Scot Ennis

1. Communication:

Which projects are moving slower than you prefer?, where are results suboptimal? where have i not achieved what i wanted to? I’d put forward that the answer usually lies within communication. Which person have you not truly listened to, understood, replied to, communicated with? As a rule, email is ineffective and most of us manage it poorly, at understanding and handling objections.   If you are driving towards a result, pick up the phone, see them in person, seek first to understand, then to be understood.

2. Time management:

Start each day by asking “What are the 3 biggest things i can do today”. Focus on those. Apply the “Get Things Done” principle on the rest. GTD recommends anything that can be done in less than 2 minutes should be done now. The time you spend deciding to do it later, revisiting it, putting it off, is a multiple of the original.

Promise + a reason or excuse does not = Promise.

I voted for Kevin Rudd in 08 as I believed he was going to do something about climate change.  After all, surely Peter Garret couldn’t fail the environment. Economic crisis or otherwise, the inaction and excuses to date will form part of his legacy, results are what counts.

For these reasons I’ve historically ignored politics. Actions speak louder than words and politicians are masters at saying a lot and doing little.  Today. My perception changed.

A letter I penned was delivered to Malcolm Turnbulls office on Wednesday morning, by Friday morning, 6 phone calls later, we have a breakthrough result for our business within 3 days that would have otherwise taken 10-16 weeks.

Initially, this gave me renewed faith in the political system, though now i realise it’s not the political system that has changed, it’s this particular voter. Until last Wednesday i’d never asked anything of a politician. Just goes to show, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

had a beer with some old school friends on Friday night. One is now a air force pilot, who’d just spent the day dropping 120 paratroopers out of his plane. of the 120, one broke his back and one broke his leg. Apparently that is not unusual. The parachutes are designed to get the solider to the ground fast, so as to avoid being shot whilst drifting in the air close to enemy lines. The consequences of coming down fast and not getting shot on the way down is that you run a high chance of getting injured upon landing. Sprained ankles, serious bruising is so common it’s not actually counted the the log book as an injury…

The other guy, is a youth worker, who must surely have one of the hardest jobs in social work. He works with street kids, some with drug addictions and violent tendencies. His kids can go missing for days – it’s his Job to find them and bring them back to a safe house.

So next time you think your Job is hard…