The article today will be a story. It is a made up story and may be something similar that really happened to you. Not my intention.
Either take this story at face value or instead think of how it relates to other situations. What organizations do you know that have issues just like this one? Consider how would you solve this problem?
Write your thoughts in the comment section. If you are shy, feel free to email me and my team or post it on my Facebook page.
Jim has an afternoon meeting in the city. He has to take a train to get there which takes about 50 minutes. Jim drives right to the parking garage next to the train station. He is about twenty minutes early. Jim likes to be early for everything he does.
He drives up to the machine where he presses the button to obtain his time stamped ticket. The manned booth is on his left side. When the ticket spits out of the machine Jim takes it and prepares to drive ahead.
However, the gate won’t go up.
Jim backs up and presses the ticket machine button again. Nothing happens. No ticket and the gate won’t go up. He loudly asks the person in the manned booth for some help. Pedro looks over and asks: “what is the problem”. After a brief conversation it is clear the gate won’t go up. Now there are a few cars behind Jim’s car waiting.
Mary wanders over and asks what is going on. Once she is filled in she tells Pedro: “Oh yeah, that was happening to me all morning too.”
Now Jim is sitting in his car and he hears this in disbelief – thinking – okay and why didn’t you call and have someone look into this problem then? Meanwhile he checks his watch, his iPhone time and the time in his car. Train in fifteen minutes.
Train in fifteen minutes.
Jim starts to speak with Mary as Pedro finds some keys to open the outer panel to the ticket machine and starts pressing some buttons.
Mary explains to Jim that if they report a problem with the gate and it is not a full blown repair job they will be docked at least two hours of pay and up to a half day pay. Plus the Safety Manual says if there is ever an issue with the entry or exit gates that entire entrance and exit must be shut down until inspected and repaired.
Pedro leans over and chimes in while he continues to push various buttons: “My cousin work in maintenance and engineering and he said their boss wants to know anytime there is even the smallest problem because if they catch it early and address any problems it will prevent a more costly repair job later”.
Meanwhile Elaine came over to check on Mary and confirm her schedule for next week. Elaine heard most of this conversation.
Elaine leaned on Jim’s car and said to him: “Sir here is the really sad part, Senior Management does not want anything not really serious reported at all otherwise they have to fill out an incident report for everything that happens. Because of the funding and the loans on the parking garage and the train system each of these incident reports have to go to each of the lenders, the State Transportation Board, the local city board and the Fire Department as well as to each of the four groups who run the various trains through this station.”
All of a sudden the gate goes up. Pedro hands Jim a new ticket. He says sorry for the delay. Jim checks his watch. Train in ten minutes.
Train ten minutes.
Either take this story at face value or instead think of how it relates to other situations. What organizations do you know that have issues just like this one? Consider how would you solve this problem?
Write your thoughts in the comment section. If you are shy, feel free to email me and my team or post it on my Facebook page.
Mitch Tublin is the CEO and Founder of Wenkroy International LLC a boutique consulting company with a main focus on Strategic Business Consulting, Training and Business Coaching. Our passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their business.
