The Port-a-pot story
Monday October 19 – between 9pm and midnight
A couple of weeks back I completed a 14 month EMBA program. One of the advantages of such a program is that you get to meet and become friends with such an amazing crowd of people. The following is a story that my friend and one of my most sympathetic classmates and class valedictorian, Bill Bristol, told us during a leadership and presentation skills class.
I think this story is really important because it highlights one of the major mistakes we tend to do in our daily lives when dealing with people.
Bill started out his story by asking how many in the room had been involved in project management of any sorts. Most of us raised our hands. Then he continued by telling his story about how he built a factory in Suzhou.
One day, during one of the daily project meetings someone had raised the issue of the workmen’s lavatory. The problem was that there was none.
“Oh my god,” Bill thought, “Is THIS the shit I need to deal with? I am building a factory worth millions of dollars, for crying out loud! Do I really need to deal with where people go to pee?”
The meeting adjourned with an agreement that a port-a-potty would be brought on site for the workmen to use.
Things carried on for a while and Bill got back to his regular routines building the factory.
Then, after a while, at another project meeting, while wrapping up things, somebody raised the issue about the toilet - again. It seemed that the general complaint was that it was not clean enough.
“For crying out loud!!” Bill thought, “What is this? First I am degraded from project manager to manager of janitorial issues, now I am degraded to Ayi! I really DO have more important issues than this do deal with!”
Anyhow, keeping his thoughts to himself and letting the situation calm down, Bill halfheartedly -bordering quarter heartedly - promised to look into the issue.
Later that afternoon, after checking the progress of the factory construction, Bill was walking across the parking lot. There, on the other side of the asphalt, hidden underneath some trees, was a blue thing with a white roof. It was the very port-a-potty that had haunted him for the last days.
First a deep, deep, deep sigh. Then, a long moment of hesitation. Finally, coming to the conclusion that this thing would not go away by itself, Bill headed over. He approached the makeshift lavatory and opened the door. He took in the sight, closed the door, and picked up his cell-phone. He called his second-in-command, Mike.
“Mike, I think you need to see something”, Bill said. “No Mike, listen. You REALLY need to see this.”
Ten minutes later Mike arrived with a more than slight air of annoyance around him. Silently Bill waved him towards the port-a-potty. Mike opened the door, let out a scream, threw the door shut and quickly stepped many steps back. He turned around and looked at Bill with a pale face.
At this point of the story Bill asked us if we knew what a paint shaker is.
For those in the audience who did not know, Bill explained that when you go to a paint store and buy a certain color of paint, it is often mixed out of multiple basic colors. After you measure out the colors in right proportions into a can, you seal it and put it into a paint mixer. This is a machine that will hold the can of paint and vigorously shake it for 5 minutes or so.
Bill continued by explaining that the inside of the port-a-potty looked like the entire potty had been subjected to similar treatment of a giant paint shaker. He specifically complemented the evenness of the brownish-blue color on the walls and the slow dripping from the ceiling.
The moral of this story, Bill taught us, is that we should listen to our people.
Seriously. Really listen. Very carefully.
Even if we think that we are pre-occupied with other things, these people generally tend not to waste our time with bullshit. These are the people we trust and have let into our closest circles. Why? Because we KNOW that they generally do not fault in their judgment.
Even if what they say seems to be ridiculous, which often seems to be our impression when we ourselves are very pressed for time, we should try to keep in mind that these are the people that we hired for their brains and specifically for their judgment. If they come to us with a problem we should try to fight the urge to dismiss it. Instead, we should take them seriously. They are not on purpose trying to waste our time, but rather, trying to alert us about something they feel is important. If they come to us with something, we should try to listen to them. They actually might have a point – otherwise, why on earth would we have hired them?
These are the people we need to rely on in getting our daily jobs done. Let’s give them the benefit of doubt. Bill says: Listen to your people.
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The Port-a-pot Story
Listen to your people!
Kiinassa PR voidaan myös kirjoittaa CSR
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