The rain can’t dampen joy

Saturday was our local community Christmas pageant – this year in totally drenching rain.  The crowds were the same size as usual and the pageant still took a full hour to pass our vantage point. 

So What some of you will say – there is a lesson here so read on.

I went with my grandchildren, as I have every year for the last eight years.

I love the community enthusiasm and fun.  Overall it starts with the nativity and ends with Santa and in between are floats from all the local schools, kindies, clubs and lots of business.  Over 100 clowns, dancers, general excitement and chaos with enthusiasm not dampened in the least by the first drenching rain that actually soaked through my raincoat and every stitch I had on.

There is a lesson we can transfer from this pageant to our businesses.  Just because the sun doesn’t shine, we can all keep going because good still comes out of it.  In fact I felt the community feelings were better than usual because there was no bickering about who stood in front of who because we were all wet and enjoying the efforts to give the kids a great day.

The laws of physics apply and for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  In a lost opportunity there is an equal new one to look for if you hang in and look.  Unfortunately too may people simply get discouraged.

I read a quote this week from one of the winners at the Cool Company Awards in Melbourne that “Everything is a learning experience. Running a business is a constant chain of mistakes.”

The trick is to learn from mistakes. Record them and work out HOW it was possible for the mistake to happen.  And fix that.

That way the mistakes reduce – in number, in severity and in repercussions.  That is what continuous improvement is about.

This needs to be a fundamental part of your management system.  After you have identified what risks you have and how to manage them, then you learn from your mistakes.

And this is what you miss if you get suckered in by the apparently easy “done for you” solutions on the internet and from industry associations, where you get an “all you need” and more, without the understanding to sort them out.  These superficially look easy but the real cost is your lack of knowledge and power to tune them to suit YOUR business

You know that if you are serious about growing and protecting your business you need to understand the tools you are using to manage and to train your workforce. 

You will learn more from www.integratedisosystems.com about how to implement a simple and effective system to manage risk in your business while it saves you both time and money. 

Your real cost is less when you do it right first time.

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon

P.S. As a Christmas special and because the new workplace safety legislation is coming up in one month's time you can buy the entire workshop pack of DVD, 2 CDs, workshop folder and 2 books for only $368.50  go to www.riskmanagementinbusiness.com

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