Start & Finish Guides

Video Transcript

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SE 9 (Guides)

This past weekend my family and I got to zip line at 7 falls in Colorado Springs. It was an amazing experience. Five zip lines up to 18 hundred foot long with super high heights and speeds up to 45 miles an hour. It was exhilarating. I’ve done zip lines on road courses before but nothing at these heights and nothing that fast. Fortunately we had two guides Thomas and Kelly Thomas went first Kelly last. Despite the scariness having Thomas over there waiting for us made a huge difference and it gave us a willingness which significantly diminished fear. Not only did he prove it was safe he went over and set a brake line just in case we came in too fast. The brake out on that rope would slow us down before we crashed into the deck. It was quite useful. What if you had an organizational structure where someone was always position at the start of a project and another followed up by to make sure everything and everyone got where they needed to be before moving on. How amazing would that be a start and finish guide. Welcome to another episode of shaping environments where we stretch an idea discovering new dimensions that expands our capacity. I know what you’re thinking. We don’t have the manpower resources or time to have that kind of oversight or involvement. I get it. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have said at the end of the day. I didn’t get to any of my work today because I was helping someone else do their job or something showed up unexpectedly or someone dropped the ball and you had to scramble to make it right. I suspect depending on your professional setting. That scenario has happened once or twice or three times or more. It’s a common occurrence yet we don’t design our organizational relationships to facilitate it. Crafting an environment where shared work isn’t an interruption but a strategic advantage would relieve a lot of wasted emotional energy when we feel like we’re doing someone else’s work. We exert lots of men or mental energy on th at person on the boss on the process. On a recruiter who got us the job the chair the desk the window everyone and everything falls victim to our emotional assault. Because we’re frustrated. What if we could incorporate a start and finish guide before we jumped off that platform and resuming activities that consume our day or week. We engage someone about the end result both in terms of the new objectives and the current workload. We’re hammering away at that kind of relationship takes trust and a sense of commitment to one another. Of course one of the greatest challenges we face in this kind of scenario is the belief that nobody cares. Nobody cares that you have a full agenda already. Nobody cares that this means you’ll have to take work home tonight. Nobody cares that you already feel overwhelmed. In some cases that may be true. I have also found that oftentimes in similar situations people don’t communicate their challenges and thoughts to those around them whether supervisors o r peers. Others don’t know exactly what’s going on in your world. What I loved about Thomas and Kelly is that every time he landed he radioed Kelly to let her know he was in position. And every time she was ready to send one of us down the line she radioed him and let him know they had no hidden feelings or thoughts from each other because they communicated openly and consistently that let them serve us the customer best. Who could you enlist as a peer guide. Could you engage your supervisor this way if you’re a manager. Could you interact with your teams this way. I’ve heard plenty of excuses why a model like this is unreasonable yet I see play out regularly. Employees feeling like they’re hanging on the line all alone. It consumes time energy goodwill and productivity work moves along a zip line speeds. Have you designed your culture to support it. What do you think of Start Finish guides. I would love for you to contribute your thoughts below. My name is Greg Hawkes. We shape an environments where one gets to contribute their best daily. Thanks for letting us serve you.