When was the last time you put yourself in someone else's shoes
Shownotes
This week's episode of the Future-Proof your Business podcast. I'm Lucy Rennie, and in today’s episode I’m exploring the value you can bring to your business by being able to put yourself in your clients' shoes and see things from different perspectives.
Summary:
In this episode, I take a moment to reflect on the unique perspective I bring to my work, shaped by my journey through various experiences. I share insights gained from my level 45 status in the game of life, highlighting the value of diverse experiences in understanding organisations. The key theme revolves around being the middle person, bridging gaps between different perspectives in business. I draw examples from strategic planning, design implementation, and even health and safety considerations.
Key Takeaways:
Holistic Decision-Making: The importance of considering diverse perspectives in strategic planning to ensure realistic and effective implementation.
Communication is Key: Highlighting the impact of missed communication, even with well-intentioned plans, using examples from different business scenarios.
Value in Being the Middle Person: The role of mediating and translating between different aspects of a business to foster understanding and collaboration.
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Future Proof Your Business EP51
[00:00:00] Lucy Rennie: Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Future Peepee Business Podcast. I'm Lucy Rennie. And this week I wanted to jump on and share a few reflections with you From my week, from really the last few weeks for ages, but it just seems to be really relevant this week. And at the same time, I thought it'd be really nice to invite you to, yeah, to check in with your business, to check in and, think about how you're doing things in your business and really ask yourself whether you've got your business's best interests at heart or whether you've got your client's best interest at heart or whether it's your own interests that you're thinking about.
[00:00:39] Lucy Rennie: And just again, there's no right or wrong answer with this, but just really check in with yourself and yeah, so you'll get the gist as I explain a little bit more about what I'm talking about. And it starts really with, I think there's been a conclusion this kind of this week and over a realisation over the last, I don't know, the last few weeks and months and I suppose it's, it comes down to the fact that one of the key things that I suppose makes me and the way I do things a little bit different, maybe other people or to other consultants, to other communications or marketing agencies and business coaches.
[00:01:14] Lucy Rennie: And I suppose it also influences the way that I work. And the way that I do things to, to support my clients and my community. I think one of the key things is actually, it comes down to the fact that I'm on level 45, nearly level 46 in terms of this game of life. I saw this on Instagram the other day and I loved it actually.
[00:01:38] Lucy Rennie: Cause instead of making us feel really old, actually, it made me feel really cool because, I'm a bit like the kids who are playing on Fortnite. Yeah, level 45, it means that I'm quite good at this game, maybe, does it? I don't know. Anyway, what it does mean is I'm definitely no spring chicken.
[00:01:54] Lucy Rennie: And I've had a bit of a moment really this week as well, cause I've been exploring and challenging myself to delve into my business and really get focused this year on the way I do things and in the offering of the services that I provide so that Really just to make it as super easy as possible for people to work with me, depending on what they need, depending on their budget and depending on kind of the intensity of what they, and the urgency of what they're looking for.
[00:02:21] Lucy Rennie: So that's been going on in the background, me thinking about, the value that I offer and the value that I provide and what is it, why would people want to work with me and what is it, that makes me. I don't know what makes me successful in the sense of, why do people, yeah, keep coming back and why do people stay with me and what is it?
[00:02:39] Lucy Rennie: And at the same time, as I've got this Joining the Dots program that I'm working on with a group of young people. And If you want more information, actually about joining the dots, I would love you to come and get involved, but it's all about the next generation. So our young people who are currently at secondary school, and it's about joining the dots with them and businesses and helping them to explore, to think about what they're doing, to get encounters, to have experience, to hear from, people like you and me, who have got completely different stories and experiences and show them and inspire them, that actually they really can do.
[00:03:15] Lucy Rennie: Things that they want to do and that they enjoy and then they don't have to go down a route that suddenly somebody's telling them or not telling them. Anyway, so one of the topics last week we were thinking about was we're asking ourselves what do we want to be when we grow up? And they were laughing at me because I was saying, I still don't know what I want to be.
[00:03:31] Lucy Rennie: When I grow up and they were looking at me and it really made me think, as we've I was sharing a little bit of my story and how, I've done all these different things. And. I think one of the eye opening things and seeing it from their perspective was I hadn't decided right from the beginning, this is what I was going to do.
[00:03:51] Lucy Rennie: At 16, I didn't know I was going to be running my own business and working with amazing business owners, in their teams. I didn't know I was going to have a podcast, didn't know I was going to write a book, all these things. I just, I just knew at that time, I loved working with people.
[00:04:03] Lucy Rennie: I love languages. I. Get excited. I had passion. I understood business. I like deadlines and I like the pressure of kind of hospitality, those kinds of environments, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. And luckily, and this is where I am privileged, is that I was supported always by my amazing parents and now my husband and family who, would just say to me, just go and do it, go try, you can do it, and really that encouragement.
[00:04:30] Lucy Rennie: Anyway, what we would, what With all those different discussions, it made me realize, you know what, yeah, I am actually, I have got to be at least a level 45 because thinking about all the different experiences, the places I've been, the organizations where I've worked the events that I've organized, all those different things, there's no way I could have done all that and still be a spring chicken.
[00:04:53] Lucy Rennie: And even the fact that I've, LR Comms, my consultancy business, it's our ninth year this year. So even that in itself is huge, isn't it? So anyway, this got me thinking really. And I think this is one of the key things. It's because of all of that, because of all of that experience and that curiosity and things, and the fact that, I want to know how business works.
[00:05:15] Lucy Rennie: And I've always been curious about that. It means I really have a better understanding of an organization and I'm pretty good at grasping quickly what's going on. And I can see from lots of different perspectives. The consequences, the impact the, what's at stake, what could happen and the fact that I'm really clear on the fact that I know that just because something could be really great here doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to have the same positive impact on another side of the business or on a key stakeholder, et cetera.
[00:05:46] Lucy Rennie: And so I'm very aware of that. And I think that also comes from Enjoying working with people and different cultures and languages and things. It's cause it helps, really helps having that, bigger perspective and being able to see things from other people's points of view. And I've realised that one of the key things that actually.
[00:06:06] Lucy Rennie: It's not necessarily a tangible thing that you can put your finger on, but actually one of the key things that's really valuable is the fact that I'm really good at being that middle person between, so an organization and a supplier, an organization and a contractor or a freelancer or a designer, or I'm really good at.
[00:06:27] Lucy Rennie: Being that middle person between one side of an organization and another, and sometimes it might even be a husband and wife team at the top of a business, I can actually help to, I suppose it's mediate or translate and encourage, that kind of shared understanding from those different perspectives.
[00:06:45] Lucy Rennie: And it's something, do you know what, actually, it's something that I wish we could do more of right at the very beginning in primary school is helping people to see and put themselves in other people's shoes and think about it from other people's perspectives. But I think one of the things that this is really important, it's come down, it's come clear to me this week.
[00:07:02] Lucy Rennie: So there's been a few examples where I've been that middle person in the background and again, sometimes people don't, they're not even aware of it and that's absolutely fine. Because that's, that's okay. This is what I do, but I'm able to jump in and encourage people to see things differently.
[00:07:23] Lucy Rennie: Now this isn't, first of all, before I go into more detail and give some examples, this isn't about being critical of, what people are doing. This isn't about criticizing. This is just about an awareness and an understanding of how, we can be. Convinced in ourselves when we talk about conviction in last week's episode, but we can be we can believe so much that we've got the answers, that we're doing the right thing and that this our way is best, that we forget to check in and to see what the other side the impact that it might have on somebody else or another part of the business or a different cog that, that's running at the same time.
[00:07:58] Lucy Rennie: And a couple of examples of this, whether it's, a McKinsey, amazingly talented group of consultants who are looking at a European strategy from the top down and thinking about sales or thinking about manufacturing or distribution ways of doing things or whether it should be centralized teams or decentralized and how they should be doing it and looking at targets and which machines are best and all those things.
[00:08:22] Lucy Rennie: I've been sitting in a, in, in rooms, in boardrooms where we've got these amazing reports and these amazing strategies that And, thought up and so much work gone into it. But actually in reality on the ground, there's certain things that, you just wouldn't know, it's not that they've missed it.
[00:08:39] Lucy Rennie: It's just that they couldn't possibly know unless they asked the question. So sometimes some of these strategies that are, created to actually implement them on the ground is impossible. And that might be for. daft reasons or, tiny little reasons that might be just historical reasons because a bit like Romeo and Juliet, these two families don't get on, or these two suppliers can't work with each other, or maybe there's a way of doing something with the machine that makes it, Difficult to be able to go at the rate that these guys are suggesting, or maybe it's a cultural constraint or maybe whatever the reason, my point is that it's sometimes it's really hard to come up with a plan without really checking in with the business and knowing how that works and understanding the things that maybe are invisible or intangible or, the tacit knowledge that we can't necessarily put our finger on.
[00:09:27] Lucy Rennie: It might be that logistically, we can't go through because of, I don't know, passport control or whatever that might be. The other side of it, it could be, just simply like a graphic designer who's created an amazing brand and come up with these amazing designs and beautiful, intricate colors and fonts and documents and things.
[00:09:46] Lucy Rennie: And they come to create maybe a new invoice template or What do we call it? Not a proforma or it might be a quote. And they come up with this amazing design, but actually in reality, the manufacturing business or the team on the ground are using Sage and actually all they can do is upload a logo and maybe.
[00:10:04] Lucy Rennie: Just about tweak the footer. And so there's this kind of gap between what's being thought up and created, and then what's actually realistic on the ground. And sometimes that can cause these massive frustrations on both sides, because ultimately everybody wants to have it working in the right way, but they're coming at it from different angles and not really speaking to each other.
[00:10:26] Lucy Rennie: And so that's. What I spend a lot of my time doing. I'm just thinking whether there's another example of that. Yeah, I had a client who actually who not too long ago have got, we were talking about their health and safety contractors that come in and basically they've got this team of people that's outsourced that come in and they basically look after all the different things in terms of health and safety, whether that's the basic reporting, but also whether it's risk assessments and the way that they do things.
[00:10:51] Lucy Rennie: One of the things that they seem to be doing quite a lot of at the moment is coming in and going, no, you can't do that. This needs to be done in this way and almost imposing things on a business. Now, don't get me wrong, for those who know me, you'll know that health and safety is absolutely paramount.
[00:11:05] Lucy Rennie: And, it's a huge part of my background and what I believe in and a big passion of mine. For it to be successful and actually for it to be really embedded in the culture and the organization, it has to be at the heart of the organization and have the best interests of everybody. Which means that we have to use common sense.
[00:11:25] Lucy Rennie: And so yes, absolutely safety is key, but we also need to make sure that. It allows the business to work and that actually we're looking at the ways of doing things and making sure they're safe, whether that's through risk assessment, whether that's through managing people, whether that's through adapted work, whether that's through processes or procedures, but it's not about coming in with one size fits all and saying yes or no or black and white.
[00:11:50] Lucy Rennie: We have to be able to make sure that everybody's involved and we think from all the different and all the different ways that could impact the business. And so again, I suppose really my reflection today is just to really encourage you to think about whether what you're doing is has got your clients or your businesses best interests at heart.
[00:12:13] Lucy Rennie: Whether it might be, whether you're thinking about doing something about working a four day week and you think, Oh, this is great. This is what our team want. This is what, this is the future. This is imagine just working four days. That's okay. But that's your perspective and that's your Vision, or that's your I don't know, dream or personal way of doing things.
[00:12:33] Lucy Rennie: You might think of it, even at the business level, as being really great in terms of, yep, you can shut down over the weekend, you can, create a really good wellbeing at work. But actually, fundamentally, if you go and speak to your guys or your team who are working day to day, you might find that actually they need to come in five days a week.
[00:12:52] Lucy Rennie: Either whether that's because of making enough money to provide for their family. It might be about the fact that actually they don't want to work longer days on a four day week because they've got other commitments. Maybe they're caring for children or. Elderly parents or maybe they are, I don't know they.
[00:13:10] Lucy Rennie: Take part in a sports club, et cetera, but also it might be from a mental health perspective that they actually need that activity to come in and be part of something, and maybe they don't want to be stuck at home with their partner on a Friday or have that extra time to do whatever that might be.
[00:13:25] Lucy Rennie: And so I really do want to just. Encourage you to think a little bit outside the box and just to check in to make sure that when you are absolutely convinced that you've got the best plan, that you've got the best strategy and roadmap and that you know best, just ask yourself, just sense check and make sure that you are taking into account all the different things.
[00:13:47] Lucy Rennie: And this obviously goes into, what I do in terms of crisis communication and scenario planning and helping you to build a strategy. We need to make sure that we're doing it holistically and we're seeing it from all the different perspectives to make sure that we're getting the best for everybody, or we are yeah, getting the most advantageous solution that takes into account.
[00:14:07] Lucy Rennie: All the different angles and the different elements at play. And so I suppose really just a quick reminder to check in, to ask questions that it doesn't have to be rocket science, that just sometimes the fact of Checking in with that stakeholder, whether it's the team member, whether it's an employee, whether it's a customer, a client, a supplier, a partner.
[00:14:30] Lucy Rennie: It might even work for your kids and your husband or wife at home or your parents or whoever it is. But sometimes just the fact that you take the time to check in and say, what do you think about this? How would this work for you? Have I forgotten anything? Is there anything that I've not seen here? What do you think about it?
[00:14:48] Lucy Rennie: And asking them. makes the biggest difference. Okay. It makes people, it allows people to feel valued, allows people to feel engaged or involved. And the moment that happens, it changes the way that we behave and it changes the way that we perceive what's going on. And it makes us much more receptive to.
[00:15:07] Lucy Rennie: Being collaborative or cooperating and joining in with a new way of doing things, which ultimately comes in down to the foundations of all things that change management and creating that culture and moving the business forward, which is ultimately what we're all about here, isn't it? But even if you think, an example this week where a bookkeeping agency that are amazing.
[00:15:30] Lucy Rennie: We're reviewing and have put in place all these new procedures and policies for themselves to make sure that they are hitting the deadlines and whether that's VAP or whether it's self assessment, all these things that they've got to do for their clients. They created all these policies and procedures, put them all in place, but then what happened was they'd forgotten to check in with the clients or even just to communicate with the clients and let them know.
[00:15:50] Lucy Rennie: And so they had all these deadlines that the clients weren't aware of. And so what happened was it created chaos because there's all these clients who were panicking. Not ready for these deadlines who were then being told no, we'll review it next time and we'll just adapt it. And again, knowing these amazing people from this agency, I know that absolutely they had their, the best interests of clients at heart, but they just forgot to actually check in and make sure that.
[00:16:17] Lucy Rennie: They were doing it in the right way for them. So I suppose really that's all I wanted to come on today. It sounds a bit like a rant, but it really isn't. It's about taking two minutes just to stop and think before you act, okay? It's a big thing that we have in manufacturing, particularly with safety, is to encourage people to just stop a minute, think about what you're doing before you then take action.
[00:16:38] Lucy Rennie: And sometimes that Action is actually just about taking a few minutes out to check in and either communicate, ask questions, or just sense check things with your different people. And I promise that the impact that you can have by doing that, by putting yourself in someone else's shoes and just taking the time out to ask their opinion or to show that you value, what's going on in their place within the holistic machine that is business today.
[00:17:06] Lucy Rennie: So on that note, yeah, let's put ourselves in other people's shoes. Let's get better at thinking about the consequences of our actions, of what we do and making sure that, even when we've got the best idea in the world, that we send to check it before we implement it just to make sure that there's no, negative consequences or anything that we've missed that could happen. And have a, have an impact on our clients, on our business, on our family, on our children, et cetera. So have a lovely week. Let me know if you get any surprises or maybe you've had experience of this as well, where you've been translating, or maybe you've had an experience where somebody's trying to impose something on you and your business and you've got, Oh, and you feel frustrated because you've not been listened to or The solution was actually not as easy to implement as you were expecting, or maybe, yeah, it didn't work in the way that you wanted it to.
[00:17:57] Lucy Rennie: And let's see whether we can, share the word and encourage people to ask more questions and take a little bit more time to centre check and check it. So on that note, I'm going to leave you, but have a great week and come and find me on social media. If you enjoy this podcast, I don't know what you're thinking about the video.
[00:18:11] Lucy Rennie: I'm just looking at my hair. I'm looking a bit crazy. But let me know whether it makes a difference, the fact that you can actually see my face now. And yeah, I'll see you next week for another episode of the future PP business podcast. Thanks for listening. Take care.