In a heartbeat

Heartbeats in a business

For example, in research, ideas take a lot of working out, a lot of study, a lot of experimentation, analysis, change, returning, re-modelling, testing, long term focus. It can take 20 years for an idea to develop into something usable. Someone in sales will bump into you 6 months later and ask, ‘what are you working on now?’ and all you can reply is, ‘well pretty much the same thing I was working on 6 months ago’. You must be patient to work in research and you need to take a long-term view. In sales, the customer can require a quote TODAY and you must pull out all the stops, work as late as it takes, because today is a deadline. At the end of the year is the finish line, and you might be busting your guts to get things done by the end of the year. Then in January, you slump in exhaustion and flail about like a fish out of water. You take energy from deadlines, completing tasks, getting things done and you look forward to the results and the re-set at the kick offs at the start of the year. There’s no end of year for customer service, and it’s very acute. Customers expect an instant and superhuman response when something’s not working for them. They’ll be particularly pleased if you can turn back time and sort it yesterday.

Catching the right wave

Finances are checked in days, weeks, months quarters and years and financial controllers are riding the multiple waves of the fiscal year with one eye on their crystal ball. Some waves feel comfortable and known, every now and then there’s a rogue wave or a storm and you must find a way to iron it all out, make a strategy out of it, keep things smooth. Marketing teams like to plan a year ahead and enjoy the intensity of preparing campaigns, executing them and celebrating after an event. Like seasoned party goers, they dust themselves off and are ready to go the next day with a new plan. Human resources know that people come and go when it suits them. You can think you’ve got everything organised and you have great plans for a streamlined and innovative organisation. Then suddenly you’re having to all fill sorts of company-wide gaps that have opened like a sink hole in the road. Why does everyone suddenly want to move this month?

Of course, in life you get used to the different heartbeats: mealtimes, calendars, seasons, birthdays, people coming and going. And somehow you take it in your stride. Some people can take the long view AND be agile in the short term. They have what we call ‘bandwidth’. Others just know who they are and what they need and are unashamedly stuck in their groove.

All in all, most of us just muddle on through, a bit flustered and a bit confused. But when the fog evaporates and we find that moment in which the heartbeat of our tasks matches our own, it is a joyous feeling. Two hearts beating as one. That’s when you love your job.

Go Blossom!