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1 + 1 = 3
January 10, 2014
Do one thing every day that scares you.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
-Eleanor Roosevelt
In Get Weird: 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work, John Putzier talks about the potential value of strategic alliances for both your employees and your customers. By merging services (such as having a bank outlet inside a grocery store), you achieve "synergy (i.e. 1+1 = 3, or the whole is greater than the sum of the parts)."
In a child care setting where our customers come through our doors twice a day, the possibilities are endless. Putzier suggests to start, "Look for organizations and services your employees and your customers tend to use." For example, could you...
- Have a dry cleaner have an employee at your center at the beginning and close of each day to accept and return dry cleaning orders.
- Follow the example of a center in New Jersey that utilized its great cook and cooking facilities so that parents in the morning could order delicious and nutritious meals to pick up for their families when they picked up their children.
- Offer evening or early morning exercise or yoga classes.
- Have a coffee bar in the lobby.
Early childhood program administrators often have a global impression that things are going well or not so well at their center, but they lack specific feedback on just what the different areas of the organization contribute to those impressions. This updated and expanded edition helps directors define more precisely how ten dimensions of a center shape the quality of work life for staff. It will help you look at your program in terms of collegiality, opportunities for professional growth, supervisor support, clarity, reward system, decision-making, goal consensus, task orientation, physical setting, and innovation. Written in an engaging and lively style, the ideas in this book will help you sharpen your leadership skills and make your center A Great Place to Work.
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ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsNew Hampshire, United States
We have added cooking classes and dance classes for our children at a very minimal cost so that the parents do not have to look somewhere else for these enrichment activities afterschool for their children--they really appreciate the "one stop shopping". We also do once a month parent's night out--the children can stay until 9PM, have pizza and a movie and a craft--and the parents can have a relaxing evening knowing their children are with caregivers they know. The more we can add is one less thing the parents have to go looking for!
Centers for New Horizons / Effie O. Ellis Early Learning Center
Chicago, Illinois 60653, United States
It sounds very informative and should assist us in creating a better environment for the staff and our customers.
Thanks and Have A Great Day!!!
Stonework Play
Leominster, MA, United States
I am so glad an entry to focus on making your work play a great workplace has been posted today. It is so vital for healthy productive individuals to grow and learn together.
Last night I went to a celebration of life memorial for a very successful businessman who owned a very respectful shoe store. A person who worked for him for many years spoke so highly about him last evening. She said she only saw him observe new employees and never saw him criticize or take an employee aside and say, "You could have done it this way." Every day, each employee magically left work having learned something new about the business and himself. He would ask, "What did you learn today?" It is such a good idea, because the learning came from within and builds from there.
Another concrete idea I am passionate about — if you would like to try team building with your staff — is using stones; check out Stonework Play at dsuskind.com It has been done with child development staff in Nepal and England, architects, international conference participants, parents and their children, after-school clubs such as Pages for Peace, and at ashrams. It truly works and allows each person who works together to have an opportunity to give you their thoughts, their dreams for the place they work.
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