Episode 193.5 – Green Apple Slice

Good morning. It’s John Garrett coming to you with another episode of Green Apple Slices. If you’ve been listening for the last couple of Mondays, I’ve been struggling on Rachel’s title. So I’ve been practicing all week. Every day, on the hour, every hour, I say your title. So here she is, Accountants and Alliances for Sage Canada. Oh, what’s your name again? Rachel Fisch.

Rachel: I kind of thought you had that down but no, that’s fine.

John: Nope. My brain is not big enough to handle both sides of this.

Rachel: I do not dispute that.

John: But yes, so I’m excited that you picked up and that I practiced, so then we could deliver that.

Rachel: Even though I’m a West Coast Vancouver, we’ve got our Sage Accountant Forum in Vancouver coming up. I love this city. It’s awesome. I actually got to spend the weekend here after some time in Toronto, in Calgary. So the event is coming up, and it’s going to be a good one.

John: Very cool. That’s awesome. Yeah, I’m home. So look at me being all lazy. Last week, I was in Durham, North Carolina, and then Newark for two different events which were for two different firms, Cherry Bekaert and then PwC. That’s my old hood there. Well, not the same office or anyone I worked with.

Rachel: But the same name, yeah.

John: The same gang symbol, I mean whatever. But no, all really great people and I really enjoyed speaking to all of them. They were awesome. So yeah, really fun. But we always get together and talk through an article. I found this one on Inc. by Bubba Page and “7 Ways to Keep Employees Motivated Besides Money.”

Rachel: Yes. Actually, I think it was just a week or two ago where I was talking about kind of find your employees’ currency and so that might not always be money. So there are different ways that you can value them and stuff like that. But I was actually thinking more still within that compensation model piece. So that’s what I had in mind when I was reading this. I’m like, oh, that’s not what this is at all. This is just some completely free things that you can do to continue to keep your employees motivated. So free is better. That’s fine. It was good. It was just it wasn’t quite what I thought it was at first.

John: Right. And there are six, and they’re all numbered in bold. So again, perfect for you.

Rachel: Perfect.

John: I think the one that spoke to me, of course, was knockout boredom which you can ask anyone that worked with me in any of my jobs, PwC or Schwarz Pharma or Clarion Health, now IU Health in Indianapolis. Knockout boredom was definitely, that was really all I did. That was my skill set. I didn’t really do anything else.

Rachel: What did you do to try to not get boredom?

John: Well, you know…

Rachel: Wait a minute, first, is this suitable for like —

John: I think it’s suitable. I think it’s suitable. I don’t know if I highly recommend doing this right now on a Monday, but why not? When I was at PwC, I remember doing an internal audit project at first our bank location which is now US Bank. I made a rule that when you’re in the audit room at the client office but in the audit room, the room with no windows in the basement that they give you, I said, well, we have to speak English but in a foreign accent. So you just have to use some silly accent. It could be southern or Boston or French or Italian or Australian or whatever it is, just use an accent. And then it will spice it up a little bit. And not 15, 20 minutes later, the first person to walk in from outside is someone to give me something, and everyone stops working and they look at me like, “What are you going to do, buddy?” I was like, “Thank you very much.” The lady is like, “You’re so weird,” and then left. We laughed so hard that day. It was so funny talking to each other. It was absolutely hysterical.

Rachel: And these are like auditors, like auditors are not known for their sense of humor.

John: Oh, totally. But it’s just like mix things up. We got the same amount of work done. We were just as productive. We were just as effective. But just mix it up a little bit. Stop going through the motions.

Rachel: Possibly more productive. Who knows?

John: I didn’t want to say that. But when I was involved, it was probably just the same. It was probably about the same because I would negate it. I was like, well, we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s do a tag or something. I don’t know. If you just, just do something a little bit differently or in a different way or just a pattern interrupt there, just spruce it up for everybody else.

Rachel: And that didn’t interrupt work. You were still getting your work done, but you were doing it in an interesting way where people were engaged. So that’s awesome.

John: Absolutely and that’s crucial.

Rachel: Some of the rest of them here, we’ve got provide supportive leadership, empower the individual, create a positive environment, encourage teamwork, recognize and reward, the boredom that you talked about, and eliminate dissatisfaction.

John: Oh, wow.

Rachel: That’s a lot.

John: Yeah, that is a lot. There’s actually seven. I said that in the title. Never mind. There were six for so many weeks.

Rachel: There were a couple that were six, yeah.

John: Yeah, that is hard to eliminate dissatisfaction. But I think if you just talk to people and find out what their strengths are and what their true passions are and you can dovetail that with their work, then it makes coming to work a little more enjoyable for everyone.

Rachel: For sure. And one of the things that I’ve noticed is that often the thing that people are complaining about is not necessarily the core thing that needs fixing. In many cases, they complain about the symptom of something. But if you take a little bit to dig a little deeper, you can actually solve the core issue which may spin off other symptoms that are causing some other issues. So try to not just deal with the symptom of a lot of complaining and stuff like that that’s going on within your organization. Sometimes it pays to look a little deeper.

John: Unless when you look deeper, it’s because auditors are using a foreign accent in the audit room, then you just go right back to the symptom and be like, “It’s something else. Trust me.”

Rachel: There’s nothing to see here. Move on.

John: Exactly, exactly. But if you want to read the whole article, it’s at greenapplepodcast.com. You can check it out there. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. Rachel, you’re @FischBooks.

Rachel: I am, yes.

John: There’s a billion John Garrett. So I’m at @The_JohnGarrett. And the shows on Green Apple Pod. So hit us up there and follow along. Don’t forget to hit Subscribe, so you don’t miss any of the future episodes, like when I get Rachel’s title right again next week, two in a row.

Rachel: Who knows? Stay tuned and find out.

John: Exactly. So have fun in Vancouver, and we’ll talk next Monday.

Rachel: Thanks. Talk to you later, John.