Category: Improvement Idea

The Way We Were

I listened to a very interesting short interview on Radio 5 Live breakfast yesterday. Nicky Campbell was speaking with Linda Yueh from the London School of Economics about the results of a recent economic survey. The survey showed a third of respondents think the economic climate will get worse (so two thirds don’t – yippee!), 12% already think things are getting better, and the biggest fear is unemployment. Four out of ten fear for losing their job.

Linda came across brightly and spoke with enthusiasm. Nicky Campbell tends towards flowery language a bit too much for my liking and this interview was no exception. I nearly choked on my toast when he hit us with “…merely bits of flotsam tossed on the oceans of economic trends…” Linda laughed and said she couldn’t match that and Campbell expressed a wish to withdraw the statement, but the flowers had been flung.

Apologies, I digress. What really drew me in was Linda’s response to Nicky Campbell’s double barrelled question, “Will we ever be the way we were? Will we ever get back to how it was?” She said that previous levels of consumption based on credit are not sustainable. My ears pricked up. There will likely be a push not to return to the way we were. The financial sectors excess will need regulation to ensure it doesn’t stray off course again. That will mean we need a new sector to sustain growth and our standard of living. Linda suggested green industry as a replacement.

This age of change could potentially be a very good one as we seek to rely less on financial services and more on sustainability. We can change the way we live and the things we do. Very good…but something was missing. I was urging Linda to get stuck into what kind of behaviour she felt was needed from politicians, business leaders, everyone, to make this change. It didn’t come, the harsh reality of radio deadlines cut things cruelly short.

I’m interested in what you think about Linda’s opinions. More importantly, I’d love to hear what you think about the behaviour required to make the shift from consume to sustain?

You can listen to the radio interview here. It’s at 1:12.58 into the programme and 4 min 30 sec in duration.

I’ve found £60,000 and no one seems to want it…?

In these troubled times, you’d think £60 grand might get snapped up quickly. As a company employee, customer, shareholder, you would think it won’t just lie around unloved for very long eh? Well you might be wrong. I’ve shared this little story with a few people who I thought could help make it come to life…nothing yet.

Here’s the story for you to read. Are we too big to care about £60,000?

I recently dumped my mobile phone and moved the number to my blackberry. It was very easy to do. I saved the company £30 per annum in line rental plus a few pennies in electricity plus there is now one less device to break, make redundant, be replaced. I wondered how many others in our division could do the same. I made some enquiries and it seems there are at least 2,000 people in the division with more than one mobile device.

2,000 x £30 = £60,000, back on the bottom line, every year. Or look at it another way. As we reshape our business, we’re insisting that everyone who enters the company redeployment centre completes 3 training sessions, at a cost of £52 per session. This money could pay the training cost for over 180 entrants to the centre. Or, we could use it to fund a small recognition scheme. There are lots of hard working, productive, engaged people out there who might appreciate a small gesture.

Or just stick it back on the bottom line. If 19 more people can find another lost £60,000 that’s over £1million. Think of the possibilities. Of course if no one else wants it…perhaps we could have it for my leaving do?

Employee Engagement in one sentence

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our engagement in one sentence experiment. We’ve published your great contributions here so you can easily download them, share them, and hey, why not use them too! We’re very proud of the way this little experiment has turned out so far, hopefully we’ll hear from even more of you and add more fuel to the fire!

Download your free copy here