Last week I was on holiday in the beautiful New Forest (Would recommend the Beaulieu hotel to anybody wanting a forest retreat, chill out and scrummy food!) and on Tuesday my hubby and I visited Longleat – the safari park featured on the BBC programme Animal Park.
What a great day we had – the safari is something you should really experience if you’re in the area and want to see animals in as much of a natural environment as you can in the UK! My favourite was seeing the lions!
When we arrived back at our hotel there was a family of wild donkeys in the field opposite and again it was lovely to be around nature and see the way these animals lived & interacted with each other and us in their natural environment.
It reminded me how important it is to stop and watch!
Now you know how I love to learn from any situation, so straight away I’m thinking how does this relate to us in business (it’s ok, it was only day 2 of my hols – so fine for me not to have switched off from work yet!!!! J).
To me, just stopping and watching the animals in their natural environment reminded me how important it is for us to take time to stop and watch what’s going on around us – especially if we’re in management roles.
Sometimes we get so hooked into the day to day work life of being busy, busy, busy, that we don’t stop and notice what’s going on around us – for the business, our team and the individuals in our teams.
So my challenge for you all today is conduct a Business Safari!
What to do:
1. Take 15 minutes out today to STOP and watch your operation
2. NOTICE – what’s going on for the business, for your team and for the individuals in your team… notice the conversations and interactions people are having – what impact are they having on the experience your customers receive? (How can you enhance the positive impact?)
3. LOOK for strong/comfortable relationships – what’s making them strong? Are there any relationships that could do with strengthening – how can you help achieve this?
4. ANALYSE your team’s habitat and environment – how is it helping or hindering their ability to perform? What can be done to improve it?
5. ENJOY it! Safari’s are meant to be fun, interesting and enlightening… make sure your business safari is too!
Have fun observing your team’s natural environment – please let us know what interesting sights you see and insights you get!
Carly
Another aspect of Stop/Notice/Look/Analyse/Enjoy is that it provides a break to your mental processes and helps refresh you for continuing the task at hand, reset your priorities, or pursue your next task.
Really liked the Safari info and the challenge to Notice, Look, Analyse and Enjoy. Am tring to read the comments posted but the comments drop off the end of the the white text box onto the purple background. I can’t read the black type on this rich purple colour – its too difficult to read. Could be my age