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Office Avatars – Improve Small Business Productivity

The dedicated employees here at Word Wizards HQ often wear many hats, as is the case with many small businesses. During the course of the day, many critical discussions must be postponed while other responsibilities are dealt with. How can we keep track of who needs to talk to us when we are under the gun for multiple projects, responsibilities, and all important customer service activities? The answer, professional avatars?!

One of the Navi from Avatar looking intense
“Not now, I’m working on something!”

A Bright Idea

Lead web developer and 508 compliance guru Devra Glowinski is responsible for this progressive leap into uncharted territory of organizational theory. Early last fall, she began using a Tye-dye frog (seen below) to let somebody know that she needed to talk if they were indisposed at that particular moment. You can’t help but smile when you look up and see this little guy on your desk, and the practice proved to be a highly effective way of getting a co-worker’s attention without disturbing them. In fact, the idea was so well received, that during an office birthday party this past Spring, Devra gifted all of the office wizards with their own avatars so we could use the system as well.

Avatars to represent a need to talk business!
Meet the Word Wizards Team: (CEO – Lion, President – Purple Dog, Accounting – Green Bear, Graphics / Design – Rainbow Duck and Sparkly Vulture, Web Development / 508 Compliance – Tye-Dye Frog, Operations Manager – Rainbow Turtle, Factotum – Princess Celestia Pony, Marketing / Business Development – Blue Jay)

Creating a Productive Work Environment

My avatar is a small Blue Jay Beanie Baby named “Rocket.” My little blue buddy works his magic when I need to talk to someone and they are obviously busy at the moment. I just leave my avatar on their desk and they know when the task at hand is complete and time allows, I need to see them.

Its easy, its simple, its fun, and it works! No more standing in the doorway awkwardly waiting for the right moment, just put your cuddly personal assistant somewhere on their desk and let it do the waiting for you. Although my days in business school are far behind me, I can’t help but think back to my Organizational Behavior class when implementing this innovative system in our office. Not only do we have an effective, non-intrusive way of communicating a need to talk, but it adds a little bit of fun to the job, a win-win for keeping people working efficiently while at the same time keeping our team enjoying their time in the office.