Have you ever entered a business and immediately known that you’re dealing with a confused employee? You can tell that the person either hasn’t been trained or lacks backup.
This kind of interaction can leave a lasting impression on customers and often it sees them never come back. Supervisors may never find out what happened but they will start to notice a drop in business.
An employee who doesn’t know what to do or why to do it, can be very damaging to your bottom line. Sometimes an investment of just a few minutes can make a big difference. Understanding promotes buy-in.
I’m reminded of my early days in elementary school. Every day would end with students putting their chairs on top of their desks.
The funny thing is that I don’t remember ever hearing why we did this. We were just told to do it and perhaps my busy teachers simply wanted the class to get it done and not have a long discussion.
It didn’t make a lot of sense to me as we sat in the chairs all day and by putting them on top of our desks, you couldn’t sit on them anymore. The practice reminded me of tucking a child into bed.
To me, it seemed unnecessary. That changed one day when I was at school after-hours and remembered to pick something up from my classroom.
There I saw the janitor sweeping the floors. Suddenly, everything made sense. The janitor could do his job much faster and better if there were no chairs on the floor, blocking his path.
The mystery was solved but I still wonder why the concept wasn’t explained on the first day of school. Sometimes, my classmates would forget to move their chairs. I think there would have been higher compliance if the kids had know that by moving the chairs, they were helping out the friendly janitor.
Back in your world, are processes glossed over during busy days? Are best practices recorded somewhere, making them turnover proof? These are important questions to ask.
Most employee are happy to follow the rules if they know the rules. Otherwise, they’ll likely do things based on guesses and often those guesses turn out to be wrong.
A little explanation goes a long way when it comes to confused employees.
Want to spark your team’s creativity? Consider the Paper Hat Exercise.
Maybe it’s time to bring Ken Okel to your next meeting…
Read any good books lately?
