It’s not always time to shake things up, to rethink, to innovate, to create new dreams and connect new dots. Sometimes it’s time to execute, move ahead on the plan, and follow the focused and stubborn pursuit of excellence. Social media tools can knock you over with the sheer volume of information and ideas they bring to you.
So why I am telling you about this non-event in my life? Well, it’s worth talking about because what happened with me and the lawn mower was what we’d call a near miss. Nothing bad happened – but it sure could have. Forward-thinking leaders in many industries and companies look at near-miss data as a way to help learn from their mistakes before they have had to pay the consequences of a disaster. Statistically, the more near misses there are, the more serious incidents will follow.
As the pace of your business requires, you are on to the next problem to solve right away. You can’t sit beside your implemented solution to make sure that it works. You have to trust that things will stay in their improved state. There is nothing more frustrating than walking back to your newly improved area only to discover that all your team’s hard work has been undone.
Before I became a professional volunteer and entrepreneur, I worked to create value for companies using various business improvement (BI) methodologies. Most of that value I created (ahem, helped to create – BI is a team sport) can be expressed as cost savings – hence my former employers’ willingness to invest in my training and salary. Let me try to say this without bragging – I saved them a LOT of money! Thousands in some cases, millions in others.
Ebenezer Scrooge in a skirt?
How did I do that? Since the terms ‘cost reduction’ or ‘cost savings’ inevitably bring to mind a mean-faced, heartless approach to managing a business – squeeze as much as you can out of your employees, give them as little as possible, and watch your profit margins fatten – you might be thinking that I was a sort of “Grim Reaper of the Workplace”-type character. Well, not so.
A few months after my epiphany in the jungle, I was looking around for the right opportunity to put my idea to leverage my professional
Onward Business Mechanics Inc. is a Waterloo, Canada-based organization driving operational changes that matter to industry leaders since 2011.
