Put the hammer down

Over the last few weeks whilst out for a walk I've been finding nails on the pavement. 

I'd pick them up and put them in the nearest rubbish bin, and then a few days later find another one and do the same. It's still a mystery where they're coming from.

One day I'd just picked a nail off the pavement, and thought I saw another one - until I realised my error - as it was just a twig!

It reminded me of the saying  

When you've got a hammer everything looks like a nail.

Its easily done - and may be the reason for a current situation you're feeling very stuck about?

When we're seemingly going around in circles, or stuck in a rut, or getting the same unwanted results, you may want to check you're not just walking around with a hammer in your hand!

The metaphorical hammers in our lives might be as a result of:

• Being too comfortable in our comfort zones. The best means I've found for getting out of mine is to do something different everyday. Although I did enjoy exploring what impact a comfort universe might have last year! 
• Making assumptions that everyone is just like us - and using what we see as evidence to support that - even though when we're seeing a nail it's really a twig!
• Forgetting that we only know a very small percentage of the facts and data and do need to ensure we get as wide a perspective as possible.  
• Being stuck in a rut of just doing the same thing over and over. One unconventional means of getting out of a rut is to go and find a real one ... as you'll see here 

• Expecting different results from doing the same thing
• Blaming others 
• Getting stuck in a role or pattern of behaviour with another person   
• and so on (I'd love to know your suggestions for hammers we carry in our lives - work or personal)

Where in your life might you be rigidly holding onto the hammer, and what do you need to do to put the hammer down?

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach 
Unlocking procurement potential 

Do you have all the information?

For 3 months of the year my local beach is a blue flag beach which means it has life guards. Life guards with safe and not so safe areas to communicate to beach visitors. 

I was looking at the flag above and realised without a second flag the first flag is of no use at all. That is, without the second flag how do we know if the safe area is to the right or left of this flag. As it happens on this occasion it was to the right, although it might as easily have been left instead. 

Isn't that the case in many situations in life? 

We often only have part of the data, and need to ensure we look for supporting data to make sense of the first piece of data and not make assumptions. 

Please take care not to jump to any conclusions.

Alison Smith 
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change - inside and out

Miscommunication

You know that feeling when you think something should be easier than it is, and you're getting increasingly frustrated at what the other person is saying because it's still not making sense?

A bit like when you're trying to do one of the above puzzles, and you're just moving the tiles around in some random order, and getting nowhere.

I had 2 of those sorts of conversations this morning - one on the phone to the bank, and the other whilst tweeting back and forth with Tesco regarding my club card vouchers (mundane I know but a useful example as you'll find out)!

The common cause of this frustration was misunderstanding - on both sides. That is on both occasions both parties felt what they were saying was easy to understand, and therefore getting frustrated at the lack of understanding by the other person.

With Tesco it involved me having to go back to the beginning and confirm that when I used this URL, and pressed that button, this appeared and not what they were telling me. Of course when they had the missing piece of the jigsaw they then realised the cause of the misunderstanding, and could tell me what URL to use instead.

With the bank I'm not sure she ever understood why I wasn't following what she was saying. To her, with her knowledge and understanding what she was saying was common sense. I'm not sure therefore she understood why I was still having a problem. In this instance the missing pieces of information for me were:

1. My personal user account is linked to my business account - I can therefore use my personal account user name and password to access my business account! (who knew?)
2. My debit card can be used to authenticate my account on the card reader - ie I don't need a authentication card as I have used in the past - (how simple). 
3. The card reader provided for my old business account can be used for my new business account - perhaps a little more obvious once points 1 & 2 have been clarified.

Postscript upon trying this out: no that doesn't work, and my lack of understanding was because there was no logic, and no way on Earth the advice given was going to work, and yes an authentication card is required - which they will now send me!!! Not sure what language we were both talking but it certainly wasn't the same one!! I should trust my intuition more because I knew it wasn't right and kept checking, but that obviously simply got us into the realms of more miscommunication. 

I remember a colleague getting very frustrated with me that I wasn't agreeing with her about something. The more I didn't understand and agree with her the more frustrated she got. In the end I said to her:

"For you to be this angry and vocal about the situation I know you're right. However I don't yet know why you're right. That is there is a missing piece of knowledge or logic that you know that I don't - yet. Help me find the missing piece of information before we come to blows."

How often when we're disagreeing with someone do we assume it's a real disagreement rather than spend a little time to confirm we're talking the same language, and to find the common ground.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out