I don’t know who they were. I’ll probably never see them again. But it was the summer of 2009 when I took a Recess from my work (my friend Russ Schoen would call it an excursion); went to a beach in Rhode Island and got my idea to start a nonprofit fighting hunger – One Less Meal, Inc.

For well over two hours I sat in my beach chair and watched two “larger” women eat chips and cookies and a host of other junk food. As the noon hour approached one leaned over to the other, chair bending, and said “It’s almost time for us to have lunch.”

“You could both do with one less meal” is what I muttered to myself. (And having been a fat boy; close to 40 pounds heavier at one point in my life I say that with confidence; and not in a mean-spirited way at all!)

One Less Meal.

Hmm…..The mind raced.

What if we could get people to consume one less meal and donate that meal to help fight hunger in the US? Imagine the impact we could have. And then I started thinking and imagining what this could look like. I spoke to close friends about my ideas. Some were crazy. Some seemed impossible. Some even seemed dangerous. And then with the great brainpower of my good friend Michelle Gotay, One Less Meal, Inc, (operator of the Double D Diner; The World’s Only Virtual Diner Fighting Hunger) was launched.

All because of 2 fat ladies.

So many people have great ideas. But that’s where it stops – with the idea. They don’t pursue them. They don’t share them. They don’t reach out for collaboration, help, and guidance. Instead, they go back to the world as they know it; to jobs that disappoint and don’t fulfill; to business models that don’t inspire. Employers bring employees together ask for ideas and then nothing. People return from the land of dreams and possibilities (or brainstorming sessions) and do nothing.

What’s your great idea? And perhaps this former fat boy can make it happen for you or your team?.

And to those two ladies in Rhode Island, if you happen to come across this blog entry…….Thanks! You’ve made a difference.

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Recess At Work Day is just a few days away – June 16th. I’m hearing from folk all around the country; all with different ideas. Some are using it as a chance for some fun and games. Others are using it as a day of learning.

Still not sure what to do? How to get the best ROI out of your Recess? How to show employees that they matter? The Recess At Work Day System is a great place to start; 12 FUN Opportunities to learn, recharge and/or celebrate.

And to give you an idea of what is included here’s the 1st 5 pages of the manual; which includes the table of contents and the 1st Recess – how to pull together a quick Recognition event. Enjoy!

Click here to download a sample of the RECESS AT WORK Manual

Click here to order your system- which now comes in a downloadable version

And be sure to visit the RECESS AT WORK website for more ideas.

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Last fall a Professional Association hired me to spend 1/2 a day with their members; a Recess to get them re-engaged with their work. During the course of discussions budget came up. Budget always comes up.

I came up with several options; but for the most part it boiled down to two scenarios:

• Pay my full fee
• I will give you a reduced fee but…………………………..I will help you market the event and if your revenue/registrations go above a certain amount we split the revenue.

They chose the second option.

By “helping” to market the event all I did was a short video and posted it to a page on my website for that client; inviting their members to come play and learn with me. This allowed the membership to see who and what they were paying for; to reduce their risk as well. All the client had to do was an email blast with a link to my website.

Registrations for the event were 50% higher than the three years prior. I made more money. The Association made more money. But most importantly; the attendees got to learn, network, laugh and be together; which in these difficult times is so important to any professional group.

Budgets are on the minds of everyone these days. True partners are coming up with solutions that reduce risk and reap the rewards for all. Are these the partners you’re working with? Are these the partnerships you’re creating? Or are you so stuck in the austere budget mentality that it is killing you and your organization?

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Next week is the day. June 16^th is your opportunity to reengage your organization. It’s not too late to plan your Recess At Work Celebration. The Recess At Work System offers you 12 high impact, purposed opportunities to learn, recharge, & celebrate. They’re designed for fun and to have valuable professional development and business growth. Click here to order yours and save 15% by entering code RECESSitate at checkout. It’ll ship today.

 Join companies like Keen, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Iroquois Pipeline and Danbury Hospital who understand the benefits of taking a Recess.

But in the meantime…..

In my blog entry of June 6^th I wrote about a Postmaster who didn’t seem to know how or want to sell me postage because his computer was down. I just stood there as he hoped I went away. The next day I went into that same post office needing to purchase a mailing tube. The handheld scanner device was not reading the bar code and when the postal clerk keyed the UPC code into the computer it was rejected. Her response to me was it doesn’t scan and it is not in the system. I could sense her frustration. Once again I felt as if there was this hope that I would just go away. I reminded her there was a price of $2.19 printed right on it and offered her the money. Clearly that was something she wasn’t trained to do. After many attempts the scanner finally cooperated.  

We all have called a business only to be told their computer systems are down; or slow; or are rebooting. Seems to happen a lot with my cable company; which I have to tell you causes me to jump and down with joy since I only seem to call them when I am having a service problem. It is nice to know their problems are widespread throughout the internal systems as well. Feel my pain. Join my pain. But all kidding aside when I’m told to call back it doesn’t meet my ideas of great customer service.

Several weeks ago, on a Friday, I called a company wanting to discuss some advertising. A woman answered. She was clearly on a cell phone and in the middle of a crowd. She said “Rich, I am at the airport picking up family; my daughter is getting married tonight. I know this is not what you want to hear but can I call you Monday?” It was Friday. 1:00 PM. She was being honest. Of course this could wait until Monday; how often does your child get married? 1, 2, 3 times? Monday came and went; she never called. Nor on Tuesday. On Wednesday I went with another vendor.

Sadly, we live in a world where customers want it yesterday. Wanting it now doesn’t even suffice any longer. And not only do we want it yesterday, we want it faster, for less money, with no inconvenience and expect people to offer so 150% of themselves when they service us.

But here’s what we don’t want:

• Your internal problems should not be your customer’s problems. Customers don’t want to hear your problems and employers should be very concerned if employees are vocalizing those problems to customers. This can be signs of poor leadership, bad communications, inadequate investment in equipment, or low employee morale. Sharing your problems can and will lead people to competitors – especially if you are a service business. 
• Employee frustrations are a clear sign of training and development – or lack thereof. As I wrote in my blog entry about the post office, what did we do before computers? We used our fingers and toes! A properly trained employee knows how to handle inconveniences; and often times you just need to replace frustration with humor. I’ll mention it here again…..training doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t always need to include high priced outside consultants. Every person on your team can teach something. There are DIY (Do-It-Yourself) training packages. For those who have already purchased the Recess At Work System, the Each Can Teach Recess is a great place to start. Why not start your next status or team meeting with a quick training piece. Or take 30, 60, or 90 minutes regularly to let the team share something they have learned.
• When you make a promise live up to it. I know; everyone screws up. Heck, I’ve screw up. I’ve forgotten to call people back. It happens. No one is perfect. I could have also called that advertising company back; but I didn’t. I chose to go elsewhere. I felt it was her responsibility to follow-up; not me. After all I was turning over my money. On a different day I might have called back. This time I didn’t because there were other options; who could offer me the same service. How many times have we lost a customer or disappointed someone because another didn’t so some simple follow-up on a promise?

So think about these three examples. Think how they apply to you, your business or perhaps how you even deal with personal situations with friends and family. People don’t want to know your problems; but they love when you keep your promises – whether they are a business associate or someone you lie in bed with.

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Meetings. They can be the death of an organization. Yet they seem to make some people feel important. For whatever reason having a calendar of meetings seems to validate the existence of some; yet so many of those meetings are useless. Let’s take a Recess from meaningless meetings. Let’s have more meetings that are, as I like to say, “Meetingful.” Let’s have some discussions that might be of interest to more people throughout the organization…….

Here’s a list of some of meetings that I think need to be held at offices across the land:

1. How can I help you this week? (can be B to E – boss to employee; E to E – employee to employee; or E to B – employee to boss)
2. Where is there redundancy in my work and yours?
3. What policies and ideas are getting in the way of you doing a better job?
4. What special talent do you have that we are not using in this company?
5. What great idea do you have?
6. What policies and ideas are getting in the way of you enjoying your job more?
7. If you were the owner of this company what would you be concentrating on right now?
8. What are you working on that probably has little value and what would you replace it with?
9. What did you do this past weekend or what are you doing this coming weekend?
10. What do you need to know about our company/industry that would help you do your job?  What do you know or can offer to share about our company/industry?

And don’t forget to add some fun to your next meeting. Check out the Meeting PLAYce Mat on my products page. With room for notes, stroking your genius, setting action plans, recording memorable moments and even space for doodling the only “complaint” I have ever received was people having so much fun with the PLAYce Mats and not paying attention to the meeting – and I would hardly consider that a complaint. It’s a great tool no matter what type of meeting you’re holding. Visit products page now.

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Before the computer there was the calculator
Before the calculator was the adding machine
Before the adding machine was the abacus
Before the abacus were our fingers and toes
Before our fingers and toes were scratches on a cave wall

And before the electronic scale was something with weights on it

Yesterday I stopped into a local United States Post Office to ship a small package to a customer. The postmaster was on duty. He informed me he was having electrical problems and his computer was down. I just stood there. He tried to get his computer to work again. It was not cooperating. He again informed me his computer was down. I just stood there.

Finally I inquired whether he needed a computer to sell me postage for a large envelope.

Ah, he understood me. I was expecting him to do it the old fashioned way; even if it required him using MY fingers and toes to determine the postage. He asked me if I had exact change. I was $.08 short. He stood there not knowing what to do. A gentlemen who cleans the building offered me the $.08 and the postage was affixed.

Tip #27 in my booklet 50 Ways To Have Fun at Work, Improve Employee Morale and Hopefully Not Get Fired suggests that employees work for a day without computers for the fun of it. Now personally I don’t think most employees would be able to survive a day without technology; companies don’t train them on what to do should systems go down. But if we had to work for day without computers I bet Gen Y would squirm or turn to their smartphones while Boomers would get something done manually.

I’ve read countless Facebook and Twitter posts about people goofing off at work because the computer systems are down. Seriously? There is nothing these people can be doing; nothing that can be accomplished without technology? No way to improve a system or stay in touch with a customer?

I’m all for technology and the ease, convenience, savings and every other benefit it has provided; but perhaps it’s time to train people to think on their own once again? We’ve all seen the frightened cashier who closes the register too fast and the amount he or she is supposed to return to us vanishes from the display. Panic! Where’s the popcorn!

And in the case of US Postal Service, which seems to have their fare share of Boomers still on the payroll, perhaps they should have a mandatory training day dedicated to how to provide customer service if the computer doesn’t work.

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No one’s work should ever be so mundane, boring and repetitious that you can do so with your eyes closed.

• If you’re an employer offering this type of work you run the risk of a disengaged workplace, poor retention and high turnover costs. Your employees and your customers deserve so much more from you.
• If you’re an employee engaged in this type of work you are capable of so much more and are certainly not utilizing all your capabilities. It is time to ask for more of a challenge or move on before you make yourself unemployable in the future. This is career suicide.

When someone uses the phrase I can do this with my eyes closed it is time to challenge all parties involved – employee and employer.

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The best “job” I ever had was with Ask Mr Foster Travel Service; a subsidiary of Carlson Companies at the time. I loved that job. I love to travel and had the opportunity to do just that; and often at discounted prices. I didn’t know a thing about the travel and tourism industry on day one but I enthusiastically learned; because of my love of travel.

When I lost a whole bunch of weight with Weight Watchers I enthusiastically joined their team as a facilitator and leader of meetings. I loved the product/service and was excited about it. It became very easy to motivate and excite others to lose weight.

I also worked for Lone Star Industries, a cement manufacturer and Avon Products, the cosmetic company. Those jobs were just that……jobs. I had no interest in cement or lipstick. Couldn’t care less about cement that dried in record time or lipstick that dried on your lips for days.

But here’s what I tell my clients and my audiences….if you don’t like your company offerings get out now or start loving them. All these years later I do believe there is something to be said about hiring/retaining people based on their love of your product and downplaying their skill sets. Skills can be learned. Satisfied customers turned employees will always be looking out for your best interests.

Remember, the best employees love what you have to offer.

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The other day I went to get my eye glasses adjusted at a LensCrafters store in Waterbury, CT. The store was quite busy and the employees were doing their best to keep everyone happy all at once. If there was ever a case of MultiCustomerTasking (is there such as word) the three employees working in this store would have been the role models.

But there was one thing that stuck out on my visit. Apparently one of the three employees was very new and the two young ladies at the back of the store could not say enough kind things about this gentleman. They were going on and on and on about how quick he was picking things up, what a fast learner he was, how responsible he was, take charge, took initiative and a great addition to the team.

WOW! Was I hearing this right? You get so used to people trashing other employees and getting catty that I thought maybe Harold Camping had been right; the world did end the night before and I was on the other side.

So I asked the two ladies if they share these great comments with the young man. They told me they were doing it all day long. YES!!!!!!!

I can’t remember the last time I found myself in a retail environment where I witnessed something like this. Two thumbs up to the team at LensCrafters. Someone is doing some great hiring.

And here’s a challenge for you today………..Who can you praise in your workplace? And would you be willing to do it for others to hear?

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Thsi is part of an exercise that you can find in the recently released Recess At Work System; a fun approach for improved morale, engagement & productivity. You can learn more about the system by clicking here.

You can save 15% by using the code RECESSitate at the checkout.

Question: Why is it that the people sitting around trying to engage a workforce are not including a good cross-representation of the workforce in those discussions?

RECESSitation Idea:

Give everyone a blank sheet of paper. One person will read the following questions to the group and give them a moment to write a short response on the paper. Why not have some fun and give out colored markers or crayons to write their answers.

1. This is a great place to work because………….
2. I could contribute more to my employer if………….
3. In order for me to improve my skills I would need…………
4. The things I like most about my job are………..
5. The things I would like to see improve at my job are………….
6. If I could have any job in the company it would be…………
7. My latest contribution to the organization was………..

You are encouraged to add additional questions.

Now crumple up the papers and throw them into a pile. Pull them out one at a time and record the responses question-by-question on flip chart paper or dry-erase board. Enjoy a healthy, lively discussion.

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