Eat your veges

I was giving a presentation to our sales development group yesterday. One of the props I was using was a plate of cold cooked broccoli and cauliflower.*

As I was chatting to them, I looked at all the food on the table. There was the plate of veges, a bowl of fruit, some double chocolate muffins, a couple of bite-size quiches and some sweets.

Which of these would I prefer to eat? The fruit, closely followed by the vegetables (but not cold!). After that, probably the quiches, the sweets, then the muffins.

And not because I'm being good, but because that's how my food tastes work now. I know I might like to eat some of those other foods, but that I'd probably enjoy them less than anticipated and there's a good chance I'd feel gross afterward.

Aaah, how things have changed!


*The reason I was using cold veges as a prop? It's an analogy that can work well with exercise too.

It's what I call 'eating your cauliflower'. Remember when you were a kid and there was a vegetable you really hated? You knew you should eat it first, while it was still hot. Then it wouldn't taste as gross and the rest of the meal would take the taste away. But often you'd leave it till last, when it was cold and really set your gag reflex going. And you didn't enjoy the rest of your meal as much because you KNEW you still had to eat your cauliflower.

I encourage our people to apply this to their work when it comes to telling clients bad news (job is running late, needs reprinting, etc). The sooner you tell them, the more chance there is to work out a solution. If you leave it, the problem will just get harder to solve and the client is more likely to get pissed off. Plus you walk around worrying about telling them...