Coaching Corner: Systems, systems, systems
By Marilou Butcher Roth
My sister is in town and we love to cook together. We decided to re-create our grandmother's recipes for homemade pasta, sauce and braciola. We made and cut the dough into strips and then squares, ready to create cavatelli. This specific pasta starts with tiny squares which you then artfully turn with your thumb to form a small flipped shaped pasta. It has been quite some time since I have done this so initially I was experiencing a bit of awkwardness. As I got into the groove, I felt compelled to organize the small pieces and use both thumbs at the same time — oh my...highly efficient! We accomplished our task of preparing pasta for 20 people in less than one hour! Amazing! Ah, the beauty and efficiency of a system!
The other situation was watching my 5-year-old grandson constructing his Legos. One of our special things to do together is to go to the Lego store. He chose a set that was for ages 6-12 so I wasn't quite sure how that would go. When we arrived home, he set out to construct his new purchase. This needed to happen solo as I was making dinner. I wasn't paying a tremendous amount of attention to his endeavors but did start to notice how he was engaging with this task. He separated out the colors, putting each color in a pile. He would then take each page of the instruction book and look at the pictures to match the Lego piece to each picture and read how many of each he needed. This was his own beautiful 5-year-old system that was again — highly efficient! He had the whole thing together in under two hours! Ah, genius you say — perhaps — and you would get no argument from me on that, but I say the genius was more in how he created a system to support him through this process easily.
So, as you go through your week, look for places that need to be more efficient for you. This may be at work or it could be something in your home life. How might you create a system that supports you in what you are doing to make the task and your life easier?
Marilou Butcher Roth
Marilou Butcher Roth is the owner of The MBR Group, a coaching and training company working primarily with REALTORS who have a desire to work and live from a more inspired place. She is also the Broker/Owner of Group REALTORS in Cincinnati.
Marilou is a member of the Ohio REALTORS Board of Directors and past chairman of the organization’s Communications Committee.
