My wife’s godmother is an accidental agilist, and has come up with one simple trick that puts my agile kung-fu to shame.
Let me explain…
She is an amazing cook, hostess, and entertainer. As such, her house is a FANTASTIC place to be for any holiday. She’s also the mother of triplets, and another son (who incidentally is the godfather to our daughter), which means the house is PACKED even if no other guests are invited to the event she’s hosting…
…but other guests are ALWAYS invited… so it’s even more packed.
Most people - when faced with a chaotic environment like this at home (or work for that matter) - revert to command-and-control approaches to getting stuff done. Barking commands or just banning everyone from the kitchen so they can finish cooking without distraction.
I don’t know about you, but when I’ve hosted big events like this, it drives me a bit crazy when people ask: “What can I help with?” over and over again. I know they’re trying to help, but it just feels easier to tell them to have a seat and relax so I can focus on the million things I need to get done.
(Sound familiar?)
Well, she’s figured out the perfect agile hack for this problem...
Before everyone arrives, she gets out a large bowl, some post-its, and a marker. She then takes a few minutes to write down all the tasks that need to be done for the event, one item per post it. She folds the sticky note in half so that the task is on the outside, and the glue on the sticky holds the sheet together. She then fills the bowl with these tasks.
This results in a bowl full of things like: “cut carrots”, “bring in extra chairs from the garage”, “get out serving platters”.
…she labels the bowl with a big visible sign of “Delegation Station” and places it on the counter in a *very* obvious spot.
Then, anytime someone asks “How can I help?” she simply says “Draw a card from the Delegation Station.”
And just like that, stress free self-organization for the holidays!
Here’s hoping this tip brings your family more joy this holiday season.
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