Life mirrors the act of washing dishes: one washes, the other dries, achieving synchronicity.

Sometimes, someone, somewhere says something that makes perfect sense…

I have written about this before: in today’s world we can no longer do things on our own, not that we should have in the first place.

The best of relationships display such a dynamic, whether it’s a couple, members of a family, the best of friends, a sporting duo, political partnership (even if they are rivals) or colleagues at work.

My great friend Steve rang me yesterday. He is, from what I can see, a valued mentor and coach in the workplace. Each time he tells me about the latest inspection or audit he has participated in, there is always a strong element of how he works closely with his colleagues to help them improve their knowledge and approach. This in turn delivers a result that benefits not only themselves in terms of being an effective regulatory unit, but those they have assessed as well.

Experience and those who need to develop skills and knowledge work well together, if you allow it.

How can you do this, to achieve synchronicity? Quite simply by applying the following:

Embrace Leadership – this is about respecting others. Acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses your partner(s) have. Be fair, be reasonable.

Keep Staff Informed – sharing information is important in any relationship. You and they cannot be effective if you keep information from each other.

Promote Collaboration – based on existing strengths and weaknesses, divide tasks accordingly. I know with my sons – one likes to wash the dishes, the other actually likes to dry them – and yes, one is better than the other when it comes to these respective tasks 😆

Support and Develop – mitigate weaknesses by seeking development opportunities, including using current tasks or activities to do this.

By the way, does using a dishwasher change the above analogy regarding synchronicity? No, it doesn’t – afterall, who is the best one at loading the dishwasher and who is the best one at unpacking it 😉