Organising Families – What a Tandem Kayak Taught Me

Organising Families Without Fighting
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Organising Families Without Fighting.

Organising families comes with so many challenges, as I’m sure you are totally aware of. Different personalities, different capabilities and different objectives for each family member. It can be exactly the same for any workplace or team, so keep reading even if you don’t have a family. I realized once we bought our new tandem kayak that it had some wonderful metaphors for what it’s like to organise within a family, with a business partner or with your husband or wife. So often these tasks end up in arguments and frustration, then not getting the work done that you really wanted to get done. You go around in circles and everyone starts the blame game. Sounding familiar?

Part 1. When we ordered our tandem kayak we were really, really excited!

But, our friends who owned their own single kayaks said “Can’t you change your order? It will end in a fight! You’ll be fighting about which direction you going who’s doing what and everything else.” It was definitely too late to change our order and I am so glad that we didn’t. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Our tandem kayak has been amazing. Being more of the adventurous type and not the sporty type, we took to the water with the good old trial and error school of thought. When we figured out what worked it was clear that this was a fantastic metaphor for organising families, in a relationship or with a business partner. First, we tried to paddle separately, choosing our own direction. The kayak would go too far left and then to far right. Then the wind and tide would push us off course as both of us tried to compensate. We weren’t getting very far at all! We figured out that one of us could take responsibility for moving in a forward motion, paddling on one side of the kayak. That left the other with the responsibility of direction. Making adjustments for the direction according to the flow of the river, the wind and the strength of the other paddler. This also helped us novices to stop the clashing of paddles. Even better was that we got to where we were going with less effort, had a smoother ride and with no arguments along the way. Read more about the Step by Step proccess in Part 2 HERE [/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https://www.outsidetheboxsolutions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/outside-the-box-solutions-organising-families-e1491902735676.jpg” alt=”amazing what a paddle on the Swan River reveals about organising for families and teams” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

With Infinite Peace and Gratitude from,

Carolyn