Whoever designs public toilets needs to rethink the whole thing. Since the advent of the enormous toilet paper dispensers which hold enough paper to last into the forseeable future, there is no room to enter or exit the cubicle. The square meterage of cubicles has also shrunk, both lengthwise and widthwise. Add a container for the disposal of, ahem, ladies' sanitary items, a handbag and your Christmas shopping, there's barely room for a person. This is further compounded by a lack of hooks for hanging one's luggage. At Flinders Street station, this is a diabolical problem, as the floors are unclean and often wet - I hate to think with what. Once the door swings open, there's barely 2 cm between the edge of the door and the the lip of the loo. The space to stand so the swinging door doesn't knock you into the actual toilet, is taken up with the toilet paper dispenser. Getting in, it's a matter of slinging the bags over the shoulder and performing a physical origami act that would make a circus contortionist rethink their vocation. This results in being wedged between the toilet pedestal, the back wall and the lifetime supply of toilet paper. The door can then be flung towards the locking position, but arms are never long enough to reach the lock from there, so the bags are thrown, quoit-like, at the door in the hope that there is a) a hook on the door, b) that the target will be hit and c) that said hook will hold. The momentum keeps the door travelling the right direction, giving sufficient time to step over the bowl to the other side of the cubicle so the door can be locked.
Having undertaken the relaxing business of answering nature's call, the logistical challenge of ejecting oneself from this cell of complexity looms. The challenge is all about order. Standing up results in injuries to the face as the bags hanging on the back of the door make contact. Leaning up to try to dislodge the bags before fully standing results in considerable pain from the dislocated shoulder which follows. There's also the risk that the windmill action required could result in the bags flying over one's head and plunging to their watery death. Once that bit is worked out, the entry process is engineered in reverse: wedging in behind the toilet and the dispenser while trying to reach the lock on the door. If one can manage to open the door from this angle, then the ridiculousness of the situation is on display for all to see. And there will be plenty to see it because no matter where or when, there is ALWAYS a queue in the women's toilets. Everyone pretends not to notice, but really they're dreading the feat that awaits them. Not only does all of the above have to be accomplished, it must be done under pressure of time - there are ladies queuing - but it must be achieved with a full bladder!
Who the hell designed these?
Open the doors outwards!
Showing posts with label challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenge. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
A case of the "yeah-buts"
I'm in the midst of another leadership conversation. These conversations are one of my favourite things to do in a working day. It's very satisfying to see people change their mindset and tackle some of the problems they have been ignoring or avoiding.
There's a syndrome that I've noticed. It's pretty serious and will make a leader's job much harder if it takes hold. It's even more dangerous when the leader is a carrier.
It's called "Yeah-buts". Have you encountered it? This syndrome can creep in where ever there is a lapse of vigilance. It is easily recognised. Consider this: you are the leader needing to lead a change. You have carefully considered and developed your case for change and paid close attention to how you communicate this. You've even thought about the kinds of questions that people may pose. You finish your presentation. Heads nod. There is a beat of silence. Then you hear this: "Yeah, that's all true, what we need to do, but...".
And there it is.
What follows "but" can usually be described as defensive as people make the case to protect themselves from the change they know needs to happen.
In the current conversation leaders were talking about people they lead as "trying to do the wrong thing". When I asked them how they knew the people in their teams are trying to do the wrong thing I was told it's obvious. I pointed out the difference between intention and behaviour and the fact that behaviour is visible and intention is not. Intention can not be assumed; to discover it you need to ask questions.
As people complained about the people they lead, I suggested that these people are their responsibility..."yeah-but". I suggested that if people flout basic requirements of the job repeatedly and even after conversation, then the leaders must be clear about consequences..."yeah-but".
See how dangerous this syndrome is! When it takes hold, nothing can happen.
What happens if treatment is taken? What could the treatment be? My suggestion is to replace the word "but" with the word "and" whenever it is spoken after the word "yeah". The phrase becomes "yes-and".
Start there. Repeat as necessary.
I hope you're not suffering from the "yeah-buts". If you are, start treatment now.
There's a syndrome that I've noticed. It's pretty serious and will make a leader's job much harder if it takes hold. It's even more dangerous when the leader is a carrier.
It's called "Yeah-buts". Have you encountered it? This syndrome can creep in where ever there is a lapse of vigilance. It is easily recognised. Consider this: you are the leader needing to lead a change. You have carefully considered and developed your case for change and paid close attention to how you communicate this. You've even thought about the kinds of questions that people may pose. You finish your presentation. Heads nod. There is a beat of silence. Then you hear this: "Yeah, that's all true, what we need to do, but...".
And there it is.
What follows "but" can usually be described as defensive as people make the case to protect themselves from the change they know needs to happen.
In the current conversation leaders were talking about people they lead as "trying to do the wrong thing". When I asked them how they knew the people in their teams are trying to do the wrong thing I was told it's obvious. I pointed out the difference between intention and behaviour and the fact that behaviour is visible and intention is not. Intention can not be assumed; to discover it you need to ask questions.
As people complained about the people they lead, I suggested that these people are their responsibility..."yeah-but". I suggested that if people flout basic requirements of the job repeatedly and even after conversation, then the leaders must be clear about consequences..."yeah-but".
See how dangerous this syndrome is! When it takes hold, nothing can happen.
What happens if treatment is taken? What could the treatment be? My suggestion is to replace the word "but" with the word "and" whenever it is spoken after the word "yeah". The phrase becomes "yes-and".
Start there. Repeat as necessary.
I hope you're not suffering from the "yeah-buts". If you are, start treatment now.
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Another challenge - Granny a day
Yesterday I discovered Pip Lincolne's "A Granny a day" challenge on her blog, Meet Me At Mike's. The idea is to rediscover the Granny square and make one a day. It looks like this has been going for a while and I'm a late arrival, but that's okay.
I like the idea of one thing a day. The focus often leads me to find unexpected inspiration and to make new discoveries. I've fallen by the wayside with the photo a day challenge this month. It's just not igniting my interest this month. Instead, I'm going to crochet a Granny a day.
I don't like to over think these things so my approach to colour and construction is random. I have a big basket of yarn in the colours that I like (you won't find yellow in there!). Colour selection is achieved by closing my eyes and seeing what I come up with.
Granny squares take me back to when I first learned to crochet. My real Granny taught me how to make one and my first project was ambitious. I would make a giant Granny square which would be a square rug. There would be one for me, one for my brother and one for my sister. We still have them. I started with mine and distinctly remember announcing my colours as being "autumn": green, orange and bone". My sister's was shades of pink and my brother's was shades of brown (sorry Douglas!).
I remember my Granny's patience as she reminded me about how to hold the yarn, how to turn a corner, how to do a slip stitch. We finished them off with rounds of double crochet and then Granny taught me how to do crab stitch - you basically crochet backwards. This was sensational and felt very grown up to be able to finish things off in the same style as my grandmother, who was a very accomplished master of many needle crafts.
I haven't made a Granny square for years and it feels nice to go back to where I started. I had to do a little research to remind myself of the details, but it has all come flooding back.
For those interested in the technical details, I'm using 8 ply wool (Shepherd's, Cleckheaton Country and Lincraft Superwash) that I have in my stash and a 4 mm hook. I'm completing 7 rounds, completing the set up and the first two rounds in the one colour and then changing colour at the beginning of every round. To avoid having a million ends to sew in, I crochet over the ends so there is none of that.
Here's the one I made yesterday (Monday 16 July):
Here's the second one I made yesterday.
I'm yet to make one today.
I'll post back here with photos regularly for an update. I wonder what they will become?
Why not join in? It's a great opportunity to do something manageable and play with colour. It might inspire you to learn a new skill. You could even donate a finished blanket to charity. I'd love to see your work!
I like the idea of one thing a day. The focus often leads me to find unexpected inspiration and to make new discoveries. I've fallen by the wayside with the photo a day challenge this month. It's just not igniting my interest this month. Instead, I'm going to crochet a Granny a day.
I don't like to over think these things so my approach to colour and construction is random. I have a big basket of yarn in the colours that I like (you won't find yellow in there!). Colour selection is achieved by closing my eyes and seeing what I come up with.
Granny squares take me back to when I first learned to crochet. My real Granny taught me how to make one and my first project was ambitious. I would make a giant Granny square which would be a square rug. There would be one for me, one for my brother and one for my sister. We still have them. I started with mine and distinctly remember announcing my colours as being "autumn": green, orange and bone". My sister's was shades of pink and my brother's was shades of brown (sorry Douglas!).
I remember my Granny's patience as she reminded me about how to hold the yarn, how to turn a corner, how to do a slip stitch. We finished them off with rounds of double crochet and then Granny taught me how to do crab stitch - you basically crochet backwards. This was sensational and felt very grown up to be able to finish things off in the same style as my grandmother, who was a very accomplished master of many needle crafts.
I haven't made a Granny square for years and it feels nice to go back to where I started. I had to do a little research to remind myself of the details, but it has all come flooding back.
For those interested in the technical details, I'm using 8 ply wool (Shepherd's, Cleckheaton Country and Lincraft Superwash) that I have in my stash and a 4 mm hook. I'm completing 7 rounds, completing the set up and the first two rounds in the one colour and then changing colour at the beginning of every round. To avoid having a million ends to sew in, I crochet over the ends so there is none of that.
Here's the one I made yesterday (Monday 16 July):
 |
| The colours are actually pink - they look quite orange in this photo. (c) divacultura 2012 |
Here's the second one I made yesterday.
 |
| This one does have orange in it! (c) divacultura 2012 |
I'm yet to make one today.
I'll post back here with photos regularly for an update. I wonder what they will become?
Why not join in? It's a great opportunity to do something manageable and play with colour. It might inspire you to learn a new skill. You could even donate a finished blanket to charity. I'd love to see your work!
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Humour - when it isn't very funny.
This week I've been thinking about humour. For the first time in my life, I experienced humour in a negative way and gained a different perspective.
From my perspective, I've always thought that a sense of humour is as necessary to sustaining life as a heart and lungs. I even remember ending a relationship because it became apparent that the man in question had no sense of humour. It was worse than a physical disability. I see the funny side of life and like to laugh, so was confronted when I had a participant in a program I was facilitating who used it to deflect responsibility.
The man was in a group of senior leaders in a significant organisation. As it turned out, several of the other participants were led by him. Very early in the course, he started to drop one-liners in response to anything anyone said. There's nothing wrong with making people laugh. What I noticed was that the response to his interventions was at best, lukewarm, polite chuckling. And still they kept coming. Any time this man was challenged or confronted he used humour to deflect responsibility and to dilute the confrontation.
This can be a really useful skill if you find yourself under attack. Distracting the attacker and making them laugh at themselves is a way of ensuring safety.
The program I was facilitating was in the realm of leadership development and by it's nature is confronting. My role as a facilitator is to "turn up the heat" and challenge participants to explore unfamiliar territory and think and act differently. I could see that this man needed to take responsibility for the way he was acting and the results he was getting. His use of humour as a deflection weapon was perfectly designed to distract attention away from his shortcomings.
He was very creative and tried everything to stay "safe": he forged alliances with anyone else struggling with a concept, he argued with me, he blamed me, he complained that a particular task was "hard". The one thing he failed to do was take responsibility. He was the king of the "yes, but" response. He had official status within the group - he was probably one of the most senior leaders in the room - but over the two days of the program his status was diminished. Through his unwillingness to take responsibility, he made himself less powerful and less relevant.
Truthfully, he was getting on my goat. I wondered whether this was because he was stealing my spot as the funny person in the room. I observed myself as carefully as I was observing him in the group. There were opportunities for humour and I felt myself hesitating to use it (would humour at this point allow the whole group to deflect responsibility?). I made the choice to be myself and took the opportunity to make the group really laugh. They did. Then I wondered whether I was actually being competitive with this man. I rationalised my behaviour, deciding that we had fundamentally different roles in the room and that no competition existed. I checked my view of this man with my co-facilitator. He was thinking the same thing.
So, I challenged this man by asking him what was happening for him. He opened right up and essentially debunked the organisation's view of leadership and what they are requiring of their leaders. Ah ha! He was fighting for air as the tide turned and he had to change or (metaphorically) die. If he could create the sense that he's a "good bloke" it would be a useful defence to help him retain his job.
By the end of two days, there was a massive shift. I was facilitating the closing session of the two days and asking participants to share their next steps. This man waited until last. He sat in his chair and put his hands on his head, thrust his chest out and spoke so quietly I had to ask him to repeat himself. He started by saying "if I'm honest, and I suppose I have to be" and then said that he could see that the world had moved on and he had some decisions to make about what he would do.
I was so pleased! Without this realisation and acceptance, this man would not give himself the opportunity to change. He would continue on his path and then wonder why he was being moved on. At least he was now in charge of his decisions.
In a different setting, perhaps I would have found him funny and been happy to laugh along with him. Even though he was very challenging, I'm thankful that he was in a workshop with me. He gave me the opportunity to question something fundamental to my way of working - humour.
As the group dispersed, another participant came to say goodbye to me. He made the point of telling me that he really enjoyed my humour.
What's your relationship with humour?
From my perspective, I've always thought that a sense of humour is as necessary to sustaining life as a heart and lungs. I even remember ending a relationship because it became apparent that the man in question had no sense of humour. It was worse than a physical disability. I see the funny side of life and like to laugh, so was confronted when I had a participant in a program I was facilitating who used it to deflect responsibility.
The man was in a group of senior leaders in a significant organisation. As it turned out, several of the other participants were led by him. Very early in the course, he started to drop one-liners in response to anything anyone said. There's nothing wrong with making people laugh. What I noticed was that the response to his interventions was at best, lukewarm, polite chuckling. And still they kept coming. Any time this man was challenged or confronted he used humour to deflect responsibility and to dilute the confrontation.
This can be a really useful skill if you find yourself under attack. Distracting the attacker and making them laugh at themselves is a way of ensuring safety.
The program I was facilitating was in the realm of leadership development and by it's nature is confronting. My role as a facilitator is to "turn up the heat" and challenge participants to explore unfamiliar territory and think and act differently. I could see that this man needed to take responsibility for the way he was acting and the results he was getting. His use of humour as a deflection weapon was perfectly designed to distract attention away from his shortcomings.
He was very creative and tried everything to stay "safe": he forged alliances with anyone else struggling with a concept, he argued with me, he blamed me, he complained that a particular task was "hard". The one thing he failed to do was take responsibility. He was the king of the "yes, but" response. He had official status within the group - he was probably one of the most senior leaders in the room - but over the two days of the program his status was diminished. Through his unwillingness to take responsibility, he made himself less powerful and less relevant.
Truthfully, he was getting on my goat. I wondered whether this was because he was stealing my spot as the funny person in the room. I observed myself as carefully as I was observing him in the group. There were opportunities for humour and I felt myself hesitating to use it (would humour at this point allow the whole group to deflect responsibility?). I made the choice to be myself and took the opportunity to make the group really laugh. They did. Then I wondered whether I was actually being competitive with this man. I rationalised my behaviour, deciding that we had fundamentally different roles in the room and that no competition existed. I checked my view of this man with my co-facilitator. He was thinking the same thing.
So, I challenged this man by asking him what was happening for him. He opened right up and essentially debunked the organisation's view of leadership and what they are requiring of their leaders. Ah ha! He was fighting for air as the tide turned and he had to change or (metaphorically) die. If he could create the sense that he's a "good bloke" it would be a useful defence to help him retain his job.
By the end of two days, there was a massive shift. I was facilitating the closing session of the two days and asking participants to share their next steps. This man waited until last. He sat in his chair and put his hands on his head, thrust his chest out and spoke so quietly I had to ask him to repeat himself. He started by saying "if I'm honest, and I suppose I have to be" and then said that he could see that the world had moved on and he had some decisions to make about what he would do.
I was so pleased! Without this realisation and acceptance, this man would not give himself the opportunity to change. He would continue on his path and then wonder why he was being moved on. At least he was now in charge of his decisions.
In a different setting, perhaps I would have found him funny and been happy to laugh along with him. Even though he was very challenging, I'm thankful that he was in a workshop with me. He gave me the opportunity to question something fundamental to my way of working - humour.
As the group dispersed, another participant came to say goodbye to me. He made the point of telling me that he really enjoyed my humour.
What's your relationship with humour?
Friday, 24 February 2012
Challenge accepted!
I've accepted a challenge from my blog and Scrabble buddy over at SexyMomGP. The challenge comes from fatmumslim and is to take a photo a day during the month of March. The photo must be inspired by the keyword of the day.
I love a challenge and am in a YES frame of mind so there was nothing else to do but accept! It's so easy to take photos these days and having inspiration will help me look for things and see things differently. Perfect.
Would you like to join in too? It's easy. Post on your blog or share on twitter, facebook, instagram or...where ever you like! The hash tag if you're sharing on twitter or instagram is #Marchphotoaday. I'll be posting here and you can find divacultura on twitter and instagram too.
Here is the list of March words for each day:
I love a challenge and am in a YES frame of mind so there was nothing else to do but accept! It's so easy to take photos these days and having inspiration will help me look for things and see things differently. Perfect.
Would you like to join in too? It's easy. Post on your blog or share on twitter, facebook, instagram or...where ever you like! The hash tag if you're sharing on twitter or instagram is #Marchphotoaday. I'll be posting here and you can find divacultura on twitter and instagram too.
Here is the list of March words for each day:
Keywords for March:
1. Up
2. Fruit
3. Your neighbourhood
4. Bedside
5. A smile
6. 5pm
7. Something you wore
8. Window
9. Red
10. Loud
11. Someone you talked to today
12. Fork
13. Sign
14. Clouds
15. Car
16. Sunglasses
17. Green
18. A corner of your home
18. A corner of your home
19. Funny
20. Before and after
20. Before and after
21. Delicious
22. Kitchen sink
23. Moon
24. Animal
25. Breakfast
26. Key
27. Your name
28. Trash
29. Feet
30. Toy
31. Where you relax
I'd love to see what you see! Come and join us.
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