What’s hiding in your desk?

By: Shepard Dunn, TPP Consultant

With what seems like nothing but time these days, my wife brought me an old boot box that my mother put together some 20+ years ago and said “Look what I found!!” We’ve been going through all sorts of things in the house, probably just like yourself. Not that I really wanted to do that, but I must say, I’ve learned a lot.

I took the next three hours pilfering through that box, finding all sorts of goodies. I did find out that mom was disappointed that she had her third boy when she hoped I would be a girl. As I read many notecards that were written to her with sympathy of having another boy. Hahahaha…. That box was a treasure chest of information: old pictures of girlfriends, report cards, fake id’s, my brother’s college ID from Davidson, pro marksman shooter badges, high school notes, certificates of birth and the list goes on. I sat and took photos with my iPhone and sent many texts to friends and family so they could enjoy as well. What a hoot that was. From grins, belly laughter to tears and reminders of some tough times, too. All in all, I’m glad she found the box and I was even able to throw away some memories of old girlfriends from time gone by. Whew, hope she didn’t see any of those.

It reminded me of a time early in my career when I had a boss that, during the Christmas break, would go around to all the offices and dump the desk drawers out on your desk. Much to your surprise, when you returned from holiday, that was the first thing you had to deal with. At the staff meeting that same day, he announced that he was the one that did it and was proud of it. It was a lesson he learned the hard way from his old boss. Managers were not very happy about it. But his point of doing that, was to rid yourself (and your desk) of all those hidden items that you had been putting off for another day. As you cleaned your desk up, you created a pile of stuff to deal with; a trash pile, a file pile, etc. And you know what, it worked! All sorts of skeletons and alligators came out of my desk. Lesson learned….

The point is: IF you find yourself or your people with not much to do, then clean those desks out. Deal with the stuff that you’ve been putting off. The things you never had time to do. Here’s a short list that I created that most trucking companies need to deal with.

• Make orientation 100% online

• Rewrite the policy manual

• Clean the shop of old parts

• Long term remote working rules

• Document SOP’s, improve processes

• Train, Train, Train

• Clean up EDI issues

• Call on old customers

• Prepare for the return to good times

• Strategize long term, plan short term

• Create new business offerings

• Survey customers, survey employees

• Spend time with your team

I am sure that somewhere you have a list of to do’s that you or your people can tackle. When it’s over and you look back on how you spent your time, you’ll be glad to say you were productive. I must ask…. What’s in your desk drawer?

Shepard Dunn

Shepard@tcaingauge.com

812-887-9600