Every so often, the workers of London Underground’s train service – The Tube – go on strike. They did so last week. With the millions of journeys made across the network each day, you can imagine the disruption. And more may be on the way…
But let’s not dwell on all that, instead let’s set our sights on the positives!
Don’t get me wrong, no one wants a tube strike and I’m certainly not campaigning for one. However, it’s often these external events that shake us out of our everyday norm.
And that’s not always a bad thing.
Consider the hidden opportunities amidst an upheaval. They’re there if you look for them. And the good news is, they can be applied at any time. Sometimes it just takes some brute force to remind us of the opportunities that are there.
Here are a few I was reminded of last week, plus a few action points to put them into practice post-strike.
Opportunity #1: Challenge your routine
As you may know, I’m a huge fan of routine. The right routines make us more productive, more efficient and help us progress our goals faster. It’s important however, to break things up every now and again, especially when those routines become lax and ineffective.
Just like changing a workout plan so muscles don’t turn complacent, same goes for our daily actions.
The Tube strike knocked many of us from our habitual activities. We were prompted to re-think the course of our day, change our travel routes and design new alternatives for how-when-where we conducted business.
The pearl here is this: challenging routine forces us to refocus and re-engage in what we’re doing. We can’t expect to stay sharp and creative to improve our businesses if we’re not paying close attention.
Action: Are you floating along on auto-pilot? Review your daily routines. Aim to do something out of the norm this week: Perform a sequence in a different order, try a different method or approach. Replace an existing action with a new one. You may discover a better, more efficient way. At minimum it will keep things fresh and prevent you from stagnating.
Opportunity #2: Get a change of scenery
If your transport was affected by the strike, your scenery likely changed in many ways as well. Perhaps you followed different travel journeys, passing through areas you don’t normally see. Maybe you experienced different transport, such as a bus, a taxi, an overground train. You may have worked from home or from a local cafe.
I don’t know about you, but I find a change in scenery to be extremely refreshing, both on the eyes and on the brain.
A break from your usual surroundings offers fresh perspective, headspace for new thoughts and a broadening of mind. Plus it can give us the breathing room needed for successful problem-solving.
It’s natural to feel the need to plough through our work until we get it done or solve those challenges. But taking the time and effort to remove ourselves from our standard environment is often the ‘reset’ we need. You and your business will be better for it.
Action: When’s the last time you had fresh perspective? Give yourself a visual and mental refresh by taking in some different scenery this week. If you can, do some work outside your usual work space: go to a cafe, a library, a park. Take a different route to work, or map a different journey home.
Opportunity #3: Go the extra mile
The Tube strike demanded some extra effort from many to get through the day. For some commuters, choosing to stay home and out of the melée may have been the optimal solution. For others, showing up or not showing up was never a question.
The only question was: How can I best get to where I need to be? (A good question for any day, really!)
On the whole, getting out there wasn’t impossible, perhaps an inconvenience but certainly doable. The thing is, businesses experience setbacks. If we threw in the towel each time we saw one coming, where would we be? Better to take the opportunity to show our personal and professional mettle. Ask, how can you be creative and shine under the circumstances?
There was a great display of this on Twitter. Companies promoted products, organisations held fun photo contests, numerous restaurants offered deals or complimentary drinks for those who braved coming in. Rewards were there for both businesses and customers. And those gestures will likely be remembered.
The golden question is, how often are you going the extra mile under normal conditions?
Action: Are you happy coasting along with the status quo or could you be doing more? Consider what extra effort, value, or level of service you could provide to stand out …and do it. Don’t wait until adverse conditions to shine, go the extra mile now. Plus you’ll stand out more when it’s not expected.
There are no traffic jams on the extra mile. —Zig Ziglar
How often do you challenge routines, change the scenery or go the extra mile?
London’s Tube strike may be over, for now, but it doesn’t have to be ‘business as usual’. Don’t let the dust completely settle. Take advantage of the opportunities above to push yourself and your business regularly.
Aim for 1% improvement each day.
Where’s your next opportunity?
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