Accountability: Systems Repair
When your car breaks down and you’re stuck on the side of the freeway, the first thing to come to your mind isn’t, “Great, what did I do wrong now?”
The first thing to go through your mind is most probably, “What went wrong this time?”
Followed quite quickly by, “How much is this gonna cost me?”
These are totally appropriate questions when something stops working how it is supposed to. It can be applied equally whether to a car’s electrical or mechanical system, workflow in the office, customer service issues, or an application procedure that’s gone sideways.
The point is, when a major breakdown occurs, it goes beyond mere surface matters, beyond one guy dropping the ball, or one lousy customer, or a bad day at the office.
When systems fail, it is because of much more involved failures, usually stemming from some time ago, which, because it was never seen to, grew worse over time until here you are, on the proverbial side of the road with a system failure before you.
Now, you can blame “Bob” all you want, or call “Cindy” totally useless, and hate Mondays with a passion...but none of that is going to help you right now.
To solve this issue, you need to go back to the true source of the problem -- the nuts and bolts of your system and how they failed to deliver a clear and clean procedure that “Bob” and “Cindy” could follow in the first place.
Building protocols, having a clear direction of procedure, cross-training (whenever possible), having emergency and back-up scenarios, running practice reboots, dedicating time to train and refreshing, recertifying, taking notes from employees involved in the procedures, refining these steps to their most efficient... these practices are the equivalent of getting your car serviced, oil changed, tires rotated, and fluids topped up regularly.
You wouldn’t expect your car to deliver with efficiency without these tendings and investments, so why would you expect any less with your company, or division, or branch, or department? As much as you would like the office to be on “set it and forget it” mode, that’s just not how a well-oiled machine runs, and if you want yours to do that...it will cost.
Time.
Dedication.
Dollars.
...But anyone whose been stranded on the side of the road during rush hour can tell you, better to make the investment upfront and on the regular. ‘Cuz whatever it would have cost in the best of conditions, it sure as heck is gonna hurt your pocketbook more later if you don’t.
Meanwhile, if you already find yourself in a “side-of-the-road” situation, once the emergency road assistance has been called in to put the fire out, rally your crew as soon as possible.
Then begin a set of sessions on building preventative measures, performing procedures and protocols, and creating checks and balances to assure you are never left stranded on the side of the road again.