I’m a really positive person, I am insatiably curious about most things and I love the body of work I have the honour to do – and yet …

I found myself recently complaining about something.  It wasn’t even a complaint, I just got a little snappy.  It happens right, no one’s perfect … right … right?

And then I had a shower!  Now I don’t want to go in a different direction here, it’s just that I do a lot of thinking in the shower.  I even have shower notes that I can write on UNDER THE WATER so I capture all my thoughts and I began thinking about how I had become a little snappy that day.

Then I started to wonder how even those rare little moments of snappiness might affect my team – a team that I am very grateful to have around me.

And it took me back to a challenge I first did a few years ago – the complaint free challenge.  The idea is to try and go 21 days without complaining.  If you do complain, you have to switch something you’re wearing (purple wristband, bracelet, ring, etc) to your other hand or wrist and start the 21 days again.  

I wondered what it would be like if we did the complaint free challenge together as a company.  You see, I began to wonder if we had started to accept the “good enough line”?  We’re already a positive, collaborative, caring company but had we slipped into the thinking that this was good enough?

Could we do better?  Could we be a COMPLAINT FREE COMPANY?

I know what you’re thinking … “don’t be so pie-in-the-sky – it’s not possible”.

But, I asked my team if they thought we could do it and did they want to give it a go.  To my delight, they were absolutely in, so we’re having a go at going complaint free for 21 days.  Ten days in, I’ve had to restart 10 times and I’m still on day 1.

But here’s the thing, whilst I don’t complain much at all now, my team and I are actively being more aware of it, and it changes your outlook on everything.  You don’t realise how much complaint there is until you challenge it.

I don’t know if we can be a complaint free company but we’re having a go.  I do know that wherever we land, we’ll be better for it.

That first challenge I took several years ago was a part of acomplaintfreeworld – a global complaint free movement.  I have no affiliation with them but I love the idea of a complaint free world.

It may be impossible, but does that mean we should just accept “good enough”?

How about you, are you up for the challenge in your business to go complaint free?