Every now and then you find yourself in a learning environment where you are supposed to be absorbing a certain message, following a particular course of study, and instead the message/lesson/memory that you take away from this experience has absolutely nothing to do with what you were supposed to be taking on board.
About a year ago our workplace went through a Lean process where we had to map out all the steps of our work, identify which were vital, which were repetitive and how we could streamline the whole thing to make ourselves more efficient.
The people further above us in the workplace got to see exactly what we did and how much we did, how many steps there were, how many people we had to consult and/or wait on for confirmation or input.
We were supposed to get a better understanding or overview of our own efforts so that instead of simplifying our work into a number of key steps we acknowledged the individual sub-steps which preceded, followed or made up the big ticket items.
In doing this we would be able to identify and eliminate any replicated steps, skip any that didn't add value to our method and save time and effort!
What I walked away from this process with was 'Did you know that if you peel post it notes by keeping the note level as you unstick it instead of pulling it straight up from the bottom they don't flip up in that annoying fashion when you stick them to things!?'
Last year my sister and I attended a cooking demonstration run by the Eolian Society in Melbourne and saw them prepare several traditional dishes, were given copies of the recipes and got to taste each of the things they had made.
It was a fun and informative gathering with way more people in attendance than I had anticipated but the thing that I ended up telling everyone about afterwards was 'Did you know there is a really easy way to fold up your plastic shopping bags for storage?'
The lady running the cooking demonstration had done a quick demo on this as well and it had obviously made an impression.
The method she showed us was this one and now instead of a bulging bag full o' other bags I have a box full of neatly folded triangles which once again probably pleases me more than it should.
Look at them sitting there all nice and neat and regular!
This seems to happen a fair amount with me.
I go to a class that covers one subject, they make a brief reference to something else and that is the thing that sticks in my mind.
I guess I could say that I'm easily distracted and need to work on my focus.
OR I could say that life lessons are everywhere and you should always leave yourself open to learn them whenever or wherever they occur!
That sounds much better, kind of like it should be plastered across an inspirational poster.
"You're not flaky! You're open-minded!"
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