What Exactly Do You Do? 

My friends and clients simply respond by answering  ‘She sorts things!’ It is a natural to want a feel comfortable when being introduced to someone for the first time and try to fit a new acquaintance into categories below:

Background

As my life’s path cannot be described as orthodox, so it is not easy to give a succinct reply to the question: What exactly do you do?’ 

The first seven years of my life were spent without any formal education. I spent a lot of those formative years being alone without any imposed expectations to  conform. It was a special environment observing the wonders of nature and the natural order of interdependency. 

“Nothing is separate so what I think, say or do has an impact as I don’t live in a vacuum.”
Christine Marsh

Natural attributes

• Curious: Interested in learning about people or things around me. 
• Inquisitive: Having a desire to inquire, research, and ask questions reflects an eagerness for knowledge. However, this curiosity can sometimes come across as prying or intrusive when trying to fully understand certain situations.

“With every problem, there’s a solution; just a matter of taking action.”
Albert Einstein 

Career

I gained invaluable experience working in both Operational and Learning & Development within the competitive retail environment with a comprehensive understanding of the interdependent links in the supply chain. 

Prime Objectives Founded 1990

Starting with a blank sheet of paper, leaving the security of the corporate world to start from scratch without any customers was a huge risk. I wanted to avoid being confined to any particular business or corporate setting. I am eternally grateful to my friends, associates and business colleagues for their trust that I would add value by helping to resolve disruptive situations. 

Varied Approaches:  Specialist – Generalist – Comprehensive 

To treat a situation in isolation under the banner of being a Specialist may sort one problem in a specific area  but can cause mayhem further down the overall work flow.

Generalist is different to Comprehensive.

My approach is Comprehensive. I do not dabble. Rather I do the research and based on my observations I can refine my approach so it matches the environment and the specific situation that needs resolving. 

Specialist to Comprehensive

What a relief it was to meet Dr. D K Banwet, FIE at an IFTDO (International Federation of Training & Development) in New Delhi way back on 2011, His thorough overview, which I refer to as ‘Links in the Chain,’ has been a consistent reference for many of the change management projects I’ve been called upon to help resolve.

Story Time 

Here are two examples of when I was asked to investigate and resolve a disruptive situation. 

Situation A: A sudden upsurge in reworking application forms for setting up a company account payment system.
Problem: A 24% increase seemed to require more staff to deal with clearing the backlog building up. Potential customers were getting frustrated with the delay.  

Question: How else could this be resolved instead of incurring additional costs by recruiting extra staff? 

Comprehensive Approach: It turned out that the application form had two sides. In the bottom right hand corner there had been 3 letters PTO. As with many abbreviations that could have different interpretations but in English it stands for Please Turn Over. 

Cause: Marketing decided it wasn’t necessary as felt to be demeaning to the potential customer and removed it. 

Outcome: Some Application Forms came in with only the front filled in because some people hadn’t turned it over! 

Actions: The team appreciated their customers came from many different cultures and agreed that numerical was a common basis for understanding what action was required.                                                                                                   

Solution: Front 1/2  Back 2/2 

Situation B: Dissatisfied customers and loss of revenue. 

Problem: Bags of product splitting causing repackaging or wastage.

Question: Why was the problem not being addressed during the packaging process? 

Cause: Management decision to change the specification of the polythene to a lower grade in order to reduce costs.  

Result: No notification given to the staff undertaking the sealing process to allow them to adjust the temperature. 

Solution: Improve communication between Management and Staff.

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT IS COMMON SENSE.

Christine Marsh

Now it’s time for you to consider your own approach.
How would you describe your area of expertise? 

Action: Think about the links in your chain.

Do you know where you fit in?

What input do you seek to ensure you can make informed decisions? 

What impact do your actions have on others who rely on your knowledge and integrity?