Improving Operating Procedures Makes Life Better
Improving Operating Procedures Makes Life Better
January 2, 2013 by Taylor Studios
Have you ever noticed how you operate in your business/work life often applies to your personal life too? Do you learn things that benefit you at work and then help you in your personal life and vice versa? It seems if you were to generalize most issues at work they come down to a communication problem. I believe that is too broad of a categorization. The problem you identify is the problem you solve. We try to be more specific and offer clarification when problems arise. This has lead to much work on how to specifically improve our operating procedures. Couples and families also establish standard operating procedures. When do you go to bed, when and what do you eat, how do you handle illness, how do you handle vacations, how are household tasks done, what do you do on holidays, etc.
Point of View
One of the best ways to improve communication is to be open minded and willing to truly listen to the other person’s point of view. They may see things very different than you or do things very different than you. Don’t judge the way they see things. And you have to be open to considering their way of looking at the world. Maybe making a change for them is not that big a deal and can improve operations.
We recently had a diagram sent to us from a client. Several of us were looking at it and instantly had a different point of view at first observation. My point of view, was dang it, our client did a lot of work on this and that is not the customer service I want us to provide. My art director looked at it and thought we need to improve our quality on this and get on it right away. My accountant looked at it and thought, boy this is going to cost us a lot of money. We all laughed when we realized our different point of views. Putting all of those together and out on the table makes us a better team.
My boyfriend and I had different approaches on when to communicate a concern. I feel more clear headed after a night of sleep. So I often brought up issues first thing in the morning. It takes him a bit more time for him to wake up and think about big things. It also isn’t as productive for us at work if we start the day with an issue. I now attempt to not throw out big concerns in the mornings.
One of my clients after much asking on what we could improve said the hardest thing for them was contract negotiation. Since we do it often it does not bother us to talk about contract requirements. Yet, we don’t want to start the relationship out tense with any client. We have attempted to make this process more palatable for our clients.
Standard Operating Procedure
All this willingness to have conversations, put the issues out on the table and be willing to make a change leads to better operating procedures whether it is at work or home. These operating procedures might be as simple as what temperature will we keep the room to how will we have conversations.
As an example, maybe you like the temperature to be 72 and others like it at 65. Can you make a change to make most people happy? At TSI, the PMO is strict about keeping doors closed to keep that room warm. Pete sits near a drafty wall and has adapted by wearing warmer clothes. At my house I like it warm, my guy likes it cool at his house. I wear sweatshirts when I go to his house.
If issues and new ways to operate are not discussed relationships can deteriorate. What operating procedures have you negotiated to make your life easier?