How to handle Conflict - introduction

If you are within NZ, there is a fantastic Assistance Programme that you can visit at http://www.eapservices.co.nz/ or phone them on 0800 327 669 to make appointments if you are struggling with anything you might need help with. 

If you or someone you know is dealing with any kinds of domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse or are fearful for your well being, reach out for help and please call the Police.

Okay, so here is the big one. Topic numero uno.

CAUTION - EAT AND DRINK AT REGULAR INTERVALS

I'm breaking this one up into four parts since it's such a huge topic to cover. 

Each post will deal with the four steps I believe will assist you in most charged conflicts and minor conflicts outside of work (i.e. general arguments that don't escalate) and including some of the minor irritations that happen when dealing with people in general.

Now, CONFLICT. 

This subject comes up more than any other in my one on one coaching sessions that I have with my team every month.  I am also asked about conflict resolution often outside of work too. 

I'm no expert but I do have a fair amount of experience in this area, both from a physical and mental standpoint. For those of you that don't know, I reasonable background in a wide range of martial arts from Wing Chun and Muay Thai to Ninjitsu and Jiu Jitsu with a few in between. 

I used to fight-train instructors for upcoming tournaments at one point, but now I'm more of a free n easy breezy consultant. I don't teach much anymore except for my son and my partner's, a.k.a "the Finn-jah-ninja".

A fact most don't seem to know is that 90% of all martial arts are mentally based, not physical. 

I spent literally hours and hours just talking with my numerous instructors, learning how they thought, how they saw the world from their Asian/Western/Thai perspectives, spending much more time doing that than I ever did physically training. 

Ever since I have been bringing some of their wisdom into my various work roles, into coaching sessions and now to you via these posts. 

I'm often asked about how to handle things that generally happen outside of work but that end up having a continuing impact stress-wise on people inside of work. 

Conflicts are the bane of humanity and big or small, they can tie you in knots before, during and after. 

For big stuff, I always advise for people to seek professional help with counsellors and offer the Law where applicable. 

Counselling is a great place to start and I can assure you, I doubt any counsellors would ever get you to lay down on the couch and talk about your Mother. Unless you're there about your Mother of course...then that's a different story.

But this has been the introduction....read on. 

How To Handle Conflict - point 1 (Find a way to calm down)

"Just how can I deal with conflict?"

It's a great question and one, like I said in the introduction, one that comes up often.

Well, in order to fully understand, we need a couple of definitions to make things a little simpler. No, this is not because I think you're simple, far from it. 

If I did think you were simple, I'd be writing this post a lot slower...

As you know, there are literally millions (even billions) of different types of conflict, ranging from arguments about who loves who the most or why can't you just bloody put the seat down, to why one religion is worse than another and even far beyond that to the world stage.

For the sake of these conflict posts, we will classify the majority under just two headings and leave out the whole "religion" and "world peace" things. 

This ain't no church or beauty pageant, although I do have the most fabulous legs… Kidding. 

Com'mon people. Focus.

The two different categories we will use are;

1. The BignNaaaaasty Category – these are the "finger pointing, threatening, intimidating, getting in your personal space, yelling and screaming, physical, gonna smash your face in, terrifying, I hate you, you gonna get it, often drunk, often on drugs, high intensity, oh if only you could see your face right now" kind and,

2. The NotsobigANDitsgonnabeok Category - the "Y'know what? I'm kinda bit pissed off with you dude, we need to talk" kind.    

Of course, I'm hoping none of you has ever had to deal with the Big and Naaaaasty ones. They're not the nicest and no one ever truly wins. Fighting is always the last resort of fools. If you've ever been trained to fight, you'll know just cause you can, doesn't mean you should. 

It's got to be far beyond serious before most will even consider it.

The great thing is though, I'd bet around 70%-90% of people probably get through life without ever having to confront this type of situation, let alone have to defend themselves (or their loved ones) physically. 

As you'd guess, often the primary cause of violence is alcohol and/or drugs, which tend to make people irrational and unpredictable. Any situation can escalate quickly and become violent and dangerous. Kinda like when you fight over that last Memphis Meltdown ice-block in the freezer. 

Yeah, that shit can get serious.

For anyone whose mouth just made an "O" shape in shock at my off-hand comment, yep, you're 100% correct - I just made light of Big and Naaaaasty violent events involving drugs and alcohol. I poked fun at high pressure disgustingly frightening situations that should never happen by comparing it to ice block wars. People get hurt in violent situations every time. 

So why am I making so light of it? Where doth such madness come from?? Why would I not take the proper appropriate and serious angle as you would expect?

The answer's simple. 

In any potentially negative and violent situation (and no, domestic violence, child abuse or sexual assaults are not included in this), by making light of the situation in your own head, it can actually help you think straight - a key component when affected by intense stress. 

Humour is one of those things that has the ability to take that "brain-sting" out that freezes you up when you begin to panic. 

Handy tip. Why, yes it is. 

Time to say hello to your new best friend in conflict. 

1. Find a way to calm down.

Clear heads make clear decisions.

Calmness in a tricky situation is honestly like a super power when you have it. You'll be able to see how others are reacting and react appropriately, you'll be able to clearly read the situation and get yourself in a better position (mentally, physically and verbally) before too many emotions cloud the state.

But again, how?  For everyone its different. As I explained, the use of humour is one way and often works for many different people. 

To illustrate this, I had a student many years ago who could never face up in the ring (even during training) - would get terrified every time. He always began sweating profusely, would shake and go pale, even feel sick. Fear of the confrontation had him so messed up, he couldn't get through it. For months he never fought, even though everyone knew he was skilled enough to take part, he even started missing classes trying to avoid ring-time. 

He was just so paralyzed by the fear of conflict. It wasn't even about getting hurt.

By working with him one on one, he found that if he broke down the stages for each step to get him into the ring, after his first contact (punch or kick) all his fear would quickly vanish and his training would take over. 

So from memory, here are the steps that he took;

1.     Putting on the gloves – he joked with himself what it would be like if his gloves were twice the size, like giant clown gloves. He would even picture them this way in his head and how funny it would be trying to punch with them on.

2.     Five minute count before going out – rapid punching and kicking exercises to use up the nervous energy followed by dancing the macarena (yes, you read this bit correctly)

3.     Walking toward the ring – we put on a piece of music he really liked which he was able to get "into". Eventually he was able to "play" this tune in his head. No, this wasn't the macarena.

4.     Climbing through the ropes – he always did this with exaggerated slowness as he was generally smiling as he did it. He always pictured himself getting tangled up and being launched across the dojo like a stone from a slingshot. Nowadays he'd be an angry bird.

5.     Once in the ring, we turned his music up and he did another little dance, working out some of the remainder nervous energy.

6.     Face to face with his opponent - an often highly charged moment even in training – each time he approached this differently. He challenged himself to find out ways of unsettling the other person humorously and break the intense mood. A memorable one was he said to the other fighter – "you have nice eyes". The fight had to be postponed about 5-10 minutes because no one could keep a straight face. His opponent's expression had been priceless.

What this exercise with him illustrates was that everyone has the ability to turn things around in a difficult conflict situation FOR YOU. 

No one has any control over anyone else but YOU certainly do over yourself. So by finding a way to stay calm, you're giving yourself the best chance to get out of most conflicts unscathed.

The majority of things he did were simply triggers or actions for him to find ways to calm down. 
Funnily enough, he's now a stunt man working in Australia film and doing pretty well for himself.

Practice.

Find your happy place.

How to handle Conflict - point 2 (Body Language)

Ok – the art of interpreting body language in a conflict situation. 

Being able to judge how someone is feeling and how they are likely to react based on how they are standing, facial expressions, in some cases even smell.

Lucky for you when it comes to interpreting body language - you are already an expert on the matter, you just may not realise it.   

Below are the approximate stats on human face-to-face communication. You'll see that the actual words you speak make up about 7% of the total whereas the rest makes up 93% – crazy right? Try an experiment – next time you're talking with a friend about anything, fold your arms tightly and point one foot away from them. 

You will notice a change in their behaviour and a lot quicker than you would've guessed.

Non verbal influence is huge.  When you know this, you have the ability to see situations for what they are and for what they might become whilst acting accordingly.

Sound difficult? Well, in the middle of an argument when tempers are flaring, I won't lie to you, it can be.  When you are not dealing with conflict (like right now since you're reading this) its a great time to learn about what can be going on.

To illustrate my point about non-verbal communication, let's consider feet.  

Yup, those two things at the ends of your legs, 10 toes, often smelly. No matter what your foot-ness situation is, these things can tell a lot about someone. 

Now yes, I know, I know, things have sounded crazy before that I've posted here and yes, this is certainly pushing the boundaries BUT so far those other crazy things I've said worked out to be not so crazy, right? Cross your fingers and read on.  I promise if you didn't know this next bit, you'll be happy you kept reading.

FEET

I've put together a few diagrams to help you see what I'm on about.  

Feel free to try these out when you're out and about talking to others. Proof is in the pudding as they say.

Fig 1.

Two people facing each other, either talking about "stuff" that each is interested in, or things are about to go pear-shaped.  Make sense?  Yup, simple and logical, right?

Fig 2.

The red lines are the angle that person B's foot is likely to move to or be at when these two people meet.  As you can see, person B is indicating that they don't have time to (or perhaps don't want to) engage with person A.  If you were person A, how would you change your approach knowing person B didn't have time to talk to you? Consider when you are approaching your manager.  If my manager points her feet away and I happen to notice, I'll offer to catch up with her later knowing she probably doesn't have time to talk.

Fig 3.

This one is usually backed up by person B actually walking away.  People running late for meetings usually adopt this.

Fig 4.

 

I was once told that this one also works well in determining interest from members of the opposite sex, maybe with hair flicking/twirling or proximity.  I guess you could try the theory but I've never used it so no idea if this one works or not. From a more clinical approach, in this figure, person C is interested in person A – either with what they're saying or just in them in general. 

Now of course there are thousands of ways people stand but to summarise, as a general rule of thumb (although not fool proof as personal comfort has a lot to do with how people stand), feet will determine where a person wants to go.

This is great when considering conflict situations. There are ALWAYS signs to let you know conflict is coming, signs which gives someone who is aware (in this case YOU), the necessary time to prepare to deal with it or to remove yourself from what is about to happen. And no, it is not just about feet.  Often folded arms denote closing off to what is being said, balled fists are another indicator, scratching your nose could mean you're lying (or you have an itchy nose).  It is your job to be aware of what is happening around you. 

There's an old saying that goes something like; 

"The people who go looking for fights or trouble are never a problem for those people who are ready for them".  

It's kinda like the boy scouts motto of "be prepared".  It's a real thing.

So, in conflict we have point 1 - "Find a way to calm down" and now we have the next point in any conflict situation.

2. Be aware of your environment and people's body language around you

Keep yah eyes open and be ready 

Trust in the fact you are an expert on body language (since you have been assessing it since you started communicating as a child) and act appropriately to situations you find yourself in.  

This is not to say that you should remain in a state of permanent paranoia, it is recommended that you find a state of constant awareness of what is happening around you.  Aware people generally don't get blind-sided - be prepared. 

Often something you can't explain might trigger a heightened awareness during a potential conflict situation – all of a sudden you will be on edge and react accordingly.  Trust yourself.  You've just subconsciously picked up a change in body language.

These points and explanations are designed to help you be smart when the pressure is on.

So for these first two posts on conflict, if you are… 1. Calm and 2. Aware  …you're already ahead of anyone else when the "#$%^" hits the fan.  

Practice looking around and analysing your environment, become aware of your surroundings.  

In a room full of people (without making it obvious) try picking out the ones who are stressed, or the ones who are confident, or even the ones who are a little of both or neither.

The more you practice, the better you will become.  

Good luck! 

How do you start your day?

How to handle Conflict - point 3 (the Wayne's World Directive)

Now, this is another long post - so again, make sure you eat and drink at regular intervals, can't have you passing out whilst reading now, can we?

So in conjunction with previous points made in posts 1 and 2, in my experience and for those I have coached, mentored or trained both inside workplaces and outside, it all comes down to one simple trick.

3. "Take Action/Do Something"

aka "the Wayne's World Directive"

Sounds simple enough, right? But what am I actually asking you to do? What do I actually mean? 

And who the hell is Wayne and why does he have his own world?  Greedy. Just so greedy.

Long story short - Wayne was played by actor Mike Myers who had his own 2 x movies about his own cable TV show and life with his friend Garth, going out live from his grandparents basement. It spawned a bunch of social changes, some of which still last today.  

Both movies were 90's comedies and wildly popular – I suggest you get the movies out if it's a rainy day and there is nothing better to do, and I do mean nothing. In the movies, Wayne took very little of life seriously and used the words "dude", "schwiiiing" and "party on" a lot more than you would think possible. 

But as lame as he sounds, you could utilise portions of his behaviour into a method to handle conflict.

I can already hear you; "Wayne's World? Do something? Do what exactly? I'm stressing' out in a conflict I can't handle and you're telling me to copy some crazy Wayne guy from a 90's movie??"

Again, that's a great question you keep asking me. 

The answer is unknown, but frankly...I prefer to think I'm just quirky.  But, coming back on track, as stated in just about every post I've loaded about any of these topics – there is always method in my madness. 

This post is no different so read on…..Dude…..

By following these three points of conflict -

1. Find a way to Calm Down and

2. Be Aware of your surroundings/body language etc and then

3. Do Something

- You essentially start reclaiming some of the situation you originally began feeling powerless within. This simple statement of "Do something" is the key to it all and ties together the first two.

And here is the "Wayne's World Directive" – just like in the movie, the funny thing is, it really doesn't matter what you actually do – you could whistle, raise your hands (like you just don't care), scuff your feet, make faces, use your imagination or perhaps even play air guitar. It is the simple act of "doing something/doing anything" that will be enough to kick-start your mind and body into gear and yank you out of the frozen state that has you panicking.

That nervous energy has to go somewhere, right?

You will essentially start on the journey towards taking the smartest and best course of action based on the conflict you find yourself in.

Make sense? No?  Ok, let's try a scenario. You're Blue Person.

You are walking down empty hallway on your way back to your desk. Orange person (one of your team-mates) enters hallway too, see's you and immediately accuses you of being a suck up. Orange person is obviously quite upset about it, face red.

Orange person is now becoming aggressive and steps in closer to you and begins pointing in accusation. Tension is rising quickly. You still haven't said a word, your mouth too dry. Your heart rate is now beating like a drum and you are starting to sweat. Suddenly your thinking is getting jumbled and you begin to feel really attacked. Sound familiar? Yes? So…now what can you do?

Is this your Wayne moment? Yes - see in red.

Follow the steps we've discussed so far.

1. Find a way to calm down. BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT. Imagine Orange person's swear words are not actually words at all; imagine they are farts or actual beep noises like they use on TV instead. Or duck quacks. Imagine a sign next to their head that says "LAME". It really doesn't matter – you just need to apply something to take the "sting out" of the attack. This simple "keeping your mind busy using your imagination" will aid you in calming down. Humour often works best. Think about the kick boxer who was too afraid to kick box, imagining giant gloves and his own theme music.
2. Check Orange person's body language – the pointing is aggressive – Orange person is attempting to "drive" their point home by accusing you of something they think is disgusting. Imagine them as a cartoon character. Now you can diffuse this situation quite quickly, especially in the workplace. It takes action though – which is point number 3.
3. Do something – Put your hands together and stretch out your fingers, then get your quadriceps muscles on the fronts of your thighs to do a little dance, left then right, repeat. Then you could deliver the following statement in a calm and even tone - "Awh no, what? I certainly haven't been sucking up to anyone, not my style. Can you tell me when you think I was? I'd hate to be thought of like that." – as this will begin to de-escalate the situation.   Alternatively, you could use humour by saying "Yes! Gawd, I was hoping someone would notice! I've also been building a space shuttle out of common household appliances and work stationary, lift off is in 20 minutes….you coming?"

By using the calm, even toned statement would be the best course of action, but I'm guessing you're wondering how this statement would work...

It's surprisingly simple and logical. 

You are asking an upset person (who is feeling most of the same physiological symptoms you were feeling) to slow down, calm down and explain rationally when, how and what has given them grounds to accuse you of such a thing. 

Panic and anger generally cause the same physiological alterations in the body. Think about it.

Beauty of this knowledge means you now know that both can be reversed in much the same ways.

Believe it or not, in most forms of communication, by maintaining a calm disposition yourself, most aggressive/panic/high tension situations will de-escalate as there is a desire for the other person to copy your confident, calm demeanor. It's kinda like the alpha dog syndrome. 

Big dog rules, calmest dog rules.  Weird right? But true.

So, there is your third point. 

You'll have to wait until next post for that, but I welcome all comments regarding what I've put in so far.

Have a good one.

How to handle Conflict - point 4 (Empathy)

So we've tackled the first 3 recommendations of what to do in most conflict situations for you. 
Time has arrived to sign this off.

To summarise the previous posts and catch us back up, in conflict situations, good rules of thumb are;

1. Find a way to Calm Down 

2. Be Aware of your surroundings/body language etc 

3. Do something/Do anything to release some of that rising adrenaline

And finally as point 4, use…

Yes, I can hear you. This is the final bit of advice? I'm joking, right? No. Given my martial arts background, I'm betting this was not the final piece of the puzzle you were expecting. There is no "Flying Fists of Fury" in this post.  

Point 4 - EMPATHY. 

Yep, see those capital letters? Yes, this is that important. I got my CAPS LOCK on. I even underlined it.

When the proverbial <insert own word here> hits the fan and you've followed the first 3 steps, both your brain and body should be (with practice) in a state that can consider questions such as;

• "I wonder what he/she is feeling right now and why"
• "I wonder what is really important to he/she right now"  
• "I wonder how he/she is viewing this situation right now"  
• "I wonder how he/she got into this state, what caused this?"

These are vital questions to ask about your potential opponent. They can also be building blocks towards setting up the necessary rapport you're gonna need to further de-escalate the situation.

Now a common trap (certainly amongst us males) is misunderstanding how empathy is viewed by your peers. Contrary to popular belief, Empathy is not a weak approach, it is certainly not soft either. It takes guts to consider, it takes street smarts. You can be empathetic and still have plenty of personal grunt, confidence, and be a force to be reckoned with. Consider how love and kindness can win over anger and selfishness. You can be in love and be kind without setting yourself up as feeble or wishy-washy, right? Sure 'nuff. Same goes for empathy.

SCENARIO: to illustrate why empathy is important.

You leave the movies alone [no, it doesn't matter what you went to see]. It's around 10:30pm. A man is suddenly in your face wanting to attack you physically. 

He is yelling abuse at you as if he knows you, provoking you, becoming more physical by pushing you and is "amping up" with every passing second. He is spitting as he talks, he is that angry. No one is coming to your aid, people are just watching on.

1. You follow the first 3 steps as described and managed to calm down, relax a little and you are aware of your surroundings and his body language.
2. You cannot run away, there is nowhere to go
3. You can see he is not drunk and that he is visibly upset, why you don't know 
4. You have not met him before so it is unlikely he is actually upset at you. Regardless, you are his target.
5. In this situation, lets presume you are sufficiently trained to physically "handle this" as necessary. 
6. You chose to ignore step 4 "Empathy"

By ignoring how this guy feels and why, it is now more likely a fight will begin. Now let's suppose you "handle" this person, hospitalise him. He cannot attack you anymore. You protected yourself and can justify your actions in your own head and to Police. Self Defence, not your fault.

Now imagine the Policeman comes and tells you that this guy was in this aggravated state because a remorseless drunk driver had just killed a very close loved one of his and gotten away with it…

Okay, now stop. Let this sink in for a second or two before reading on. 

Consider how he might have been feeling, what it might be like to lose someone close to you the same way. Could be that you look like the drunk driver. It's possible. Does the fact he's lost someone close like that, justify his violent behaviour and attack on you? 

Of course not.

BUT - would you have acted the same way if you'd known this information at the beginning?

Empathy. Point made.

Understanding what another person's drivers are is critical in most conflicts (with the exceptions of domestic violence, sexual assaults and child abuse) but none more so than within the office environment. 

Often hidden within virtually every conflict in a business setting is the potential for a teaching/learning opportunity. Where there is disagreement, there is often an inherent potential for growth and development, not every single time, but more often than you're considering.

In all of these "here at work" and some of those "outside of work" cases, Empathy is your greatest weapon and ally. 

Combine empathy skill with you being calm, an awareness of your surroundings and your opponents body language, not to mention perhaps relaxing physically (then throw in some compromise, forgiveness, compassion, finding common ground, being an active listener, and confidence) and any of the numerous other approaches you could add, your chances of successfully hitting conflict head-on and resolving it are much higher, especially if your underlying desire is strong.

I'll finish this post up and leave you with an ancient proverb written by Lao Tzu (google him, this Chinese dude was switched on) that states you don't have to be strong or hard to overcome obstacles and that often perceptions of what is strong/hard or soft/weak, simply aren't true. Empathy is one of these factors. It is perceived as soft but in actual fact, can overcome hard.

"The hardest things in the World can be overcome by the softest things in the World. Water can erode Earth, and Weak can overcome Strong. This the World knows, but does not practice." 

I hope these posts about suggestions on how to handle conflict has been helpful.

A "Darren-ism". Good luck googling this one...

Yup - here we go again. That crazy-eyed 6ft 2 Kiwi guy is now creating "ism's" completely unsupervised...

What is this place coming too??

Chaos. 

Yes, utter chaos.

I give up.

Now if you haven't been reading prior posts where I've mentioned them, a "Darren-ism" may sound like something a bit medically disturbing... but it isn't.

Rest assured, these ism's are 97.6% safe for human consumption, don't ooze, leak, involve "please turn your head and cough" or "Please bite down on this" procedures in any way shape or form.

You'll be fine. Trust me.

But, to reassure you if you are a new reader, here is a bit of background.

Late 1990's or something, I forget the name of the guy who coined the phrase, but a Kendo student of mine in Auckland decided to call certain points/questions I would raise with him when he was needing to chat/needing advice, as "Darren-ism's".

This term stuck, (amongst others).

 

Since then I have utilised these quirky references in every management and teacher/student environment I have ever been in, mainly because they seem to work.

Nope, I dunno why they do either, they just do.

I trust them so much I even utilise them raising my son and no doubt, when my partner’s son is old enough to understand what his Step Dad is blathering on about, with him too.

These approaches generally include a blend of Asian thinking mixed with a sprinkling of Western-ness, a reflection on how I often see the world around me, and hopefully (so far) they have been helpful enough for people who have heard them. Epiphanies have even been had, many more than once and even with happy tears.

This "helpfulness" angle is why I write these posts in the first place.

So, now that the scene has been set for you, bit of background has been delivered (so you don't think I'm completely mental) and thankfully you haven't had to go to any emergency doctor for indigestion due to sucking down too many isms, here you go.

A "Darren-ism"

"When you know there is a serious storm coming, y'know, like a big sucker with furious winds…if you were locked down to choosing only one of the following things to do, which one would you choose?

Build some walls?

Or build some windmills?"

​Please comment on which one you would choose and why.

A gherkin epiphany - look around at what you do

Well, not quite about gherkins, but lem'me tell you...gherkins will feature!

To be honest, this post is really about the theme of "helping".

It is something we here in the business I work for, do very well. It's a common trait for everyone that works here - we're doers and thinkers and helpers - fantastic combinations to have in any organisation, ours more so than most especially given how quickly this business changes. To give you an idea, we do electricity, gas and telecommunications including ultra fast fibre and ADSL/VDSL.

It is incredible how quickly roadblocks we find here become opportunities, mistakes become positive learnings, and the untenable can become tenable, even an advantage.  Yup, my workplace is filled with amazing people doing amazing things. But I'm not here to blow hot air at you. Not my style.

This post on "Helping" is simply a bit of an eye-opener for you. I use this story I'm about to tell you to illustrate just how much of an impact you can have in your job, no matter where you stand in any organisation, no matter what your role is.  It's also a story I reference to illustrate just how powerful a change in focus toward "awareness to help" can be.

Read on, you'll pick up what I'm putting down by the end. Promise.

THE STORY

A fair few years back a major international airline employed a softly spoken, Joe-blogs-blue-collar working man who nobody would have considered smart. He hadn't finished school and worked for the airline as a cleaner, his boss didn't really give him the time of day.  It was this softly spoken man's job to collect the finished plates of food at the end of each flight and clear them back in the terminal for the plates to be washed. Not a particularly glamorous job, but certainly essential to the ongoing running of this multi-million dollar business.

For years, this man simply boarded the plane, wheeled out the plates in their container and scraped them clean, stacking them up for washing. He did this ten times or more a day. Very quickly this repetitiveness became instinctive, he no longer had to think about what he was doing anymore – he just simply did it.  Like a robot, same task repeatedly.

However, one day after the CEO of the airline informed everyone of a global fuel crisis and asked everyone to look for efficiency, he happened to notice the amount of gherkins left on the plates.

Every time he cleared the plane as he always did, over half of the plates still had the gherkins left on them. He raised this with his direct supervisor, who ignored him and told him not to worry about it - they were only gherkins. A week or two passed until the CEO raised the efficiency speech again and this man finally summoned up enough courage to speak up – he went straight to the airlines CEO direct.

The CEO immediately took the cleaner seriously and in no time at all, that cleaner saved the airline well over $200,000 per annum. 

Because of gherkins.

"So?" I hear you ask. "What does this mean for me?"

Easy. You can contribute to your businesses success more than you know - it's just a matter of changing your perception to what you can see...and having the courage to speak up.  

If you're lucky, you won't have any supervisors/leaders like the one who ignored the cleaners suggestion.

Most jobs have KA's - "Key Accountibilities" or set expectations on what is expected of you - things you are graded on. 

How great do you think it would be if you identified efficiency in your job? Forget the kudos, think personal pride!

So go on – have a look around at those tasks you do every day and see if there's anything there that can be improved and see how much it would take to get it done.

Who knows, maybe you'll have a gherkin epiphany yourself.

Dont be that person who puts others down in order to get to the top. Success is earned, not stolen.

It's all about perception - challenge yours.

Why are you doing it that way?

If you are at work right now.

Take a look at what you're doing. Is there a slim chance it could be done better?  Smarter?  More efficiently? Save you stressin' out over it?  I'd bet there is a chance.

If you can see something or know something right now that fits this criteria, my advice is to write it down. Get it sorted with the how, any potential barriers and the why it should be done.  Do this for yourself, then communicate it.  

Tell someone, maybe your boss, supervisor, or maybe you have a team who looks after innovations.

Right now is the exact right time to start thinking.  Just because its always been done that way, it doesn't mean its the best way by any stretch of the imagination.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."