Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you seem to be carrying more
Speaker 1: of the organizational weight in various situations, consider what would
Speaker 1: happen if you weren't there, and prompt the other people
Speaker 1: involved to take a little more of the initiative. After all,
Speaker 1: in many cases we can't always be there, so it
Speaker 1: is good to figure this out when it is not
Speaker 1: a crisis. I know that Before Breakfast listeners are productive
Speaker 1: and dependable sorts. That means that people often look to
Speaker 1: you to manage situations, deal with logistics, and organize everything,
Speaker 1: which can be fine, But if you are and with
Speaker 1: is a little limited, you might nicely nudge people to
Speaker 1: figure out how to handle things without you. For instance,
Speaker 1: maybe you have been organizing the holiday lunch at your
Speaker 1: office for the last few years. People will expect you
Speaker 1: to do it all again. But maybe you are out
Speaker 1: on maternity leave four years ago over the holidays and
Speaker 1: something happened there was some holiday celebration. This is within
Speaker 1: institutional memory, so you could ask people what they did
Speaker 1: then and then just suggest it get repeated or perhaps
Speaker 1: your crew of teens and preteens has gotten a little
Speaker 1: too dependent on you nudging them along in the morning.
Speaker 1: You could ask what they would do if you weren't
Speaker 1: there and help them set up alarms or other reminders
Speaker 1: to make that same schedule happen. Indeed, maybe you could
Speaker 1: be gone some morning early to give it a trial run.
Speaker 1: Even little kids can sometimes be nudged to take the initiative.
Speaker 1: Your five year old asks you to get him water,
Speaker 1: You ask what he would do if you weren't there,
Speaker 1: and he remembers that the kid friendly cups, bowls, and
Speaker 1: plates are in a drawer he can reach, and he
Speaker 1: can turn on the sink by himself in the bathroom
Speaker 1: or use a step stool in the kitchen to reach
Speaker 1: that one. Now, obviously, in many situations we get help
Speaker 1: from others, and we help each other out too, But
Speaker 1: in general, in any organization or family, it is good
Speaker 1: to figure out how systems would run if one person
Speaker 1: was absent. If you were very sick for a while,
Speaker 1: your family would have to figure something out. Your workplace
Speaker 1: would need to figure something out too, So sometimes it
Speaker 1: is good to think through scenarios when it is not
Speaker 1: a crisis. And to make all systems a little more resilient.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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