EXCITMENT REIGNS

I am in my element - I am holding my first CLIP System work-shop for youngsters between the ages of 16 and 22 -Yeah!!! The 10 September 2011 will be a memorable day for me in the future.

The CLIP stands for "check Lists for Improved Productivity" - this is a business/self help book I wrote and I have been work-shopping around it quite a lot lately.

It's all about having the right "business" mindset and being able to manage risk, cost and customer service by using the simple check list methodology as a control tool.......NOW ISN'T THAT JUST REALLY EASY.

Of course the angle I'll take when coaching the youngsters will be slightly different, but at the end of the day 'RISK MANAGEMENT" is what it's all about, even at school, college and university. Deadlines have to be met, arrangements have to be made, plans have to be formed and social events have to take place.........

So, keep checking my blog and I'll let you know how it went.

A BIG money gobbler - WEAK ADMINISTRATION

Companies under estimate the large sums of money they lose because their staff are weak at adminstration.

During the workshop I run aligned to my book "The CLIP System" - this is a check list methodology, using check lists as a control tool - I can guarantee that only 2 out of 20 people have some kind of "control tool" in place that helps them manage their job functions effectively. Managing your job function includes IT, processes and procedures, time management and prioritisation. The secret is getting all these functions aligned, so that it results in managing risk, managing cost and giving excellent customer service.

IT'S TIME TO PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR ADMINISTRATION........How well you do it and how timeously you do it is important.

STATUTORY COMPLIANCE

Recently, the subject of statutory compliance by companies has been at the very core of my thoughts. I have wrestled night and day, trying to comprehend the complacent manner in which companies embrace statutory compliance issues.

The most recent statutory complaint topic that has raised it's head at least 5 times in the last week, covering many different instances, and a number of different companies, has been Occupational Health and Safety - commonly known, or should I say "should be known" as OHS.

In a restaurant, a lady has a "heart attack" - no first aider is found in the company, and even more horrifying was that, the manager was not even trained in first aid. A crisis arose which could have cost the lady her life, for the sake of complying to OHS rules and regulations, regulating these kinds of incidents where the public and even more scary, clientele meet.

OHS is in place for positive reasons, for the safety of clients and staff members. When I began asking a few questions about their OHS plan, since I am allergic to well over 24 substances and it is important for me to frequent places that would be competent if the need arose, the manager threw up her hands and said "huh, OHS what's that - no restaurants follow those rules - whatever for?

What remains to be said then is this...... IT IS THE LAW - whether we like it or not, whether others do it or not, it is a statutory compliant issue that is governed by the laws of our country for good reason, and it is our corporate responsibility towards staff and clients to be compliant.

Most companies are SARS compliant - WHY? Because if they don't comply SARS is right there, in their face, making them comply. BUT it appears that if it is a "lesser" statutory compliance issue, which the category OHS falls into in their minds, they feel they have the CHOICE of whether to comply or not, just because inspections are not controlled as strictly as SARS controls theirs.

The thing is, IT IS THE LAW and our own integrity should be guiding us in this regard.

Non-compliance in anyway whatsoever can result in a VERY costly exercise, with long term negativity..... it doesn't take rocket science to know this.

To wrap it up then....

ARE YOU STATUTORY COMPLIANT IN EVERYTHING?

THIS SHOULD BE A GOAL,

NOT A PERSONAL CHOICE "SHOULD I OR SHOULDN'T I"

RE-GOUPING AND PRIORITISATION PARTNERSHIP

Well, here I go again on the topic of re-grouping, but this time from a different angle..... Since re-grouping involves analysing, prioritising and attacking that which has been prioritised, it is important that people in the workplace know how to prioritise. This question gets asked frequently - often by people with a trying to "catch you out" slant. Probably the most frequent question around prioritising is this - "what if there are two items of the same priority, which one do you do first?".........Well, the way I see it is this, the following question needs to be asked and strictly answered - "If I don't do it, what will the conseqences be?" Obviously if they are then still on the same level of importance, you need to get yourself together and do both tasks, post haste.

Using the "TRAFFIC LIGHT" symbol as a benchmark for prioritising, prioritising becomes a little more simple.

RED = MUST DO IMMEDIATELY

ORANGE = COMING UP TO HIGH PRIORITY

GREEN = NOT QUITE READY FOR ORANGE YET

There is a simple rule to follow so that prioritising is not so pressurised and that is:

NEVER HAVE MORE THAN 3 ITEMS ON YOUR "MUST DO" LIST AT ONE TIME. When you have finished one high priority item bring one up from the "orange" group.

Never panic, as the pilots say "if you panic you die". Stay focused and use the TRAFFIC LIGHT....

EXCITING NEWS - THE MEDIA MOGUL & THE CLIP SYSTEM JOIN FORCES

I know, it is a rather long heading for a blog but....... that's exactly what this blog is all about.... JOINING FORCES WITH OTHER NETWORKERS TO MUTALLY BENEFIT EACH OTHER.

For me - the owner of the CLIP System methodology, aligned to my book "The CLIP System" - check lists for improved productivity, I am encourage in the fact that other businesses find the CLIP System a useful tool to manage risk and cost within their companies.

The Media Mogul recoginsed the benefits of the CLIP System and is offering a workshop to local Howick and Midlands Meander businesses, now that's what I call "caring for your customers".

How far does one take the "customer care" aspect of business.... well, I say - ALL THE WAY.

BUSINESS BLOGGING

I often wonder what it is I should really be blogging about - certainly not very private things?Business things are good, but then - what would be of interest or not to those of you out there.....that's the burning question.

So, in my usual style of individuality - the following is what's currently on my heart.

Today, Shari made a statement that made me wake up and take note - "we're not like you, we have other conversations, not just work conversations". Wow.... I must be becoming a real dreary, work-a-holic indeed.

I began to think about and analyze this statement - can I talk about things other than work issues or do I find myself in this horrid place of being a "work-talker" - how boring?

Well, I am sad to say that work is a primary topic of conversation in my daily life, no matter the day or time.......now that's really not on and very, very sad.

The next step is - how do I make a positive change in my conversations in the future? This may prove to be a challenge for the following reasons:-

1) I am the sole person in my company - Harmie and Shanie.com cc so work is a primary function all day every day.

2) I work from home - so I don't get all that much outside conversation - my phone calls are generally work related.

3) I work on a number of voluntary committees so again "work" is the topic of conversation.

4) I haven't achieved the fine line balance in life as a "one man band" between work and play.

There are probably many more 'negative" contributors to my problem BUT there is also hope. From TODAY I'll be getting a life outside of "work" - somehow, somewhere and soon.

ANY SUGGESTIONS OUT THERE AMONGST YOU READERS?

CHALLENGES OF RIGHT NOW

Life throws challenges at us all the time - we lose loved ones, babies get born, schooling has to be done, jobs need to be found, churches change, companies go under, companies start up, people get retrenched, people survive disasters, disasters happen and so the list goes on and on.
My recent challenge is having too much work for one person but not enough work to employ someone else to help. I suppose if you are an entreprenuer you'd be saying "take the leap Shan".... "it's a risk you need to take Shan".... and all those other bold statements BUT one needs to have a plan -I think...... before taking the leap - I am conservative you see and having been recently bitten by a compnay owing me money and going down the tubes I have become quite reserved really.
My main priority it to stay out of debt but sometimes you have to go into debt to grow your business.....so it boils down to -"should I or shouldn't I" ......oh I don't konw the answer really and I haven't given it too much thought BUT I'll speak to someone who is wise in these affairs and try and find a way forward.
Of course I don't want to turn away business at all but if you are at your maximum output level what do you do?
Anyway... food for thought I suppose and having to think is always a good idea. Why do they say "think outside the box?" Can't we just make the box bigger??????

EARLY DAYS OF CHECK LISTS

I was very young, around 8 years old when my mom started introducing the concept of using a check list to keep track of things to me. As I grew older I started to appreciate the effectiveness of using a check list as a control tool in my life and I have been a HUGE check list user since. As a mother I tired to instill in my children the basic fundamentals of using check lists as a control tool in their lives - it worked. They both use check lists in different ways but they do use them. Now I'm a granny and I have started introducing check lists to our little granddaughter of 8. I start with a favourite - drawing up a check list for a dinner party to beheld. Using the dinner party topic is a great way to introduce check lists to little ones and big ones since it is fun and you don't get much opposition. It's a mindset that needs to be developed within them and the younger it is done the better for them - when they get into the work place they will be in control of their job function from the start. Our little granddaughter's first dinner party check list was about three words - ice-cream, tablecloth and candles but after discussing that there is a bit more to it than those three words, we went onto something a little more detailed. Now when asking her to put a check list together her mindset is correct from the start. - it may not be mature yet, but she now knows to group things and define things under each main heading that she has given. IF LITTLE ONES CAN DO IT .......... WHY DO ADULTS REVOLT AGAINST IT, when check lists are a wonderful tool to be used to make a person reliable, meet deadlines, operate with integrity and in general be known as someone highly efficient and professional........I JUST DON'T KNOW!

TIME MANAGEMENT

Time management is a very important function within the work environment. The old saying "time - use it or lose it" still stands firm today - you cannot go back and use time and you cannot go forward and use time - you can ONLY use the current time, so it is important you use it wisely and make use of pro-active planning to use furture time effectively. To ORGANIZE your time you need to know 2 specific things: 1) How much work is there to do? 2) How long do I have to do it in? Once you have established these two things you need to prioritise correctly considering time taken to do each job function and how important each job function is. Time management brings about a measure of respect within the workplace. People will know and be confident in your meeting of deadlines and giving excellent service - internally and externally, everyone will be satisfied. Isn't that just worth the effort in getting your act together and time managing effectively? The question you must answer then is "time - am I going to use it or lose it?"

RE-GROUPING

A constant thing one has to do these days within the work environment and the home environment is to re-group. By this I mean:
1) Analyse
2) Prioritise
3) Attack
4) Monitor
The fact that communication is so fast these days between emails, facebook, cellphones, twitter, linked-in and everything else it has become HIGHLY important to re-group on a consistant basis or you will drop catches.
Sure hope you are re-grouping .......!!!!

YOU HAVE THE TOOLS - HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOU

A dear colleague of mine from The Media Mogul company and I were chatting on the way back from a good business meeting this morning, about how to market my type of skills - admin systems for office efficiency, considering RISK and COST management. Nikki came up with this wonderful idea - "YOU HAVE THE TOOLS - HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOU"..... Well! my mind went absolutely ballistic -now why didn't I think of that because actually that is what it is all about: (of course that's why we have marketing boffs like Nikki around).
Companies - they are always on a cost saving drive EXCEPT when it comes to the computer packages they use. Somehow, the mindset of companies is not "what have we got and how could we make better use of it" BUT rather "this package doesn't give us what we want, let's just buy a new one"......................needless to say, that's the end of the cost saving exercise that they all embraced so well.
Companies need to start thinking about making better use of what they have, which most times is adequate for their needs. I have ALL these strong skills just waiting to be used..... call me...

RISK MANAGEMENT

Dirty words.... that's what the two words "risk management" are!! Well I am assuming this because clearly businesses do not risk manage much anymore, and one would think that in this day an age of the state of the worlds economy they would actually pay attention.
Daily I am surprised by companies big and small that do not manage their risk.
A person I met this week said the only "budget" companies look at these days is their BANK STATEMENT ... my immediate thought was WOW, that's a bit harsh, but then when I thought back to the various companies I have been reviewing lately this is an actual fact - frightening indeed.
You know what always surprises me is the fact the companies big, medium or small have NO idea how much money they are losing because their employees are not functioning well due to lack of basic admin skills. When I'm talking losing money I am relating this to productivity, efficiency, errors made, time management, organisational skills and customer satisfaction - ALL these factors can be translated into monetary values...the question is - "DO THEY EVEN KNOW HOW TO GUAGE WHERE THEY STAND WITHIN THE ADMIN SECTOR OF THEIR BUSINESS?" - the answer in 99% of the cases would be NO. How sad. Just imagine how much more profitable they could be!!