Speaking up + small positive changes

A couple of positive tidbits from my week!

I’ve had two “small wins” that involved me noticing an opportunity for improvement, saying something, and then change actually happening.

#1: At work

We use EPIC for our electronic medical records, and I basically live in there all day long for my job.

Without getting too detailed/ in the weeds, the gist is that there was this one piece of its functionality that was not actually functioning very well for what we needed it to do. It’s been like this for years though, as long as I’ve known it, and we all have just sort of dealt with it because that’s “how it was”. It involved us frequently needing to do a rather awkward work around/ take extra steps that were tedious.

Additionally, I recently noticed a new (related) issue that actually had the potential to create errors.

So, I ended up bringing it to the EPIC and IT analysts for our team, outlining the issues, and they were actually able to improve it pretty easily! This impacts my whole team, so everyone was happy. Win-win. 🙂 It probably could have been solved ages ago, but no one ever spoke up.

#2: At the gas station

Haha, this sounds odd, but hang on…

So this year a new gas station took over the old gas station near our house. They totally revamped and remodeled it and it’s now a thriving Kwik Trip, for anyone who is familiar with those. They are VERY popular around here. Anyway, besides gas, they sell machine ice cream and smoothies and have a whole coffee bar thing and hot food, and it’s just an extremely popular place with adults and kids alike. It’s always super busy.

Since it’s in the neighborhood, my boys and their friends like to stop there when it’s nice out for an ice cream or snack. It’s one of the few food/ sweet treat places they can bike to easily from our house.

But it’s on a well-traveled corner, and there are always so many people there. And they didn’t have a bike rack!

So, I always cautioned the boys about leaving their nice bikes unattended outside, and sometimes I’d actually discourage them from even going there, as a result. I mean, we live in a safe neighborhood, but still. An unchained bike could definitely “disappear” in the blink of an eye….Sometimes they’re inside for quite a while picking out snacks or making a smoothie at the machine.

So, this past fall, I stopped in one day and asked to speak to the manager. I said (very politely) that it sure would be nice if they installed a bike rack, since they are so popular with the neighborhood kids. I explained my concern with them having to leave their bikes unattended and unchained outside, and that I’d be more likely to send my kids down to pick up quick grocery items if I knew their bikes were safe.

He thanked me for the suggestion and said it was a great idea and that he’d “pass it along”. I figured I might never actually get any actual result, but, at least I tried.

Well, what do you know- yesterday we drove by, and there’s a shiny new bike rack out front!! 🙂

I told Ivan proudly: “I’m just a regular community activist for change, aren’t I?!” hahaha. 😉

(Okay, this could be a coincidence- maybe they were going to install a bike rack anyway, but I’m going to go with that it was my suggestion. hehe.)

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On an unrelated note, a few random pics from the BEAUTIFUL weather this week:

Asher out there somewhere at soccer practice, happily wearing shorts and a t-shirt on yesterday’s 70+ degree evening!

A beautiful sky outside Asher’s 5:30 a.m. swim practice this morning:

Daiily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the series we are currently watching on Netflix: Manifest. We just started Season 3 and it is SOOOOOOO good right now!! I’ve stayed up too late twice this week because I just HAD to watch a second episode… haha. So suspenseful and good!!