If Nobody Reads It, Does It Exist?

I recently read that it is “not about what is under the Christmas tree, but it is about who is around the Christmas tree.” Things in our life may come and go, but people and memories stay with us forever (well... or until I walk up the stairs and forget what I went upstairs for).

How does this tie into our work life?   What in our daily routine is just a thing and what is memorable?   If I can have permission to alter the quote above to this, “it is not about the things you did, but it is about who you impacted”.  I think it is our role as leaders to be impactful.  How do we “impact people”?  How do we make a difference every day to make our team better.  How do we challenge and reduce the “things” in order to focus on what will be memorable?

Sure, it is important to ensure the report is on time, the audit complete, the investigation is thorough or the story delivered, but it is more important to understand the impact of the report, the impact of the audit, the impact of the investigation or the impact of the story.

If nobody reads it, does it exist?  We have all completed projects like this.  Like automatons churning out our weekly widgets.  I once interviewed a journalist from a small-town paper who wrote updates to her boss about the police blotter, she thought nobody read it so she started making these crazy creative stories and turning them in – apparently the right people were reading though and a few weeks later she was promoted to a bigger job - her creativity did have an impact.  So, do we ever do the same?  Do we question the need, the value, the impact of our periodic work?  Do we really understand what happens with our work?

What is the intent of our deliverable and what was the impact of it? 

Much of what we deliver in the workplace is repeatable and unoriginal.  What stands out is when something is different.  Something that actually makes an impact on people.  The reader, the boss, the employee, the peer.  What causes us to pause, to think, to change?  What makes us ALWAYS want to read a piece of work by Mary Smith??  And why.  How do we make the mundane, extraordinary?

So, next week when you are churning out weekly update 237.a.31, take a moment and rethink it.  What can you change to make it more valuable and impactful for the recipient? 

What will cause it to be a memory and not a thing? 

Together.  We.  Win. 

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

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