99 small things to improve your business - episode 2

Make the noise. It is, I guess we can call it episode two of Chris's box. Obviously, that's not the official episode of what this monkey Monday is.

No. And it's following on from a previous one. In here are 99 small things you can do to help your business.

Yes. And if you, if you've seen the first one, you'll understand the fanfare.

Yeah. I'm gonna choose a random fact.

Straight into rumaging. I like it. Straight to the content, people.

Oh, here we go. Number 85. Learn about everyone's family life.

Oh, that's a good one. Go on then share that with me, Chris.

Well, we did, um, we did a workshop together with some of our design team and we just, I try to learn what makes people tick and, uh, where they come from. I mean, it it's, I don't wanna be, um, intrusive into people's lives, but I want to get a sense of why people come to work and, and what drives them. And, and what's the differences between them and their, their, um, mums and dads. I think we learned quite a lot on that day, and I think it was quite valuable for the, for the whole team.

I think it's, we can really help with some empathy across the, across your business as well, whatever you're doing as well, whatever organization you are, you probably will be working with other people and spending that time to appreciate their perspective of the world is a good thing to do. Mm. Yeah.

And I think it we've seen other, we've been invited into other companies and there are people who, uh, worked together for years and don't really know much about everyone. And it's a it's, um, it's a good, um, mental health message really, that it's really important. You just don't know what's happening in other people's lives unless you ask about it.

Yeah. And if, you know, I don't know. The more you learn about, I guess, your work colleagues, the, um, the more you can empathize with them, if you know, they might be having a bit of a bad day and you might go, well, I know X, Y, and Z, and that could be why, and maybe it might make you treat people a little better too.

Yeah. All right. Next, all you choose. Choose a good one.

It'll be a happy one. That one was happy though. Yeah. All right. Number 59. Oh, like this one, ask for help.

Yes. Go then.

Well, I think some, sometimes people think it's a weak thing, don't they? I suppose, or showing vulnerability is weak, but I love, um, asking for help. And I love people asking me for help. It's it's just one of the biggest gifts I think you can give to somebody when you say, excuse me, I'm sorry. You are, you are the person I'm coming to here. Can you help me with this thing? Um, it's such a gift to give someone because you're showing a level of trust and you are showing a level of, um, acceptance of their expertise or knowledge. And I think it's one of the most meaningful things you can do is asking for help and actually giving help, obviously back is, is a really rewarding thing. So you can almost, um, project yourself into the person that you're asking for help for understanding that when people ask you for help, you find it a really nice thing. So try it out, do it at least once a week, ask someone for some help for something.

Yeah. Oh, it's a bit like quantum leap going into another person's soul.

Oh boy.

Right, I'll do one. Right here we go. Number 76. Don't look at the shiny thing.

Okay. That's a good one.

There are so many things in the strategy of business that come along and are just shiny and new and people just go, oh, I'm gonna follow this squirrel now. And it, you just leave all the important things back here. And it's, it's really interesting how often we see it now, now that I'm on the lookout for it. Just happens everywhere. Just try and focus on that one thing. I think it's really actually really important.

Yeah. Distracting, shiny things. Problematic. Sometimes though, it's worth looking at and going, oh, there's a shiny thing. Let's put that in this other box full of shiny things, and let's review it with other people to see if these shiny things are meaningful.

Yes.

But chasing them constantly, um, can be disruptive. Can pull you away from your focus. Focus, people. Pay attention.

Means you won't get anywhere. All right. Let's crack on. We've got 99 of these to do.

Oh, flipping eck, 99. You wrote all these out by hand, didn't you? Uh, Chris?

Yes. In a special font.

It's Comic Sans by the way. Sweat the small things.

Yeah. It's just the attention to detail. I think you've just gotta the, the, the things we've done best is when we've really took that attention to detail to the next level.

I mean, uh, it's a real nice shorthand, isn't it, for a longer phrase, which sounds more like focus on making every touchpoint excellent. Um, but it's an easier thing to just live in your heart and minds. Just sweat the small stuff.

Yes.

You know, make sure that entranceway is nice to your building if you have people visiting and...

Yeah, paint the fence.

Paint the fence. Exactly. Have nice, have nice coffee, stuff like that.

Um, number 16, only sell to people you like.

Yes, that's a good one. You've dropped it, Chris.

I'm sorry.

Messy litter pig. Put it in the bin.

All right. Well, I think it's, it's a, it's a great thing when you do business with people who you get on with and it takes away from your soul if you do business with assholes. So just do less business with 'em. Work should be fun, right?

Yeah. Put motivational posters up that say things like don't work with assholes.

I like saying that.

Yes, me too. Yeah. Is that it?

No, you can do another one. Do one more. Come on.

All right. Bonus. The bonus one today...

The bonus ball is...

Is... everyone shout out the number together! 61. I hope some of you got that. Encourage people to make mistakes. But why? That sounds a dreadful idea. We don't want mistakes. We want everything to be perfect!

You can't, you cannot be innovative without making mistakes. And if you want your business to be at all innovative, then you've got to accept that there's gonna be mistakes. And once you make a mistake, it's probably not gonna happen again, if you've got the right company culture. So you've just gotta embrace it. Like that, um, conductor guy on, uh, YouTube is just, he goes, how fascinating that's every time you have a, make a mistake, that's what your reaction should be.

Bob Ross, isn't it.

No it's not Bob Ross...

Happy little...

Oh.

No, that's another person.

Oh, okay. Fine.

Happy little mistake or something, he says doesn't he? I can't remember.

Happy accident.

Accident. Happy little accident. Um, yeah, mistakes are great. We should applaud them, embrace them and be open about them and work out how we can learn from them. Not stress them. It's okay.

Yeah.

Even big mistakes. It's all okay.

Yes, fine. So go off this week and make some happy accidents.

Yeah. Be brave. Um, what is it? Perfection is the enemy of completion or something?

Something.

Something like that. Look it up. There we go. I think that's it. I've got the theme tune from Quantum Leap stuck in my head now.

Have you, what is it?

-singing-

We're not gonna get a copyright claim on this. Because it's not good enough, is it?

No, I don't think that's gonna pass the Shazam test.