Welcome to the Business Abundance Podcast, providing
the tools and knowledge to help small business
owners succeed. For additional resources, visit
www .businessabundance .online. Hello and welcome
to the Business Abundance Podcast. I'm Zahara
and I'm here again with Rowan and Ian. Hello
everyone. Good day. Today we're going to have
a little chat about some unconventional ways
to improve. Um, as a small business owner, you
have a lot of valuable, uh, things that you should
be doing. However, habits make a difference.
And I think whether you're setting those habits
for yourself or you're setting them for your
team, I reckon there's going to be a lot of improvement.
Uh, so just want to have a chat about that. We've
been testing some different activities, I guess,
to see what works and what doesn't work. So it'll
be interesting to see. how that goes through
this conversation. But yeah, we just want to
hand over that knowledge and let you know that
there are some ways that you can improve your
intelligence, I guess. Your critical thinking
skills. Brain. Yeah, basically improve your brain
and also hand over that knowledge to your team
so that they can work together. Better communication,
better collaboration and self -esteem, I guess.
Fantastic. Yep. It'll be good. I think a couple
of podcasts ago, we talked about the speed typing
test. Ian was - No, we didn't. Ian's regretting
that. He, out of the three of us, Ian talked
to the biggest game, but has not shown to the
party. Terrible. Terrible. We paid in words per
minute. Don't be daft. It was at least 40. That's
shocking. Maybe six. I think you were 30. Low
average. I was average. I think you said I was
at least average, but I wasn't 100 like you crazy
cats. That's just a quick type. Yeah. Neat. Efficient.
Amazing. Efficient. Not here to put shoes on
caterpillars. I've never heard. There you would
need to be. Oh my gosh. So these apps that we're
talking about obviously are not sponsored. but
they're just interesting to have a conversation
about. Not sponsored yet. Not yet. Put the discount
code business abundance. For the 10 % off. So
yeah, the first one being speed typing test and
I guess it's irrelevant because if you're only
typing a few words a minute, your emails are
going to be slow and that's time you could be
making up. Well, a lot. I mean, if you're taking
10 minutes per email and it should only take
you a minute per response because you're busy
trying to figure out the keyboard. I found my
speed did improve when I started using more than
two fingers. That is a good start. I mean, I
guess that is a skill you have to learn. I grew
up with computers, so. I didn't. Yeah. Because
I'm old. It's like when you text with one finger.
Yeah, she just uses the swap. She just, Oh, I
couldn't, because then I'm not sure what word
I've written. Well, she knows. That's cool. Yeah.
I can touch top on the screen. Yeah, I can do
that. Yeah, that's a good point. Do you have
to look at the keyboard while you type? Not anymore.
Good skill. Yeah. Well, it's literally just an
online, uh, typing test and it comes up with
very random sentences. You have to type those
sentences for a minute. You can do different.
Yeah. Whatever you like. And then you, you, um,
get a, what is it? An effectiveness score. Yep.
And then also how many words you're typing per
minute. Obviously the faster and the more accurate
you are, the better you are at it. And they've
got sort of programs to. get you from point A
to point B as far as slow to fast or faster,
faster. If you're a competitive person, just
five minutes of the most star of the day, get
your fingers all ready before your office jobs,
like stretches for your fingers. Yeah. One of
the people we had worked for us, the typing was
slow before we put in the typing test. That's
right. It's recruitment. So, and they started
doing it every day, just the one minute. And
then they dramatically improve pretty quick,
like 50 % in a month. That's certainly impressive
improvement. I think people are just saying that
to have computers when they were younger and
haven't learnt, just a bit of effort every day.
And speed up. It sounds like a habit. Yeah. But
it extends a little bit too, like with speed
typing. If you can type well, or you can learn
to use shortcuts and things on the keyboard,
it speeds you up knowing. And everyone's like,
oh, how does all this computer work? But because
we like. take you five minutes. A tenth of the
time, if you can get good at using a computer.
It's one of those things where time actually
is money as well. So as Z said, if it's taking
you 10 minutes to compose an email, I mean, for
six emails is an hour, an hour of your time at
X amount of dollars, if you can have that. It's
an expensive piece of communication. Best thought
by post. That's all the post stamps going on.
Anyway, speed typing tests. Yep. Bit left field,
but this is to just expand your thoughts, your
knowledge base. That's Duolingo. I love Duolingo.
I'm learning Italian at the moment. One of the
best. I'm shocking at it, but it's great. Why
are you learning Italian? Because I want to go
to Italy. Yep. I think it'd be so fun. Get a
fine education. It is so good. Yep. How long
have you been learning for? A year. Can you spit
it out? No, no, no, no, no. I regretted like
having this on there because I was like, I bet
someone's going to be like, can you do it? I
know latte is actually milk. Yeah. Cappuccino
is literally cappuccino. Yeah, so latte in Western
society is pretty much wrong because it's just
meant to be milk. Really did my head in, but
that was like one of the first lessons and I
remember it because I was like, wow, that's so
weird. That's how I learned it because I think
I was doing it on Joe O 'Lekker at some stage.
I've tried. seven different languages. And I
thought for like two weeks pay Daniel a subscription
and this has been an eight year process. Yeah.
Yeah. But it like the, um, the reminders have
been getting better and better. There's like
now it's like viral on social media because Duolingo
like. really gets into you if you're not. I got
an email the other day saying, clearly our notifications
aren't working. And I was like, okay. There's
a brilliant Ted talk from the guy who developed
Duolingo on the branding and the strategy behind
Duolingo. And yeah, it's impressive the amount
of thought that's gone into it. There's no accidents
in marketing. No, it's very cool. So a lot of
these programs are so good at how they guide
you through the process and make a bit of fun.
If you're not quite there, get you. there in
a nice way. It's created a very addictive platform.
My kids are working their way through Spanish
and German at the moment. And yeah, you just
watch them. They love to learn. I mean, they
pretty much enjoyed school from the moment they
started, but they've got their friends onto it
and their friends... are sometimes not the greatest
students, but they're on Duolingo learning languages.
Yeah, you can do little friend collaborations
and everything. It's so cool when you earn rewards,
you can get little freezes and that was all.
Yeah. Yeah. Even the characters are quite sassy.
Can you learn English on it? Yeah. I reckon,
yeah. Oh, wouldn't that be humbling? If you're
like, I'm going to learn my first language on
Duolingo. And they're like, that's not how you
do that. That's just a lesson in critical thinking.
Get myself up to speed. That'd be interesting.
But yeah, it's not like directly related to work
or any, in any sense, but it does help you think.
I mean, if you're doing very like monotonous,
is that the word? Monotonous? Just recurring
tasks. Other app you're getting to might help
you with monotonous. That's probably a good idea.
Yes. But basically it helps you think. Use your
brain. For a few minutes a day, gives you a few
lessons, takes you through a schedule. No more
than 10 minutes. Yep. And then eventually you
get there and you continue to create neural pathways.
The brain has a brief period when it's young
where it's exploding, then a period between 14
and 15 years old where it creates a whole heap
of new neural pathways, but then it slows down
as you get older. So anything you can do to keep
your brain active like that. You can continue
to learn and teach an old dog new tricks. With
English too. Maybe seven years ago, I started
doing crosswords and just like the online one,
newspaper sites, they're doing daily crossword
and I'll probably get 10 % of it to start with
and then use the hint button significantly as
in just put the word in for me. And then after
doing one a day, after like a year, I'd probably
be 60%. I'd do the whole thing and then the rest
of them, they'd want hintful. And then like after
that, probably the top 5 % of speed, I think
in the following year, because it says like,
where do you rank? And pretty, pretty easily
now. So I try to do, um, I think it's dictionary
.com have a crossword and the Sunday one's brutal.
The Saturday one's brutal. Monday one's pretty
easy. Tuesday, super easy. So do the Tuesday.
Um, but then that that's quite a mix of difficulty
and why would you do the crossword? I found it
was really good for, um, speaking. So brain works
pretty fast. Mouth doesn't quite keep up. You
start explaining something and then suddenly
you go, Oh, I can't actually continue the sentence
because I want to say this, but I've now said
this and it doesn't make sense. So tongue tied
or whatever. Um, but just knowing more words
and what they mean and from doing the crosswords
made it so much easier to speak. I once worked
in a place where we gather around at the end
of the day and you'd have a 10 to 20 minute break
before you got into other work. and the newspaper,
Crossword. And that was a collaborative thing
that we did together. Yes, it improves your vocab,
but for culture, everyone was sort of competing
to try and get the answer first, and it turns
into a bit of a friendly banter. And the team
was as strong as it had ever been when it was
doing the daily Crossword to the newspaper. So
I started using an app, Elevate, which has lots
of different, like your mass you've got. logic,
et cetera, et cetera. But it's got the daily
crossword on it. You know the maths. Yeah, pretty
good at the maths. Yeah. Yeah. That's the easy
one. That's a few ones that are a bit harder.
But it's got sort of levels for everyone. I disagree.
That was so hard. It's got levels for everyone,
but yeah, it's even listening, for example. So
good with listening. But I started using it for
a couple of weeks and then I showed my wife Claire
and... She started using it. So we've got the
daily crossword we both do now and there's different
difficulty settings for it. It's the same words,
but the hints are different. Yeah. Um, so I've
got it on hard. She's got it on moderate, I think,
uh, and a flex. Cool flex. No, it's not a flex.
It's more just saying it's different labels within
it. Um, but so you've been using it. Yeah. So
you have leveled, I've got it up in front of
me. So, um, the first one is process that it
takes you through. that you've got to complete
in a time period. So like this difficulty, which
is 67 out of 400, for example. So this is meant
to be like an easy one. And it says like benefits,
increase your reading speed or improve your reading
comprehension. And then you get started. Let
me do it. Yep. Here we go. Yeah. So you've got
to complete 150 words per minute. So it's like
relatively easy one. You've got to just read
that and like comprehend it. And yeah, it's really
hard. I find it really difficult. But they've
got lots of different games within it. So it
makes it, we can study, you can do certain things,
but the games is, for example, in writing into
commas, detail, expression, inversion, punctuation,
refinement, spelling and syntax. And in speaking,
you've got clarity, diction. eloquence, precision,
pronunciation, recall, and they're all different
ones with different difficulties. And then as
you progress or get better or fail, um, it changes
the difficulty. Um, and then you've got scores
within each one. So for each day, they have a
few things like you've got this, this flame that
says your streak. So it encourages you to do
it every day. You don't want to lose your streak.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think I'd had a streak for.
a couple of months, missed a couple of days doing
the actual activities. And then in the last two
weeks, I was just like, Oh, I actually want to
do the gaze. My brain needs a rest. So I just
do the crosswork because it took a minute. Um,
keep my streak, just a bit of motivation. So
you do it, but then they have a recommended one
for each day. And it's got five, five things
in it that it suggests you should be working
on. Um, and each one takes about a minute. So
it's five minutes. boom, boom, boom, pops up
on your phone and then you can sort of move about
your day. So I started just using that like a
way to break up the morning. Um, but for me it
was, Oh, you can play a game or have a break
or, but what are you doing? You go to the gym
and get fit. If you're disciplined, sure don't.
Um, but if we use our brains, which most of us
do, what are we doing to keep that fit? Um, so
it's a way to just break it up, make sure you're
progressing on all the different areas. Be it
scrolling on social media. Yeah. Yeah. And it's
quite fun too. Like if you are, if you've got
15 minutes, you're bored, just get it up and
you can go through the ones you want and do the
recommended. We waste so much time doing scrolling.
We don't go to social media or YouTube with purpose.
We go there because, oh, here's a notification.
Let's have a look. Oh, now I'm going to scroll.
And then before you know it, an hour's gone.
Whereas if you just have something like an elevator
on your phone and 15 minutes of actual productivity,
without it feeling like you're learning. And
I think that's where Duolingo and Elevate have
really done well in the market is you are tricking
yourself into learning things and it's a game
and your brain is improving and it's incremental
growth. So you're not going to use it once and
then go, oh my God, I'm a junior, this was amazing.
Creating that habit again of using it every day.
And then 21 days later, you're just going to
do it out of habit. Yeah it's interesting like
I finished uni and then there was no real like
obviously getting better for the role I was in
I was doing but I wasn't really testing myself
like you would in an exam or an assignment or
really really diving into anything and so what
I have noticed is before I started those things
like Duolingo and the reason I did get into it
and uh like I was reading and those sort of things
but it was I'd read one book and then go reward
myself with something I actually liked reading,
for example. Reading is different too, because
you read the book and you're like, oh, it's interesting,
but there's no putting it into practice. What
I found was I felt really stale. I just hadn't
really exerted that side of my brain. And so
now doing it, it's a bit more rewarding. I feel
like I'm actually progressing. Otherwise imagine
that 10 years time and I haven't really improved
at all. That's going to be an embarrassing state
to be in. And the links between this sort of
brain activity and then early onset dementia
and things like that that are horrific to see
family members go down with. If you can keep
the brain active, there's plenty of research
out there that's suggesting that you can stave
off a lot of those things. Yeah. I think they
were just helps with your day -to -day tasks.
Yeah. Some things like... Alibate has to make
it a bit more interesting because you're like,
oh, you know, learning school, blah, blah, blah,
boring. But it ranks you as well. So you can
sort of see if you're in the beginner or moderate
or expert or advanced or whatever. Yeah, I love
knowing that I'm the best at Italian for the
day. Two or three points away from going to expert
and make sure you just knuckle down. About to
be Einstein. Self esteem. I've been doing this
for a year and I still can't see any Italian.
So just looking at my rankings down, they're
all reasonably even, except for memory, which
is a little bit below. It's still pretty good,
but it's a few way below the others. And then
you've got the rankings. So you've got your rankings
compared to other users. And when you first join,
you do some tests. And however you perform in
that is where they start you off. So you're just
trying to figure out how to use the game, how
to use the app, and you mark up half of it. So
they sort of start you a bit lower, I think.
Rank pretty high memory rank a little bit low,
but it's still pretty good. But then within that,
you can click on each section and it's got like
rankings within memory, for example. So my retention's
top quarter, my name recalls bottom half. So
it breaks them down into different categories.
That's why it always gets her name, Rosie. And
my focus is bottom half too. Would not believe
that for a second. But the interesting bit is
there, you can look at it and you go, oh, I want
to get better at that. Like make sure a little
bit competitive, which we've talked several times
off podcasts, but if something's competitive
and it's a game, like I'm into it, it's competitive,
but not a game I don't care. Like I don't care
if I win or not. But if it's a game and competitive,
I'm, you know, I want to do it. So it's, it's
good that some of these things have that built
into it, because it's not just slogging away.
It actually becomes fun. Yeah. Yeah. I think
it's good. Like you could encourage everyone.
to do these things in your team and you could
make it like an internal competition, I guess.
Yeah, definitely. Well, you don't need to encourage
it because it's fun. Well, yeah. I mean, if you're
having fun at work. Pass the tools over and then
see what happens. Yeah, look at the benefits.
Yeah, and it separates. It's a good one too,
like you separate from the people that want to
actually get better from the people that sort
of doing just what they need to do. Yeah, better
than making them go to a training. Yeah, that's
exactly what I was just thinking. Yeah. They'd
go to a conference, sleep, remember the nice
little bakery goods that they got for lunch and
then was excited that they were leaving. That's
my CPD points, I'm all sorted. Yeah. Even doing
that for like a team building exercise where
they go to a conference, have lunch and that's
the team building. It's just, I don't know, I
don't think it's quite that successful. You're
going to get that why. Yeah. So I guess that's
a good little segue into talking about like team
building and improvement. But it's just, it's
the improvement that you can see or trying to
improve your team's like communication and collaboration.
I mean, if they feel like they're achieving something,
then they're more likely to be engaged. So I
guess duelling, go elevate, doing the Sudoku,
they're all things you - Talking point. Yeah.
Yeah. A talking point. They're all something
you can do by yourself. You can make it a team
thing where you're like, all right, everyone,
we're learning Spanish. Like, um, but I think,
uh, more intentional things if you're going to,
I mean, get to the end of the year and you're
like, okay, we need to do a team building exercise
because morale is lacking. That's what everyone
does. So we better do one. Must have a pizza,
like a pizza day or. Sorry. I knew I was going
to do that for you. Oh, no. Do you have an awesome
pizza? I was about to say that's like, that's
not like five dollar pizza. That's like, that's
pizza oven. Okay. I'm not invited. Yeah. Um,
but yeah, when it comes to team building, I mean,
I. Yeah. How do I look around and there's like
adventure retreats that you can do where you
guys go out and. Trustfuls. Yeah, trustfuls.
Imagine. Go do like a... Crawl on the beach through
the waves and get yelled at. Has no... Exhilarating
stuff. Okay. Well, I was thinking something more
relaxing, like jumping on a bike and going for
a little mountain bike or doing a little bush
walk together. I mean, all depending on the capabilities
of your team, but getting outdoors, if you're
in an office environment all the time and you're
like, okay, let's do something indoors. I'll
be like, this feels like work. We could do golf.
We've got a celebrity. I think having it watch
your team building is that you've got a common
goal to achieve. I think that's kind of cool.
When it could be just you're making the lunch,
for example, that's a common goal. Just get people
working together in the same direction. Make
it MasterChef. Just a bit different to work.
So fun. MasterChef. Imagine. Imagine. The whole
team all set up and we're, oh, who can make the
best pizza? Let's do that. Well, that's library.
Sawyer's had that. MasterChef. Yeah. And it was
a team event. Yeah. And I've got the spatula.
Oh my gosh. Took it out my first month because
it was a game and you go competitive. I want
to do that. I also was partnered with a client
that was a chef. Oh, that's a win. That's so
cool. Imagine you do, you like start off and
you've got to go to the grocery store and you've
got to get all your ingredients and you're not
allowed to have instructions and you've got to
make your pizza and the best pizza wins. That'd
be so fun. A fun one that we did once was like
a treasure hunt, kind of like orienteering, but
everyone got in vehicles and you could be a little
bit careful with. you know, keeping things sensible
and not speeding and stuff. Um, but you had to,
um, you started with a puzzle and you have solved
that and go somewhere and got the next clue.
And then went to end up at client's farm, I think,
and then who was driving the vehicle crash into
the fence post or the gate post. Cause they're
in a bit of a rush and didn't see it and a few
other things, but it was a fun day. You know,
common goal, a bit of competition between everyone
and like it doesn't have to cost like thousands
of dollars. It can literally be 50 bucks for
a few pizzas at the end of the day, but just
make it an activity, common goal, get people
working together, having fun. Yeah, I think that's
cool. There's a really good quote. I can't remember
a verbatim, but it's, if everyone's rowing in
the same direction, you're going to get there
quicker. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of if people have differences
and things like that, they can easily forget
about them for a while when there's something
else to focus on. Yeah. And I think that's good.
I guess the volunteering projects are kind of
similar. Like Relay for Life was just on and
a heap of organisations do that. And everyone
I know that's done it has absolutely loved it
because it's completely different. Yeah, you
were walking for what like 20 hours, but that's
20 hours, you get to know the people that you're
working with. And that really good culture. Yeah.
Leaving back to the community. Yeah. And that
builds community. And everyone's impacted by
that sort of. um, organization. So yeah, I think
that's a pretty cool one. We've got a local one
here, um, grand span, which, um, basically provide
food and hygiene services to people. But a lot
of people just go down there, front here or business
groups of employees go down there and just, um,
help serve the food or do what they need to do.
Um, things like that. Yeah, I think that's pretty
cool. Uh, I guess, yeah, you want to make sure
that you've got something for everyone. So let's
just say you do like an adventure one, just make
sure you. the people who don't like physical
exercise, you know, the next time you're going
to do something a little bit less. They go to
pottery workshops at the moment, super popular.
Paint and sip. Drinks and sip. Yeah. That's cool.
I ended up creating a cow once that looked like
a really weird cow. Let people know that they
can opt out as well. I've been in workplaces
where... There's always a couple of people that
just say, I don't want to do anything. Okay,
that's your choice. You don't have to do it.
So we're going to try and find something that
you are going to enjoy. But if you want just
want to clock in, clock out, don't be part of
the team. That's entirely on you. Obviously,
from a management point of view, you look at
that and, guys, come on. And if we're trying
to develop a team here, what's going on? And
maybe when it does become promotion time, you
look at that and go, okay, well, these guys are
engaging as a team and you've got people that
perhaps aren't. Bit of a dark turn to that, but
yeah. The words are team building. So, you know,
it's not like you're saying it's compulsory.
You must go and you must go build a team and
be a team at the end of it. It's just lots of
activities and they don't have to be big things.
It can be, how can you integrate into the day
to day life of your business that we're just
trying to do a bit more teamwork and trial by
fire or whatever it is, but common goal. And
eventually, you know, people become the team
after a long period of time. How frequent do
you reckon you need to do them? Cause I know
people that do them every couple of months. Yeah,
inside the team. Yes, some people really, really
love them and some managers really get into it
and business owners once a quarter, once a month.
It depends on the culture of your team. Some
teams do it at Christmas time. That's their entire
team building exercises, their Christmas party.
It just depends on your setup. Like ideally it's
operating like this team building every day.
That's part of your business. And how do you
do that? A lot of micro sessions. It's no different
than micro learning, which is your duolingo or
your alibi we talked about before, or doing that
crossword a day. That's building the team over
a period of time. But I guess the bigger activities,
it can be something that builds a team. It could
be something that's not building a team. It's
just people expect it. Okay, well, why haven't
we done this? Or half the people don't go because
they don't like it. Some people go, some people
don't. Are they? Creating more bonds or are they
making worse bonds? You don't know. Yeah. Um,
and if you do it every month, it's a sidetracking
for something else. Um, but it's a really nice
perk to do, to do fun things as well. But could
you do that a different way? So I think it's
just what, what you want to do. Like there's
no right or wrong answer for it. The key is that
you're trying to build a team and then there's
processes or things that you do to achieve that.
Yeah. I guess like Ayn said, just having a Sudoku
in the middle of the lunchroom table. Yep. We
had a paintball one time with a team that I worked
on and the management team did make it compulsory.
So you just had to come along. And there was
one lady there who was like, no, I'm not really,
I don't want to go and shoot people or whatever.
It hurts. This person, once they got the gear
on and got the gun in their hand, was amazing.
And I watched them run down a hill, full flood
on their face. I'm like, oh man, you've done
some serious damage. Spring straight back up
into Arnold Schwarzenegger mode. The people that,
the things that you see from your teammates at
these things, you would not see that in the office.
Yeah, just chuck everyone in a different environment.
Yeah, just push them outside of their comfort
zone. Same person did get shot in the neck at
Mr Padding and they had to explain to her boyfriend
when she got home why she had a hickey. Couldn't
have been too hard. Oh dear. Just going into,
but back to team building though, just things
with like micro team building, something we've
been trying to do here for a while. And it's
the technology is not necessarily there, but
we all work from home in our business. So that
makes it pretty much the hardest way possible
to form teams. Cause you don't see each other
or sit next to each other or go have your weekend
or go have a coffee together and all that stuff
that most places normally have. But what was
the program? Habitica. Yeah, I stumbled across
this one. Uh, cause we use Microsoft programs
and that's all good. We use, um, Monday as well.
Monday. Yeah. And so that's good for job management,
but it doesn't necessarily create any sort of
extrinsic reward. And so like what we've found
is definitely in my case is that I'm. Writing
my Monday tasks onto my piece of paper and then
taking it for some sort of dopamine. Yeah. Um,
And so out of curiosity, we've already, we've
been talking about gamifying tasks for a long
time. It's on our development thing called the
dopamine system. Yeah. Just didn't know how to,
yeah, we knew that we wanted there to be some
sort of reward, some sort of challenge. It needs
to obviously have all the tasks and we need to
be able to tag it accordingly to everyone. Yeah.
Yeah. So it needs to be quite practical. I stumbled
across Habitica and you basically have a little
avatar and - You're avatarsing? My avatar's a
little person, but - Prickly Turtle. My username,
Prickly Turtle. Thanks, random username generator.
I think it's fantastic. Anyway, so you jump in,
you can set up your username, you can set up
your person, you can customize your avatar. So
it's got a little blue top on, it's very basic.
Um, you set up your daily habits, uh, your to
-do lists, uh, your daily tasks. So they're like
reoccurring tasks and the habits that you get
to put into things that you want to try and achieve.
So like your 15 minute break, your 30 minute
lunch, read 15 minutes a day. That's where you
can put in your Sudoku or those sorts of things.
And as you tick everything off, you get coins.
I'm pretty sure. I'm yet to like, well, I mean,
I logged in for the second time and I got an
egg and I got a growing potion, I'm pretty sure.
So now I get to hatch a pet. So like, I got a
little pet that's going to grow with me. Basically,
yeah. I know people will say right now, like
we want people to work, not hatch pets. Yes,
but, but bear with me. The more tasks I complete,
the more... money I get so that I can have more
animals. Amazing. So as in like I'm still completing
the task and I'm not spending 30 minutes a day
trying to hang out with my pet because it does
absolutely nothing. But it's the fact that I'm
getting little bits of costume and stuff to add.
We can do challenges as a group. So I set up
this challenge where you read five books in five
months. It'd be so good to have the rest of the
team involved in that because you get a reward
when you complete it. And those that don't complete
it just don't get their little certificate and
reward a badge. Yeah. So imagine if you have
the most elite little avatar and everyone else
has got little basic avatars, you clearly know
who's working. There's a lot of industry leaders
who have talked about being able to engage in
the new workforce, the younger workforce. Fresh
out of school, 20 -somethings coming into the
workforce and they say, why can't they just work
like we did? Well, when... I'm 40 so I don't
allow people to get whipped anymore. Yeah, well
that's exactly it. No, I don't want that. No,
no, no. I'm 48 as of today and thanks, I made
it. Was it actually your birthday? No. Oh, good.
But when I was coming through as a teenager,
the work environment was quite more abrupt and
abrasive and you just dealt with it. You don't
do that anymore. We're more inclusive. We're
more aware of the psychology of how people succeed.
And for us as business owners of my generation
and above to sit there and go, well, why can't
these kids just do what I did? Because they can't.
That's not how they've been trained. That's not
how they've been brought up. And let's be fair,
that's not how humans learn. Aside from that
though, there's some things about the system,
which is why we wanted it. We want to build a
team. We want to have people having some sort
of pride in their work or, you know, I've been
here for a while. Um, and some sets of accomplishments,
which, um, you know, is, is tied to something
that they've done. Um, and that's not a. kids
these day thing, that's always been the case
because you have scouts and they get their badges
and things and you have your cross stitch groups.
They have their little things that they put on
their shirts and whatever. So that's something
that's been around for a very long time. So the
idea of that you can have a system and people
have the things that they want to do and the
work that they need to get done. And then over
time you get a little pet, but it's not wasting
your time. If you don't care for any of this
stuff, it doesn't matter. because you're still
ticking your boxes. You still need to do it anyway.
But for someone who's been there five years,
they have a badge that's like, or a special thing
that says five year, blah, blah, blah. So I think
the point is, is that, you know, can you use
your business system to turn it into a bit of
a game, bit of fun, or provide that little bit
of acknowledgement. You know, that 20 year long
service, you know, go watch for example. You
know, things like that help build the team and
get a sense of, you know, community and a bit
of, you know, you might not be my boss, but you've
been here 20 years. So you still have some respect
that people are looking for. And the number one
reason people leave a workplace is apathy and
a little bit of acknowledgement along the way
can, can help avoid apathy. Yeah. Yeah. I think,
yeah, it does sound. a little bit funny and childish,
but you've got to like admit that the gaming
industry is quite popular and. That's hacking,
right? Yeah, I'm set. We feel good when we get
things in, do things and collect things and use
it. Yeah, use it. Yeah, so I think that's a really
cool one. Yeah, that's going to improve personal
and team productivity. You can also put your
personal goals in there as well, like drink enough
water and make sure you step outside. Yeah, so
it's quite cool. We've used that word a few times,
habits. Yes. It's a constant companion. Yeah.
So you've either got good habits or bad habits
or bleh, meh habits. It takes a while to build
in habits, doesn't it? It's one of those things
where people, a habit is, it creates success
and they say that success leaves habit, leaves
clues. Most successful people have pretty strong
habits. that point towards their success. It's
no different in business or personal life. Your
habits are always with you. So use these. We've
got the technology in our pocket that can create
some positive habits. Whether you like to expand
on your maths or your English or whatever other
things are in elevate or a different language,
the habit that you're building is your brain
power is increasing. So just sort of, I guess,
to summarize a little bit, unconventional ways
to improve. We're not necessarily talking too
unconventional, but you know, if you want to
get better or something where it's all working
or sport or whatever you do, lots of little bits
of practice. So that builds up over time to be
very good at something. So a team building, the
buzz is go on a big adventure and do this and
do that. And that is great. You've got a team,
but it's not really the case. It's the little
things that end up over time and the things that
you do and the same for you, you know, if you're.
a good joiner, you've learned to be a good joiner
with lots of little things over time. Um, so
if you're not good at certain things, it's, it's
finding those habits and, and doing that hard
work, but we can make that fun and we can use
that to give us a break for the day, um, as well.
So it says unconventional, but it's probably
we're talking the unconventional way. Now he's
conventional rather than just looking for something
to magic bullet, solve it for you. Just, you
know, use some of these things, fill the gaps
and, and work on it. But you've got two areas
in your business that you get big gain. The one
is you. So most people don't do any training
for themselves and the other one's the team.
How can you get people more involved, more actors
and work together? If you feel good about yourself,
you're going to be a better employee. Just going
to be better. Less stale and just better. Very
good. All right. We'll wrap it up there and we
will catch you all on the next podcast. Cool.
Bye.