stressed. I know you are going to be in catch-up mode from income lost during lock-down, but please don’t underestimate the need to take just half a day a month to work ON your business instead of IN your business. Which leads me to my final thought:

When you are finished changing, you are finished. Benjamin Franklin

One of the beliefs that I hold to is that everything that Craig's Table holds is a way forward, the process pre-covid 19 can no longer be relied on to work post-covid 19 Regardless of what the nay sayers are putting out Corey and I are standing for and with the injured worker community and we are helping the providers who reach out because they have seen the magic of Craig's Table. And to answer one of the questions that Ann posed "When did you last work on a new product or service?" I finished work on a new support process today, and now a select few injured workers are trialing it and will come back to me over the coming weeks with their feedback.

Book of the week Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

I ordered two books today Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell and Forged in Crisis by Nancy Koehn Dymocks assure me that both books will be in my hands within a week. What I am looking forward to is the concepts that these books will help me to formulate or concepts that they will help me complete.

Almost time for me to think about dinner, before I venture into the kitchen I need to remind you of 2 events that you may be interested in booking in to: Design and Art Leading Innovation and Optimism and HR4HR Summit and something to look forward to which as yet has not been scheduled I am going to record a podcast with ???♀? Pix Jonasson ??

Yours in service

Rosemary

 National Outstanding Leadership Dinner that is set for the 4th September at the Royal International Convention Centre (Royal ICC) in Brisbane I hope to see you there.

Comp Laude and Gala