It’s almost time to leave mince pies, sherry and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, so let us take the time to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Rambutan office will be closing at 4pm on Friday 23 December 2011, reopening at 9am on Tuesday 3 January 2012.  If something urgent comes up, feel free to call the office and leave a message or send us an email.  Our details can be located in the get in touch section.  We’ll try and respond as quickly as possible, but hopefully you’ll appreciate us taking a well earned rest… it’s been quite a year!

Hope to see you in 2012 – and let it be another year of good times, busy calendars and furry fruits!

Fiona’s thoughts on building relationships with suppliers

What’s your opinion of suppliers?  I think businesses should consider them amongst their favourite people; an individual or company which aids your ambition to meet deadlines, reach creative potential and be a guiding force through your ideas until completion.  However, as the days on your advent calendar drop away, just sending out Christmas cards to any old printing firm or local designer isn’t going to make an impression.  Instead, by establishing a relationship with a supplier – a task so simply instigated by inviting them for a meeting (or something less formal if you prefer) will improve the chance of greater understanding of your business needs & what they can offer you. Deals will be done and new relationships will be made. All pretty harmless really!

Because, and to use the old adage, a supplier is not just for Christmas… a supplier will help you through every season, by updating your webpage or printing your marketing materials.  If you call on them quite randomly, chances are they will discard you (and your Christmas card) without a second thought.  But who can dismiss the offer of a homemade mince pie and lovely cup of tea in the comfort of your office? [Other snacks are available for non-mince pie fans!]

Rambutan pride themselves on working with locally based companies, who posess a wealth of talents which make us shine even brighter, and we hope they utilise us as much as we utilise them.

The latest from David:

We had an interesting session on the subject of common sense at the Growing for Gold event in York.  In the leadership workshop, we were discussing why some managers find it hard to trust and to delegate to the people who work for them. There were many reasons that the group came up with. Some of them valid and some of them not but all, we agreed, related to the belief that managers had about the people they needed to delegate to. If I was to summarise this belief in one sentence it would be, ‘I would delegate more but my team don’t have enough common sense and they might make a mistake.’  Ok, this was not said word for word but it sums up the direction of the conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

Lucy explores a question which comes up a lot around these parts

I was running a presentation past the bunch recently to get their feedback. The presentation was to be used to demonstrate why we’re quite unique in what we do. At the end, the most valuable feedback was, “It still doesn’t actually tell me what Rambutan does.” Read the rest of this entry »

Yoda from Star Wars had all the best lines, and often they were stunning coaching questions to really make you think. This got Craig thinking about size and assumptions…

How often do you make assumptions based on size? For example do you see a big person and assume they eat a lot? Likewise if you saw a thin person and assume they must exercise loads?

Size plays a big part (excuse the pun) in our business lives every day. How often have you thought about speaking with someone senior to you, or a new client from a company larger than yours, and thought ‘oh I can’t chat to them, they’re too senior or too big for us as a company’?

If this has happened to you, what is the mindset you are choosing? What you think about yourself or your company will impact on who you dare to talk to and how you talk to them. How much do you believe in yourself or your company?

If you have eight people in your company would you dare win a contract with an international business? If not, why not? Size doesn’t determine success, professionalism or expertise.

Challenge yourself and think like Yoda, from Star Wars: he asked Luke Skywalker, ‘Judge me by my size do you?’ just as he raised the X wing fighter from the swamp, after the much larger Skywalker had failed.  And the reason he failed? He didn’t believe in himself and  his ability!

Some interesting thoughts from David

If you are my boss and you want me to do something new then consider this. You’ll get a better response if you can tell me ‘what’ you want me to do as opposed to what’ you want me to do and ‘how’ you want me to do it. Why? Well because if you leave me to figure the second part out I’ll be more engaged with the task. I might not get it right first time or do it the way that you would but I’ll grow as a result and like you more. Sometimes managing people can feel a bit like herding jellyfish (difficult to get everyone moving in the same direction and it can sting quite a bit) and this can cause managers to over-manage (or tell people ‘what’ and ‘how’) to get things done. Be warned…resist the temptation…you may be surprised how well engaged jellyfish*¹ perform.

 *¹ this is probably overuse of a fishy metaphor which you should never^*2 do   

^*2 unless of course you are Pike Place market in Seattle in which case ‘fill your boots’

It may be a cliché, it may not be true at all but I’m sure most people will have heard the story of the cleaner at NASA.

The story tells how President John Kennedy once visited NASA. He came across a cleaner and asked him what his job was. The cleaner replied: ‘My job is to help to put a man on the moon.’ There is some discussion of whether this story is true or not, but what it illustrates is the cleaner’s complete alignment with the aims of NASA, and the collective mission and strategy.

Recently Lucy and I were reminded of the story when we visited The Children’s Trust here in the UK.  The Trust provides care, education, therapy and rehabilitation to children with profound multiple disabilities, complex health needs and acquired brain injury. We did some focus groups and some one-to-one interviews for The Trust and, without exception, everyone we met was totally aligned and passionate about helping children.  Might seem obvious for therapists, teachers and care staff to feel this way but what about ‘Bob from maintenance’ or ‘Maria from housekeeping’ (pictured)… same story!

Maria, housekeeper for The Children’s Trust

Maria, who looks after all the housekeeping for the site, has worked at The Trust for 28 years. When we asked what motivated her to do her job she said, ‘When you see a child start to talk or get up and walk you realise how important The Trust is and why you come to work’.