Retreating in its spiritual or religious sense is about taking time away from everyday life and reflecting and seeking to find answers to the issues or problems that we face. Retreat, or quiet reflection, as a thought process helps us with our personal lives, but can also help us in business. How noisy is your office space, are you constantly being interrupted when you are trying to think through ideas?
Are you encouraged to leave enough time for quiet reflection in your working day? Meetings can be very good to air views and opinions and reach a consensus, but a trap that many organisations fall into is to end up having a meeting to discuss what you they are going to discuss at the next meeting and so on and so on and never making any decisions.
Peter Drucker said that we should, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” Is everyone expected to think on their feet in your organisation or is there space in the day for people to undertake quiet reflection? When project timetables are developed is the need for reflection incorporated into the design process i.e. having time to “sleep on it”? Have colleagues been trained in the art of quiet reflection and is this valued as a management process?
How many times has your organisation decided in haste and repented at leisure? If the answer is “Too many times!” then maybe you need to consider incorporating this management process more effectively into your corporate style!
By: Louise Manning
Posts Tagged ‘Stress Management’
Heat Stress Management
November 23rd, 2009For a lot of people, summertime may mean sunny, comfortable days ideal for long walks, picnics, and beaches. However, for some people it may mean working outside on projects under the heat of the sun, with no proper cooling systems. Hot working conditions may pose particular hazards to health and safety that is why it is important to be guided of the various injuries and illnesses linked with heat stress, and the proper heat stress management.
There are four environmental factors that affect the extent of stress that a worker may face under a hot working area: humidity, temperature, wind speed, and radiant heat like that coming from a furnace or the sun. People who have high blood pressure and those who take a diuretics (water pills) are likely to be more responsive to heat exposure.
The body protects itself from heat by three mechanisms: sweating, altering the flow of blood, and breathing. The body’s first response is circulating blood to the skin, increasing skin temperature and allowing it to give off some heat. In heavy work, one’s muscles require more blood flow thus reducing the amount of blood available for the skin to release heat.
Sweating is another way that helps one’s body to cool off; however, only when levels of humidity are low enough to permit sweat to evaporate, as well as if salts and water lost through sweating is replaced. If the body overheats, heat stress condition occurs, and can lead to several problems including heat cramps, heat rash, heat exhaustion, fainting, or heat stroke.
In the majority of cases, heat stress may be prevented, or at least, reducing the risk of developing heat stress. An effective heat stress management provides assistance on how to recognize heat stress and prevent them. Here are some simple ways of proper heat stress management to prevent heat stress:
Clothing
Wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing that permits sweat to evaporate light colored clothing absorbs lesser heat than dark colors. If working outdoors, wearing a lightweight cap with good brim, will keep off the sun from the face and head.
Drinking
Drinking a lot of fluids, particularly when the color of one’s urine is dark yellow, will replace the lost body fluids from sweating one quart every hour might be necessary. Sports drink or water is suggested; avoid beverages like iced tea, coffee, and cola as caffeine is a diuretic that makes one urinate more.
Work schedule
If possible, schedule heavy work during cooler times of the day. If not, rotate heavy work in heat with lighter work in areas that are cooler. Minimizing the hours spent in extreme heat when doing heavy work will lessen the possibilities of heat stress.
Heat stress management if effectively practiced reduces, prevents, or eliminates the harmful effects of heat stroke.
By: Rene Graeber
Stress Management
November 15th, 2009Stress management is made up of very many aspects. To manage stress, you must have a clear understanding of what stress is and how it can affect our daily lives. Therefore, the first place to begin is with the definition of stress. Many models or views of stress have been brought fourth over the years and some have been accepted and welcomed by society. The most popular definition of stress is by an early stress researcher called Richard Lazarus who suggested that stress was as a result of exhaustion of personal resources due to the great external or internal demands. Many people can relate to this because stress is often a feeling of being overwhelmed by the challenges in us and around us. Other suggestions state that stress can be good for us because it pushes us to our limits producing extra ordinary results.
The next thing that is helpful to study in stress management, is what exactly stress does to our bodies. Therefore, knowing the various symptoms that come as a result of stress will enable you recognize the problem. Stress will affect our feelings or emotions, thoughts or intellect and our behavior in many ways. When we come down with stress, we will have several feelings which include anxiety, fear, irritability and being moody. We then become captive of various negative thoughts which are inability to concentrate, low self esteem, forgetfulness, too much worry about the future and many others. We then notice some behavior changes which might consist of stuttering and speech difficulties, crying for no reason, laughing in high exaggerated tone, grinding teeth, increased smoking and other addictive habits, losing appetite or eating too much.
The above changes in behavior clearly show that stress symptoms are very many and that people react very differently to stress in their lives. There are very many causes of stress and they are often referred to as stressors which could be environmental and, they can also be internal. Major life changes are potential stressors and they include death, divorce, marriage, pregnancy, transfer to new school, loss of a job, starting a new job and others. Other causes of stress are financial problems, competition, noise, time pressure, disappointments and others.
There are practical things that you can do to reduce stress in your life and they include keeping a positive attitude in everything you do, avoiding unnecessary competition, be an assertive person and this will enable you command more and reduce stress and its harmful effects in your life. Recognize and accept your limits. This will go a long way to ensure that you realize how unique and special you are. You will also learn that you do not need anyone’s validation because you are special with your good qualities and flaws. This realization will make you a happier and a more positive person and you can appreciate life even more. Above all these, eating a healthy diet and avoiding drugs and alcohol will make your life wholesome. Do not forget to undertake some physical exercises.
By: Peter Gitundu
