I was out walking with the dog recently when I walked past a skip which was crammed with rubbish, I noticed at the top of the pile was a rather sad looking teddy bear, wet through and looking a little worse for wear. It struck a chord with me as I felt sorry for him – I could imagine him in his original glory and wondered how he’d gotten to be in such a sorry state. I took a photo of him (see below) and posted it to facebook and had a fair few comments about how sad it was etc. which got me thinking about other things we once cherished and eventually discarded as rubbish.

One of those things I used to love and then hated was my Blackberry Storm – it started out like a fantastic user friendly and reliable piece of technology and soon became dated, clunky and to be fair – thrown about in frustration. It was soon superseded by an iPhone which was like a dream come true in comparison – which gets discarded as every new model is released. The same goes for laptops and old tablets etc but we can argue that we do not have an affinity to a piece of technology whereas a teddy bear is something we use as soothers for children and sometimes as declarations of love in relationships. However, I know a fair few people out there who almost have a relationship with their Smartphone and feel like their limbs have been severed if they get separated from them.

Taking it back to the workplace – sometimes it is good to revisit systems and processes we have previously used as going back to basics is an effective way to re-evaluate how we work. That trusty old excel spreadsheet which got superseded by a shiny new software package etc. not all old, seemingly outdated things are ready for the rubbish heap yet. After all if it worked once before then there may be something there which could work for a new initiative moving forward. So please don’t throw out your teddy bears – recycle them!