Put Your Safety Harnesses On – Innovation During a Pandemic
Image credit: Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
One of the hottest words in 2020 is innovate. Innovation is often born out of crisis and 2020 has been one whopper of a crisis! The “coronacoaster” is taking us all on quite the ride. Businesses most affected are looking for new ways to continue to serve their customers. Educators are finding better ways to engage students online. We all are discovering safer paths to connect with friends and family and continue to enjoy our own little luxuries. Harvard Business School recently wrote about how innovation is the one good thing about COVID-19! You have to look for the positives, right?
Adapting for Safety
The pandemic has hit the travel and hospitality industries especially hard. We at Motivation Excellence are joining our travel partners reimagining how group travel, events and meetings move forward. We’ve seen successes in smaller, local gatherings at places like Wild Dunes Resort in South Carolina. Their use of personal dining concierge stations and Plexiglas barriers at rolling beverage bars were just two ways they developed to maintain top-level service while embracing new safety protocols. For more ways the hotel members of Teneo Hospitality Group are innovating for a better and safer guest experience watch our recorded webinar from June here.
One of our event partners Hello! Destination Management has also seen recent small group successes. Paul Mears, Hello! President, says being innovative in 2020 for his team is more about reimagining creative solutions than inventing totally new ways to do things. For instance, they recently had an event where they used people walking around with trays, but instead of glasses of wine, they were passing out masks and small hand-sanitizers.
“It’s an amenity that is handy, relevant and convenient, served in a way that people at an event are used to seeing: a smiling person, greeting you with a tray and roaming the event space.”
Mears says his team makes sure they understand the client’s visualization of an event and then adapts their resources to fit current safety guidelines. One client who originally wanted their group of 40 to take a yacht out on a bay cruise in San Diego was unable to do so with new group limits on the vessel. Hello! arranged for them to instead do a sailing regatta event using six smaller boats. The client’s vision of being on the water together, with San Diego as the backdrop, was met and the six-seven people on each sailboat were able to collaborate more intimately and enjoy an engaging activity in a socially safer and locally allowed way.
“We understand what they hoped to do and then adjusted to fit the original feel of the event safely. There can be some tradeoffs on things like food and beverage options in this instance, but it can turn out to be an upgrade in overall experience.”
We’ll be talking more in depth with Paul Mears in a live webinar August 27, 2020 at 2pm CST. Register to join us! It will also be recorded and available on the Motivation Excellence Insights Tab by the end of August.
Do More than Survive; Thrive
Many retail stores now offer contactless, curbside pick-up. Restaurants are turning parking lots into outdoor eating spaces. Temperature readings, mask requirements and health/travel screenings are now the norm at many workspaces, doctors’ offices and schools. Businesses that want to survive are making simple adjustments.
Innovation comes in when your business wants to move beyond surviving and into thriving! If you’re able to turn on your heels and head in a new direction the reward can be fantastic. Of course, you’re often walking blindly and spotting the glint of a golden idea can be near impossible. That’s where being flexible and open to trying new things is important. This pandemic has thrust multiple opportunities on all of us to do both! McKinsey & Company asserts innovation is more critical than ever now for businesses to truly prosper going forward.
Personally, for us, we’ve pivoted multiple group travel programs to a virtual gifting experience in 2020. One of our healthcare clients went from a scheduled top performer reward experience in Hawaii to using our concierge shopping option to great success! This client awarded a generous sum to each of their top performers and our personal shopping experts helped them create truly personalized rewards! One person paid her child’s private school tuition, another used their award to put solar panels on their house, and another put a down payment on a Disney-area timeshare! Luxury items like a Louis Vuitton bag and a Gibson electric guitar made our participants extremely appreciative of the ability to pick a reward that they’d never buy themselves! Participant responses to this shift in reward experience were overwhelmingly positive.
“This would be an amazing program to introduce annually. Making it this personal was meaningful.”
– Healthcare client award winner
This is an example of our team being nimble, but even more, it’s an example of our client being open to something new and trusting this very different, but necessary, award vehicle approach. It will pay off with higher engagement with their best employees being shown such appreciation in a time of such uncertainty.
We are also excited to announce a new reward program born out of the pandemic in every way. MaxRewardsNow is a turnkey solution for business leaders to take a step beyond saying “thank you” to their essential employees by putting retail and restaurant gift cards in their hands during a time they probably need it most. Blocks of cards can be purchased in denominations from $25 to $100 and instantly given out as desired to show appreciation during these extraordinary times. A branded website walks recipients through the redemption process and all the cards can be used immediately if the digital option is selected. It’s a low-cost reward program for businesses and highly valued by the recipient.
Keep Moving Forward
This is an obvious time to feel beaten down. Don’t give into the despair! Being innovative is not necessarily an innate skill. According to a barely pre-pandemic article on Forbes.com it can be learned and practiced! Check out their eight steps to improving your innovation.
No matter who you are, you’ve been affected by 2020 in some way. Looking at things in a new light, being flexible and creative in your approach to problems and working together with others in a similar situation are all ways to be innovative during this time. You don’t need to invent the best thing since the iPad to be successful. Sometimes, it’s the small leaps forward solving an immediate problem that carry you forward the farthest. Just keep making those frontward movements and you’ll be on your way to being an innovative force like Otto Frederick Rohwedder. Anyone up for some toast?
Broad-minded Thinking: Is Your Mind Open for Business?
Let me guess. You’re totally okay with changing your socks every day, but when it comes to changing your mind, it’s an uphill battle from the start? You’re not alone, but wanting to be more broad or open-minded already sets you up for positive change. And just like your socks, a freshly washed mindset helps you put your best foot forward in just about every situation!
If you think you’re right in every situation, and that your habits, worldviews and routines have no room for improvement, you can stop reading. You are the opposite of being ready for open-mindedness. If however, you want to try to experience new things, stretch your mind and shoot for a change of attitude, we’ve got some tips to help you out. For further reading and other distinct ways to broaden your thinking check out The Good Men Project and Mind Café articles linked here too.
Always Be Open to Learning
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” – Albert Einstein
We live in an opinion-charged environment with a lot of conflicting viewpoints thrown at us constantly. It’s a human habit to search out evidence that supports our already held beliefs. What takes effort and practice is to challenge our own beliefs, do a little research, and decide if there is a reason to adjust our opinion based on new information. The desire to be well-informed is critical to being able to have educated thoughts in widely ranging areas from politics to fitness.
How many times have you found yourself in a social media “conversation” with someone who has a differing opinion than yours? How often have you taken the time to look up information that supports the other side? If nothing else, this will allow you to learn the “whys” behind their views. It may not change your argument at all, or it may soften its edges. Either way, you’ve opened your mind to a different way of thinking. Growth can start with a single seed!
This doesn’t just apply to the heavy social issues that can weigh down anyone’s mind. Being open to learning a new way to swing your golf club or twirl your paint brush can bring new levels of enjoyment to your hobbies. Taking dance lessons or joining a recreational soccer team can create new fitness goals, not to mention introduce you to new friends who can share their viewpoints too. Continual learning is a giant circle of enrichment!
Be Open to Leaving Your Comfort Zone/Zip Code
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
Sure, maybe you’ve got everything you need within a 30 mile radius of your home, but visiting other areas of your city, your state, this country or even another continent naturally extends your breadth of experiences which expands your way of thinking.
Motivation Excellence supports Ingage Unlimited, a non-profit organization that sends teams of volunteers to developing areas of the world to provide training in education, business, and leadership skills. No one comes back unaffected by the new people they’ve met, the work they’ve accomplished, and the obvious differences in the way of life they just experienced.
Brooke Barlow was a volunteer team member to the Dominican Republic with Ingage (see pic above). Her involvement expanded her thinking in many ways that stay with her more than two years later. “My experience with Ingage was life-changing. I got to see a whole different culture and experience it firsthand. Getting to see another culture and how they live life was eye-opening. I loved witnessing how they made the most of what they had and were always so positive.”
But, you don’t have to literally travel to expose yourself to new cultures, activities or experiences. Documentaries on TV channels like PBS or National Geographic can open your eyes to other parts of the world, long gone civilizations and recent history. Reading memoirs from the past and the present offers a way to walk in someone else’s shoes without leaving your couch.
Your comfort zone is well-worn and cozy. It’s hard to abandon it! But each time you leave, even mentally, you create a bigger comfort zone and suddenly there’s enough room to really stretch out and maybe even add a futon and some throw pillows!
Be Open to Collaborating
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” – Frank Zappa
Broad-minded thinking is a critical skill to have not only in your personal life but also in a business environment. Employers look for open-minded new hires. Teamwork, adaptability and tolerance are hallmarks of these employees. Conversely, leaders at a company who are open-minded allow their team to flourish. You can tell within five minutes of any brainstorming session those in the room with a strict, narrow view. These are not easy people to work with or for, but as a student of open-minded thinking, they’re the perfect people to practice your new skills on. See how I turned that around into a positive? ☺
Being able to work with someone with vastly different views is challenging. It’s also a great opportunity to ask a lot of questions and hopefully be asked some in return. You know the old saying about when you “assume?” In case you don’t, let me spell it out for you. It makes an ass out of u and me. Do not assume you already know everything about a certain subject or about another person’s viewpoint. Quite frankly you don’t know either.
Acknowledging you have room to grow, and want to do so, makes you poised to take on your challenges. If someone else is willing to have an open conversation with you about their mindset and experiences, take them up on it. Sharing your experiences helps them grow too. This relates to helping a client solve a business problem as well as talking to a stranger on social media about any hot button or totally benign topic (they all seem to be controversial these days though, right?).
Be Open to Trying
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
After reading this and the linked information, are you ready to be a broad-minded thinker? Even if you’re willing to make a few adjustments that’s awesome! As with any new habit or routine, start small and move forward at your own pace.
Being open-minded is really having the ability to change your perspective. It does not mean you have to agree with opposite opinions. It means you have the mental tools to see things from the other side, or sides.
It’s not easy, and it definitely takes practice. But just like we teach our kids to change their underwear daily, we too can teach ourselves how to change our minds with gentle reminders (maybe some exasperated pleas too). After all, our minds are even more personal than our underwear, so if we’re down with changing the latter, we can definitely be open to changing the former too.
It’s Your Circus – Learn to Juggle
Header Image by Evan Clark
That’s it, right? We’re all juggling daily. Between our professional responsibilities and personal accountabilities lies a litany of tasks, errands, desires and dreams to tend to as well. Honestly, there are days getting a shower and a couple solid meals can be a challenge (or is that just me?).
Add in a pandemic with work from home environments and suddenly the time in the day gets a little more blended and complicated. Finding that balance between things you have to do and things you want to do is harder. There aren’t distinct “working hours” or “family time” mapped out neatly in our calendars anymore.
Learning to find that work-life balance is even more critical in our current situation. Keep reading to get some useful tips for employees and employers to consider when walking along the tightrope of our new daily lives.
Two Strikes – Not Out Yet
As Americans we already have two strikes against us in the work-life struggle. We’re known as the “no- vacation nation.” 23% of American workers don’t get any paid vacation time AND 55% of those who do leave at least some vacation days unused each year.
Of the 36 wealthiest nations in the world that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. is the only one that doesn’t require employers to give paid vacation or holiday time.
Employees who do get paid vacation time left more than 760 million days unused in 2018. 54% reported feeling guilty taking days off and 30% said they checked their email at least daily while on vacation.
Clearly, as employers and employees we have some work to do on taking it easy. Ironic, isn’t it?
Love or Hate – It’s Not Up for Debate
If you’re fortunate to be in a job that you love, you might feel like you don’t need to worry as much about the balance in your life. Think again. There are many studies that support the fact that taking time away from work allows you to jump back in refreshed and ready to be even more efficient. We covered some of this in last month’s blog on self-care. A break can be anything from a dedicated lunch to a day off here and there to a bonafide vacation.
At Motivation Excellence, our owner and CEO, David Jobes, offers paid vacation, holidays, your hire date anniversary off AND two days off to do charity work each year. There’s also the opportunity to purchase additional days off.
“It’s about loving what you do and being able to spend time doing what you want as well. It’s an important balance and I want our team members to have the opportunity to be efficient and happy at work so they can enjoy their out-of-work hours even more.” – David Jobes
Employees need to make sure they take advantage of their employers’ offerings. Personally, I keep track of time off in an excel file and I visit it at least monthly to make sure I’m on track to use my time off effectively. We all need to be self-advocates too. No one knows better than you if you’re hitting that CODE RED level and need to take an afternoon, a day or a week off to bring the boiling point back down. If you were sick, you’d take time to rest. It’s the same concept with vacation – and you get to enjoy the day without sniffles or a fever!
Planning & Flexibility – The Yin and Yang of Time Off
Even if you have nowhere to go, planning time off in advance allows you to prepare yourself to leave work for a while. You can get clients up to date and warn your coworkers you’ll be out of touch for a while.
For people with young children, the pull of family versus work time is real, especially in pandemic times! Scheduling planned time-outs from work can help parents connect with their kids while also allowing coworkers to know you’re out of pocket at this same time every day or week. If you have a flexible work schedule you can make up that time when the kids are settled in for a movie after dinner. If it’s an option, take a half day of vacation here and there to help navigate time on and time off.
As much as planned time off work is nice, there’s nothing quite like taking a last minute afternoon when your schedule allows! Flexibility is critical to creating a balance between what needs to get done and what you want to do. Some days might end up being very work heavy without that being the plan at the start. Other days might open up without notice (canceled meetings anyone?). Being able to pivot and repurpose chunks of time will help create that balance we all need.
A Work In Progress – You Can Do It
It doesn’t have to be one or the other: work or life. It’s about incorporating everything throughout the day in healthy doses. And as this is the month we celebrate fathers, please men, remember to shine a light on all your amazing attributes. Be goofy dad and date night hubby, along with respected colleague and BBQ champion. When your life is balanced it makes your whole world and all those who love you feel more at ease in every way.
The bottom line is we all tend to struggle with work-life balance from time to time. When you find yourself about to drop a plate, two balls, and a lit torch all at once, remember to take a break. You can rotate all those pieces back into the juggling routine (well, you might need a new plate) one at a time. You might find that after some practice you’re actually a pretty skilled juggler.
Get to Know ME with Josee Lunk
At Motivation Excellence, we take pride in our coworkers; not only their work ethic but also what makes them unique and shine as an individual. This month we’re featuring one of our newer team members, Josee Lunk! You can read and watch all about her in our most recent Get to Know ME feature.
What’s your title and how long have you been at ME?
Customer Award Service Representative for the last 2.5 years.
What’s something special about working at ME that you’d like to share?
From my first day, I felt welcomed. It’s like having a second family. Everyone is friendly, helpful and you have a very positive energy around you even on bad days.
Have a special story about a client interaction that you still smile about?
Not everybody is good with computers, and sometimes some of our customers have trouble navigating through their electronic devices. One particular customer had trouble printing digital gift cards and did not have anyone around him to help him with it. He really was looking forward to those for his road trip coming up with his brother. After working with him on the phone for almost a week I decided to print them myself and expedite them to him to his home address. 2 days later I got a call from him, telling me that I was the best and that he was never expecting me to do this for him. It put a smile on my face for the rest of my week.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
Many years ago, I realized that there was a lot of waste in this world, so I decided to try resale shopping. I love finding treasures, refinishing furniture, it is amazing what you can find that was never hardly even used.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
The people I love and care about. My family, my friends, my co-workers, I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so I give my best every day.
What do you enjoy doing outside work?
Spending time with my family, traveling, fishing, kayaking, reading, cooking, sharing great meals and wine with my family and my friends.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
My boys, they are very funny!
If ME didn’t stand for Motivation Excellence, what could it stand for?
Marvelous Efficiency
What’s the most interesting former job you’ve had?
I was an ESL teacher for adults for several years. It was very rewarding!
How long have you lived in the U.S and what brought you here?
I moved to the US from Canada in the summer of 2000. I was a Hotel Restaurant Manager for Accor Hotel Group and they were opening a new hotel in Chicago. There was an opening for me to relocate, so I seized the opportunity of a new adventure!
Self-Care is Here to Stay
The philosophy of self-care has been around for decades, but in the last two years, it’s truly taken off as a widely-accepted attribute to overall health and wellness. When I started writing this particular blog, I kept thinking back to our friends in the airline industry who always encourage passengers to “put your own mask on before you help someone beside you.” It inspired the creation of our Motivation Excellence May “MEme” (say that five times in a row). Coupled with May being associated with moms, AND being eight-plus weeks into a pandemic where masks are now a fashion statement, I think we hit the trifecta here.
Better self-care means better everything!
Numerous studies show how effective self-care reduces stress and anxiety while boosting worker productivity and overall mood. Taking a short break to breathe, rest, walk, or chat with a friend may help you refocus on an important task you’re struggling to get through. Of course, you need to make sure you’re not crossing the line into “procrastination-land!” Being deliberate in your self-care practices can and will reap rewards in your workplace or home.
At Motivation Excellence, we encourage our team members to take a 15 minute “kinetic energy break” every day to make sure everyone is getting up from their desks to move. Since working from home has become the new standard, it’s especially important to take breaks to make sure we are exercising and getting outside for a breath of fresh air or a quick walk around the block. Getting the blood pumping, even in short spurts, can revive motivation and rejuvenate the spirit in these very trying times.
If you want to jump on board with us this month and look out for your own mental well-being, we invite you to join us during our May “Wellness Challenge”. The goal is to incorporate three basic and minimal health and wellness activities into our daily routine. For each activity, we achieve we earn one point. At the end of the challenge, accumulated points are deposited into our personal employee engagement accounts to spend as we choose on a huge array of reward options.
Making self-care a priority: here, there and everywhere
We all know it’s important, but self-care is often the first thing that gets axed off the to-do list on a busy day. But it doesn’t have to be that way: There are simple things you can do to make sure you get some recharging time daily.
- Schedule it: whether it’s yoga, a run, reading, or cooking, block it off on your calendar and protect it.
- Pay for it: it’s harder to let go of something if you’ve already paid for it. A painting class, a massage appointment, a new piece of exercise equipment – you want to get your money out of it!
- Make it handy: download an app, make sure you have walking shoes with you, carry a book around – we often have little chunks of downtime we can use to rest, read, exercise, or just breathe.
I used to bike during my son’s guitar lessons and run while my daughter was at voice lessons. I’d bring a book with me for their orthodontist appointments or to bide my time while waiting for an after school pick-up. If you regularly think ahead and can be flexible with the “how” and the “where,” it does get easier to incorporate self-care breaks 5 minutes here, and 15 minutes there (sounds like a great Dr. Seuss book).
Self-care is for everyone obviously, but since it is the month of Mother’s Day and women tend to land in the role of caregiver to many others, we’d like to give a shout out to all the ladies. Be sure to read next month’s blog on work-life balance, when we’ll tip our hat to the men out there.
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