Designing a small office reception area is more often than not, cause for much indecision and frustration. Besides our conference room(s), clients spend more of their time in this area of our workplace than any other.
A blind women (who we will call Sheena), while completing her manicure, was asked to choose the polish color she preferred. Being unable to make the selection on her own, she turned to a fellow patron and asked; “Which color do you prefer? Ballet Slippers or Adorable”? “Definitely the Ballet Slippers” the woman replied. “Why”? Sheena inquired. “Because it’s elegant,” the patron responded.
You spend hours looking around, website after website looking for that perfect reception desk for your business lobby. It’s important to you because you want to make a good first impression when customers come to visit. After all your sweat, indecision and questions, you finally find one that you like. You plop down your credit card and have it shipped. You receive it finally! It’s in a million pieces but you don’t care because you had nothing to do all day Saturday anyway. You put it together after much trial and error. You’re set. On Monday your receptionist tells you it looks great, but she needs a scouch more room, so you pull it away from the wall a few more inches and the side panel pops off. YOU WANT TO DIE!
Have you ever written an important phone number on a napkin or the back of an envelope? On the one hand, you get the information scribbled down; on the other, that piece of paper is so insubstantial, it gets lost or trashed by you or someone else.
When it comes to knowledge, sometimes we think we know, and we nail it! At other times, we think we have it all sewn up, and we wind up paying twice the price, embarrassing ourselves, or wishing we had never started in the first place. Then there are times when we don’t know that we don’t know, and we move forward anyway. These are the times for which we often pay dearly.
The type of innovation people bypass most frequently is design innovation. The way things look, and feel can be just as important as their intended function. If you perceive function as the only way to move forward, you are missing a grand opportunity!
There’s one thing you have that no one else on the planet can claim…and that’s the ability to be you. No one can duplicate it. No one can fake it. While at first glance this might not seem like a big deal, you just haven’t thought it through. You can inspire innovation and motivate others to live in creativity and joy. It’s not just a personal thing—it’s the ability to serve as a source of inspiration to the whole world simply by living it.
“All that glitters isn’t gold,” the man said. Similarly, not all modern reception desks that look great online are shining examples of quality. For those of you who find the way your company is represented to be important, here are some things to consider when you are looking into buying a ready-made reception desk.
Few people who are on the market to buy a modern reception desk understand what they are buying simply by viewing a picture online. For quality-minded buyers, the biggest factors should be material and construction. With this infor...
Have you ever written an important phone number on a napkin or the back of an envelope? On the one hand, you get the information scribbled down; on the other, that piece of paper is so insubstantial, it gets lost or trashed by you or someone else.
Laying out a quality plan with a definitive, thought-provoking end goal will yield a much better long-term result than a plan that only solves a temporary need.
Think of a fishbowl: the last thing that fish discover is water. That’s because when you’re in it, all you can see is what’s outside.
The modern office environment is no different. When things don’t go well at work, everything else can become a consideration for change: bonuses, discipline, training, and even promotional increases. Few, people however, ever think about the things contained in the office as a possible solution.
Here’s a story I heard that speaks to the value of things in the workplace environment in comparison with other approaches to issues like poor communication and lack of performance.
