As a child I read a lot of books, and one book that has always stuck with me is “Because a little bug went Ka-CHOO!” by Rosetta Stone (aka Dr. Seuss). If you are unfamiliar with this story, it illustrates, in a hilariously chaotic chain of events, how a tiny action can have a big impact through a ripple effect.
With our Health & Safety programs, we’ve been promoting for years to create a culture of safety in your workplace. By creating and reinforcing a cultural norm for prevention in our workplaces, this will have a ripple effect towards our lives at home, other business we work with, and even companies we choose to book our vacations with to take a thrilling adventure all while staying healthy and safe.
I see the greatest ripple effects with our customer service team. When we smile while speaking on the phone, this changes our tone and helps to better convey our friendly positive manner when speaking with customers. When we slow down our verbal cadence while explaining something, this helps our customers to have a greater understanding and retention. When we take the time to listen beyond the words our customers say, we can use that information to help us find effective solutions for better service, and efficient products.
With all of those small actions I mentioned we see a response, but the ripple effect shows when we see an improvement in a client’s program progress and when we apply a change to one area of a program, we see how this can result in changes to several other areas, making for a larger impact than we initial expected.
What small change can you make in your workplace to start a positive ripple effect? Could it be as simple as changing your greeting from “hey” to “good morning”, or perhaps making more eye contact when speaking with someone face to face (even though your phone is blowing up with email notifications). Sometimes thanking someone for wiping down the kitchen counter can have a big positive reaction in their attitude and work ethic. When we are shown kindness and feel appreciated this positive energy grows and extends to others.