It’s Not About the Cones
I had a customer service moment yesterday that I want to share with you. There is a very real business lesson inside. Check it out.
It’s not about the cones…Do people or protocols manage your business?
I work out a gym and my gym has a basketball court. I play a lot of basketball and do certain drills to work on my game. A common drill for basketball players is to dribble around cones. I felt like working on by ball handling so I went looking for the cones.
In the gym there is a big grey bin where a lot of publicly available workout stuff is kept. There are mats, ropes, weights, and other stuff inside. This is where the cones usually are. But on this day I went looking and I didn’t see any cones. I went to the membership desk for help.
The attendant sat right outside the basketball gym. I asked her to borrow the cones. She was very hesitant and said that those cones were reserved for a specific workout class. I was confused because I had used the cones before. I explained my confusion and she said that she didn’t know where the cones were and the only person who could approve the use of the cones was her supervisor. And of course, her supervisor was out to lunch.
I asked if I could just borrow the cones for a few minutes. She said “No”. I asked if there were cones anyplace else I could use. She said “No”. Then she gave me the killer line…she said
“I’m not allowed to give the cones out and I don’t know what the protocol is for giving the cones out”.
Really? Protocol? For some silly cones?
I think you get my point. The real issue here is that she did not know what to do. She didn’t know what the “rule” was. She didn’t have a “protocol” to follow. All she knew to do is ask her supervisor. But what happens when your supervisor is gone? Do you magically lose all of your problem solving abilities? I guess you do.
Protocols don’t manage your business. People do. And if you business going to have a healthy leg to stand on, your people need to have more tools than the words “No” and “Let me ask my supervisor”.
Think about it and let me know if you agree.
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