Content Provision for Member Stations
By: Michael McQueen
Innovation is often thought of in terms of creation and invention – coming up with new ideas and new solutions. However, working with clients in recent months I have discovered that often the most powerful forms of innovation are more subtle. Continue reading “Focusing on Friction”
By: Michael McQueen
Recent decades have seen scores of offices embrace an open-plan format – as many as 70% of all workplaces.
The rationale for doing away with doors and walls was clear: by bringing down the barriers that divided us, greater collaboration, communication and cohesion would result. In addition, a more flexible and fluid office layout would suit an increasingly mobile and transient workplace.
Or so we thought. Continue reading “Why Open-Plan Offices Aren’t Working – and What to Do About It”
By: Michael McQueen
We all know the feeling of being in a rut when motivation eludes us and the gravity of inertia feels too great to shrug off. There’s a pile of work to do but you can’t seem to summon the energy or will to get off and go. Continue reading “Getting Into the Zone When Working from Home”
By: Michael McQueen
What are you putting off right now? Vacuuming the house, walking the dog, going to the gym? Maybe it’s making those phone calls, tackling your inbox or submitting the job application you’ve been ‘working on’ for 3 weeks? Continue reading “3 Reasons You Procrastinate (And How to Stop)”
By: Michael McQueen
Once upon a time, it was a student who got nervous in the lead-up to parent-teacher interviews. Nowadays, the person often getting most anxious is the teacher! Continue reading “A Teacher’s Survival Guide to Dealing with Parents”
By: Sheridan Voysey
What a gift it is to do work you love. To get paid for using your talents and abilities. To not just earn a living but contribute something necessary to society. When we spend so much of our lives at our workplace, it only makes sense that we find a career that’s fulfilling. Continue reading “Seeking Fulfilment Through Your Career? Try This Instead”
By: Sheridan Voysey
In a celebrity-driven age like ours it’s easy to applaud those who work on the top deck—the public faces of business, government, medicine, entertainment—while overlooking those who work in the galleys and engine rooms that keep the ship running. Are you a back office, behind-the-scenes kind of person? Well, your talents matter and your work is indispensable.
I have a friend named Mick who works on a ship called the Africa Mercy, run by the wonderful charity Mercy Ships. It’s a converted rail ferry that operates as a floating hospital, providing free healthcare to the poorest of the poor in developing countries. Every day hundreds queue up to be treated by its surgeons and therapists. The ship spends months in each port, healing thousands of tumours, cataracts and club feet before it leaves.
When TV crews board the Africa Mercy they naturally point their cameras on the ship’s medical staff. The work of these amazing volunteers is miraculous: fixing a little boy’s cleft palate, removing a giant goitre from a woman’s neck, removing shame, restoring dignity. Sometimes a journalist will wander below deck to interview other crew members. But few take pictures of the work Mick does.
Mick and his wife Tammy left good jobs to bring their young family on board the ship. Mick has an MBA, he was a chief engineer in the Navy, and dropped two levels of seniority to join. He admits he was surprised when he first heard where he’d been assigned to work on the ship—in its sewage plant.
With over 600 people on board the Africa Mercy at any time, up to 40,000 litres of waste is produced each day. Managing this toxic material is serious business. Without Mick carefully tending its pipes and pumps, the whole life-giving operation would shut down.
In a celebrity-driven age like ours it’s easy to applaud those on the top deck—the public faces of business, government, medicine, entertainment—and overlook those working in the galleys and engine rooms: the cooks, cleaners, accountants, assistants, techs, producers, and sewage system engineers.
Saint Paul wouldn’t let anyone overlook lower-deck people. He took Christians in Corinth to task for celebrating those with miraculous abilities—like the ability to heal—while playing down less spectacular talents. No, he said, every gift is important; everyone is needed on the team. In fact, the less prominent the role, the more important it is.
Remove just one cog and a watch won’t tick. Remove someone like Mick from the Africa Mercy and cleft palates won’t get fixed. (And you know what? Mick loves his job.) Those of us who have public-facing roles should remember this—no one achieves alone, so be quick to affirm your team. And those of us on the lower decks can lift our heads high—our roles too are indispensable.
Article supplied with thanks to Sheridan Voysey.
About the Author: Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on faith and spirituality. His books include Resilient, Resurrection Year, and Unseen Footprints. Get his FREE eBook Five Practices for a Resilient Life here.