Usually when I drop my kids off at daycare in the morning it is very hurried and I am often late for work. The teacher posts activities on the bulletin board of things that will be doing that week. She has a section called «Parent Involvement.» I read it, but don’t do anything, thinking I just have enough other things to do besides a ‘school activity’ for an infant and toddler.

One day after making it to work and seeing the company cube sitting on my desk, I thought about her. She is really making an effort at her job, and even though we don’t share an ‘office’, in a way, she is part of my workday. What could I do to help her?

I thought about the Winter Olympics coming up, so next time I saw her asked if she had anything planned for the kids. She didn’t, but asked if I had any ideas. I found some and emailed them to her. I didn’t hear anything, but one day my daughter came home with one of the crafts I suggested.

She helped me too – as that particular craft was a lot of preparation!

(C.F.,  Barcelona, Spain) Ayer me salió en el dado: «Ser el primero en ayudar a los demás».
Una persona de la oficina me llama y me dice: ¿Puedes venir a ayudarme? Pero ¿estás dispuesto a perder toda la mañana? Tenía algún problema desconocido en el ordenador. Vamos, ¡como si yo no tuviera otra cosa que hacer!
En décimas de segundo me hice el planteamiento del dado y me puse a su disposición. Me explicó que es lo que pasaba, que es lo que había estado haciendo antes en el ordenador, y me senté delante del trasto. Después de hacer un par de comprobaciones, intuí cual era el problema, pero yo no conocía la respuesta. Entonces probé a lanzar una pregunta en la ayuda del programa para ver si había respuesta conocida ¡y me dio la solución con pelos y señales! En menos de 5 minutos estaba todo solucionado.

(J.M. Indiana, USA) – «FIRST To Help Others!» was the Cube’s instructions for the day. I was able to immediately help one of the engineers with his backlog of work and then realized I had need of some help of my own to meet a deadline. I decided that I needed to «be the first to ask for help» and another person right away came to my rescue! Developing these «give» and «take» relationships in a company really helps everyone do their job better. I am do thankful I had help today. I’m sure the person I helped feels the same way!

(Indiana, USA) – «There is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.»
– Morpheus, The Matrix

Sometimes, I roll The Company Cube and have the best intentions of putting it into practice, but don’t make it. That’s what happened today. The side came up «First To Help Others!» I even put it right in front of my computer monitor. And there it sat…all day! As I was leaving the office tonight, I spotted it as I was putting on my coat. I had gotten caught up with several of my own concerns and failed to think about it. Feeling disappointed as I walked out the door, I was reminded of a simple response to my failure: start again. So, tomorrow I’ll leave that same phrase up and try again. Got to walk the path!