Remember the TP

FULL DISCLOSURE: 

I have never noticed this before …. Like NEVER. EVER. Accuse me of missing details, accuse me of being too rushed to care or accuse me of marketing blindness. It’s likely all true on some level. This week, however, for the first time in my life, I noticed that the toilet paper I had recently purchased actually had hearts and flowers imprinted on it. Hundreds of them. Every. Single. Sheet.

What? Why?

I smiled. And then I laughed. Out loud.

Why would a manufacturer of a highly consumable product go to the trouble and added expense of imprinting inconsequential hearts and flowers on such an ordinary, underrated product used in likely every household in North America? (I say North America because if you have ever travelled outside of North America, well, you know what I am talking about!)

I literally had no idea – so I did what every normal human being would do. I googled it.

Turns out, it helps give strength to the paper and ends up being less expensive for the producer. Makes sense.

But why hearts and flowers? Why not just straight lines, circles or some other benign shape?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest some desired intentionality to the manufacturers choice. I think the reason this particular brand chose to imprint “hearts and flowers” to on their plain ‘ol white TP was for one reason and one reason only … to make us smile.

Yep. That’s it. Simply to bring joy to the user. Period.

Wow. What a concept! Makes me wonder what other simple, inconsequential things are done on the daily that we sometimes take notice of and mostly do not. (feel free to add them to the comments below since I clearly miss most of these in my life!). 

And then I began to wonder, what would be the simplest thing I could do to bring a smile to someone else's face in my now virtual work life?

  • Say hello, smile and wave my hand on a virtual meeting. Like I’m happy to be here and I SEE them.

  • Write a little email or text specifically noticing what they have contributed and thank them for that.

  • Take 5 minutes and ask how their day is going before digging into the work at hand.

  • Door drop a small gift or card just to brighten their day.

  • Order flowers/food/beverages to be delivered to them as a celebration or just because.

The list is as long and creative as your imagination.

Imprinting “hearts and flowers” on the things we do daily should be our default. It’s really not that difficult to do – and the ripple effect of joy in our teams, our families, our lives will reap dividends on the investment of intentionality.

Finally, if you have read this far, thanks :) I also want to take the opportunity to challenge you to look for, see and send “hearts and flowers” to those you encounter.  Remember the TP. It’s really that simple.

PS. Hope this story made you smile 😉

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