MWA Success Stories! The Daily Five Minutes®

As you might imagine, I love, love, LOVE getting emails from folks who tell me “hey Rosa, been reading your book, and I gotta let you know that your Managing with Aloha stuff works!”

Then there are those who say, “I like your ideas, and I share these values, but do I hafta read the whole book?”

To get them started (and if they are managers) I will usually say, “Tell you what; if there is only one part of my book I’d recommend you read and practice, it’s about The Daily Five Minutes® — go to page 145.”

It’s the only page number I know by heart. It’s also the only page number I make sure I know by heart.

So it is fitting that I am starting a new category here at Managing with Aloha Coaching that we will call MWA Success Stories! with a tale of the D5M in beautiful practice (We use D5M for short for the Daily Five Minutes® tool.)

Here is a gem that was posted about the D5M on one of the virtual project management spaces I use for my coaching clients; one of the managers wrote it, including the title;

The Wheel That Don’t Squeak Needs Oil Too

I don’t know everything.

I have a team member that just comes to work and just smiles a lot. When I ask how’s everything? He just says “good” or “okay” and returns to work. I’ve never really paid too much attention to him other than to tell him “good job” after work, or to check in on him during work.

He, let’s call him Ben, well Ben don’t talk much, but now that I think about it I’ve always seen him doing the grills or the kitchen mats.

I never question it and just took it for granted that this guy really likes to do the grills and the mats.

Well if you ever worked in the kitchen you’ll know what I am talking about.

Long story short, when I did a D5M with him, I asked him to look at all the cards and he picked # 14. I asked if he wanted to tell me about #14 and he said “yes.”

His best day at work in the past seven days was that he got to work with Henry on the floors, and had no shame telling me that.

When I asked him “Why was that?” he said that ever since he started working he only did the grills or mats and no one asked him if he wanted to do something else.

Left me with a wow in my head.

Mahalo from,
I don’t know everything

Until they completely understand the intention behind the D5M, and begin to reap its benefits, managers will often say, “...but I talk to my staff every day, why would I need to do this too?”

This is why.

What don’t you know about the people you work with every day?

Who could use your oil of aloha?

 

Links which may be helpful:

1. If you are hearing about D5M for the first time, you can read about it on this page at www.ManagingWithAloha.com — The Daily 5 Minutes: 9 Questions. It includes an excerpt on pages 145 and 146 of my book.
2. The “cards” that this manager refers to are used in our private coaching programs when we bring the MWA philosophy to entire companies comprehensively, and customized for their core values.
3. In Managing with Aloha, I write about the D5M in the chapter on ‘Ike loa, the Hawaiian value of learning, for what we learn to do, is know our people well.
4. Buy the book, and judge for yourself!

Comments

[Joanna Young]

This is a fantastic story Rosa. Thanks for sharing it. It's left me with a wow in my head too.

Joanna

[Rosa Say]

Me too Joanna, I keep thinking about this one!

We get fairly cerebral in our worlds of management, leadership and business, and then there are stories like this one, which reveal the honor and dignity of how managers can help people feel better in the workplace each and every day.