When talking about workshop blindness, you may think of a physical condition caused in a workplace, so the first thing you have to know is really what it refers to and thus be able to know if you are affected by this condition. This term actually describes a state of work or personal stagnation, a situation where you believe that you do everything very well, which does not allow you to see areas of growth and new opportunities.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Work on a Personal Level
Step 1. Identify if you suffer from shop blindness
You will know that you suffer from it if you are living in a routine, you do the same thing every day and also think that you can no longer or do not need to improve. Maybe someone has told you that you can optimize this or that, but you are not open to listening to their opinion and you also tend to look down on the person.
Remember that it is very easy to fall into workshop blindness, so beware of overconfidence that is the first step for this condition
Step 2. Be self-critical and open
Even if you believe and it seems that you already know everything, you must realize that we actually live learning and that new techniques and methods emerge every day. Put yourself in the role of a student and be willing to learn, only then will you be in the best attitude to receive new knowledge.
- Ask yourself if you are doing things right, be curious and look for new ways of acting and thinking.
- Ask for opinions from other people, preferably those who do not feel committed to speaking well of you.
Step 3. Diversify
Maybe you are a specialist in something and you think that you can perform your tasks with your hands tied and blindfolded, doing activities repeatedly and without any questioning will lead you to fall into workshop blindness, extreme specialization will not let you see with clarity.
- Get updated on technological issues and learn new techniques.
- Do other activities, even if you think you have no experience, so you will test the changes and see that they are not as bad as they seem.
Step 4. Write a list of weaknesses
This way you will have in writing all those areas in which it is necessary to improve, it will give you greater clarity about the actions you should take and, if you need them, you will know which experts to look for. You can do this on a personal and business level.
Ask the people around you to help you create the list, there are many things that others see better than you
Step 5. Travel and meet people from other countries
A part of shop blindness is also made up of the culture you were born into, from which you took pre-established ways of acting and thinking. Knowing other countries and interacting with the original people of these will allow you to see that there are multiple ways of living and solving situations.
- Working for a time in another country is a great way to learn from them.
- It is very important that you interact with the local people, they will leave you many valuable lessons.
Part 2 of 3: Identifying Shop Blindness in the Company
Step 1. Hire an outside consultant
Because routine has made your vision of things cloudy, nothing better than having the eyes of someone outside your company to give you a more objective opinion. This will help you improve the quality of your products, customer service and your employment relationship.
- You can hire a consulting company or a freelancer, of course the company will cost you more money.
- The company You found is an international consulting firm, they handle many of the most advanced techniques to help companies evaluate their work mechanisms and improve, they could be an option to avoid the blindness of the workshop in the company.
Step 2. Find an outside contractor
Having a company that provides a service to your company will help you to have a quality benchmark and thus you will know if what you do can be improved and in what way. In addition to saving you some hassles such as hiring staff and renting certain spaces.
Someone who competes with your employees will help you raise the bar for your company
Step 3. Meet with groups of entrepreneurs
Nothing better than rubbing shoulders with talented and experienced people so that you can see where you need to improve. In addition to that these can give you advice to find new areas of opportunity.
- The Mucho con Poco support network operates in Latin America and manages a whole network of entrepreneurs who share ideas and experiences.
- Governments also have their own entrepreneurship networks, get close to them.
Step 4. Subscribe specialized magazines on entrepreneurship
Although workshop blindness affects any level, this condition has a greater impact on companies, which is why several publications from the entrepreneurial world dedicate spaces to this condition, in addition to giving very good advice to combat it.
Part 3 of 3: Execute Actions at the Enterprise Level
Step 1. Train yourself and your staff
Fundamental since this keeps you up to date on technological issues and ways of working. Learn new techniques and put them to the test, meet people with a greater capacity than yours, break the barrier of the comfort zone.
There are educational institutions where they offer training courses that can help you overcome shop blindness
Step 2. Stay up-to-date with your country's government programs
One of the consequences of workshop blindness is thinking that the company is not growing or is doing poorly due to lack of resources. Currently there is a lot of support from different governments for small and medium-sized companies to acquire capital to grow.
- There are so-called young loans, designed for entrepreneurs under 30 years of age and with relatively new companies.
- Remember that there are specific supports for each item.
- Some government programs are specifically for the acquisition of machinery and equipment, others for the hiring of personnel, and others are for the improvement of premises and workspaces.
Step 3. Delegate responsibilities
When you are a boss it is very common to think that your subordinates do not have the ability to do the required tasks on their own, this in addition to generating an extra workload, prevents you from seeing if there are other ways of working that are more effective than the method you are using..
Give your employee the confidence to propose, thus enriching your own work capacity and improving the state of your company
Step 4. Acknowledge and don't underestimate
If you have a new employee with the initiative to provide comments on the way of working or if people younger than you make a suggestion, listen to them, they can bring you a lot of wealth to be able to see situations that everyday life does not allow you to appreciate.
Especially in technological matters it is very common for young people to be much more up-to-date
Step 5. Change your work environment
Remember that routine is the main ally of workshop blindness, so it is important that you be flexible to change and that from time to time you modify the environment that surrounds you as well as some habits and customs. External consultants are an excellent guide to do this.
- Modify the furniture arrangement, from time to time change the area and interact constantly with your staff.
- Carry out a reengineering, that is: change work processes periodically, always seeking to optimize activities.