I’m lying in bed at 4 o’clock am thinking of how things could have gone better in our Sales and Customer Service Coordination meeting today – that’s never a good thing…OR, could it be? I’m reminded of what this meeting is intended for (something many of us, myself included, often forget or never really give a thought to in the first place).
- Improve the coordination and collaboration between these two departments
- Enhance and improve Customer Satisfaction
- Grow sales
Really, it’s set up on a bi-weekly basis to help improve communication between the two departments so that we can work better together, make fewer mistakes, miss fewer things, improve the customer’s experience and satisfaction, thereby growing sales for the company. Yet, what happens in these meetings? Someone brings up a topic or situation they feel can be improved upon by another department and that other department, or shall I say the leadership of that department, get’s defensive, shuts down and explains how nothing can be done to address or improve that situation.
I’ve seen it hundreds of times! I’ve been a part of so many meetings that go exactly this way and admittedly, at times, I’ve been the culprit helping to spur on this dysfunction.
Then, I’m reminded of 2 things I’ve heard that struck and have stuck with me. One was a while ago and one was yesterday.
- the one a while ago – Fall in love with an idea shared by another for AT LEAST 5 SECONDS FIRST, before deciding it’s no good. (quite a novel concept) and,
- the one yesterday – “Everything Is Possible”
The one yesterday. I watched Season 1, Episode 1 of Modern Love (a show I’ve heard of but never seen) and was really entertained and heart-warmed by it. It’s a story of a single New Yorker who finds out she’s unexpectedly pregnant through a brief relationship that has since ended and who finds solace in the platonic relationship with her doorman, Guzmin, a protective fatherly figure to her.
One day, a few years after her daughter is born she’s talking to Guzmin about an exciting job offer she has – but, that’s in LA. She tells him that she’s not sure about it and is just thinking it through to see if it’s possible (her daughter is a New Yorker after all). Guzmin, in his eastern European accent and characteristic resoluteness tells her “Everything Is Possible”. You can see the shift in her demeanor and her “opening up” to this idea.
Now, of course this is a television show on Amazon (based on real life stories originally part of a New York Times article series) BUT, clearly there are nuggets of wisdom…even in romantic comedies!
Can’t we see how things can shift for the better with this mindset? In our work meetings, in our careers, in our personal or family lives?
This is how kids think. Until we beat it out of them. The sky is the limit! There are no limitations in their young minds and imaginations.
Yet, another example of how us “grown-ups” can learn from the little people in our lives, and Guzmin.
