Tag Archive: blog

Our New Blog Site!

January 8, 2019Blog, , , , , , , ,

 

Hi there, and thanks for checking out our website!

We wanted to let you know that we have a brand new location for our blog – it’s now over on the Medium platform (Click HERE), and you can find all the latest articles from us (and other writers who we’ve approved) there.

At The Whiteboard continues to be the place to find information that will help you “Crush It At Work.” This page, on our website, contains all our archived blogs back to the very beginning (June 2012!!!). If you’re looking for our latest and greatest work, however, you need to click HERE.

  • Are you a front-line employee trying to figure out how to make improvements in what you do every day, how to be an amazing team member, how to move up in an organization, or how to build amazing relationships at work?
  • Maybe you’re a manager, trying to be amazing at your job. You’d like to improve business processes, learn how to engage your team, inspire them, coach them (ugh, what does THAT even mean?), talk to them even when it’s tough, make changes that stick, or just be “that manager” that people remember (in a good way) forever.
  • Are you a Senior Leader who wishes their team would “think more strategically” but don’t know how to explain that to them? Do you have communication issues, culture issues, and change management issues? If I asked you to explain change management to me in 25 words or less, could you? Are you trying to improve efficiency, save money, or make your customers happier? Why? How do you know there’s a problem?

If so, then our publication is for you. Search this page for our oldies-but-goodies, or click HERE to see the latest and greatest.

Thanks for reading!

3 Steps to Keeping your 2015 New Year’s Resolution

January 9, 2015Blog, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy 2015! Hope you all had a restful and enjoyable season.  Now comes January.  The month of overflowing gyms, vegan cleanses (hey I’m on one too….I don’t judge), new organizational goals,and new ways of doing things.

Ruth and I have those annoying type-A and process based personalities that are ripe for habits and accountability.  Look at our blog for example, we’ve been consistently blogging every Friday for almost 4 years. Every Friday no matter what. Literally EVERY Friday. Every single one. Wait…wasn’t our last post a really long time ago? Well…..okay the last couple of months has been a little off. Why? We’ve been busy, but no busier than usual and not “crazy busy” (my pet peeve when people say this).  So what happened?

habitWe lost our trigger….

Of course we had reminders to do the blog! Little miss task list Ruth has us on quite the regimen! We have a recurring appointment in iCal that alternates between “Ruth Blog” and “Nicole Blog”. It was error proof! But occasionally we switched blogging dates. Sometimes the calendar had two different versions and I wasn’t sure if it was my blog day, or Ruth’s. One day one of us just forgot to do it, and then it happened again….and again.

We stopped doing the task….

This is just the actual act of writing the blog.  When we were in the “habit” of blogging it meant me knowing it was my blog week, thinking of potential topics, and making a mental note of what might be interesting that week.  Just the sheer act of getting prepared and starting to write it started a habit.  But as soon as I missed a blog or two, the task just kind of disappeared.

We stopped tracking….

When we were in the habit, one of us would usually ask the other : “Oh have you posted the blog yet?” or “Oh, its Friday, did we forget to post the blog?”, or “Can I help you with the blog this week?”. It was our way of keeping each other accountable (in a kind and curious way of course).  What happened instead was we said to one another: “Oh don’t worry about it, we’ll do it next week!, or “Oh you’ve been sick that’s okay.”, “Or, it’s the holidays, who has time to read our little blog”.  We were making it okay to not keep our habit! Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.

aristotle-quote-habitWhat about MY new habits?

So if you’ve made some new year’s resolutions like reducing your email inbox from 10,000 to 100, or meeting with your team members more regularly, or *gasp* implementing a new process -you need to make it a habit.  Use T3!

1. Trigger: Set a calendar reminder, use Siri,  put a post-it note on your monitor. Whatever works. Do it.  Do it in multiple ways.

2. Task: Do the task.  Do it the first time. Do it the second time.  Do it even if you get behind schedule do it anyways. Even if it is late or seems futile. Do it.

3. Tracking: Find someone to keep you accountable. Ask them to follow up with you.  Ask them to be your accountability partner.  Make a chart in your office that everyone can see. Find someone/something to cheer you on when you did it and call you out when you didn’t do it.

Let us know how these help you keep a habit on your new years goals!  Keep us posted on Twitter @whiteboardcons!

Until Next Time,

Nicole