Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Are your relationships crumbling?

I can't go anywhere without seeing an opportunity for a blog post!

The sandcastle above lasted a minute or two before crumbling. It just needed a little more water to provide the glue that would have kept the sand together for much longer.   
Although, as I'm sure many of us have found, once the tide comes in all that care and attention amounts for nothing as our carefully designed castles topple back into the sea.

So what learning do I take from water that can be applied to communication - personally and organisationally?

  • Communication is the glue that holds us together
  • Too much communication and we can get overwhelmed
  • Too little communication and it doesn't stick
  • Communication isn't something you do once - it needs repeating regularly
  • Communication little and often is better for absorption and flourishing 
Is your communication too much, too little, or if you'll allow me to mix my metaphors, just like Goldilocks' porridge and just right?

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life
Inspiring change inside and out

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Do you need to soften them up first

After many days of heat wave the ground, brown from the lack of water over recent weeks, was hit with a torrential downpour today. The problem of course was after so much sun the ground was baked dry and the water could do nothing but sit on the top (as shown above).

It's the same when you water a plant that's been left for too long without water - the water just runs straight through.

The reason is that the soil needs time to soften up. In both instances watering little and often would speed up the absorption of the water and enable it to provide sustenance to the grass or plant roots.

Isn't that what communication in an organisation is like. If you communicate too much at a time then it just doesn't even go in, and you might as well have not bothered.

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your lifeInspiring change inside and out