I’m an adjunct faculty member in the School of Hospitality at Boston University. Last month, our new Assistant Dean held a meeting.
He has a big job, with lots to do and limited time and resources to do it. And yet in that meeting, he shared that one of his first actions would be to replace the rug in an open area on the main classroom floor.
I confess I was initially surprised this “housekeeping” item made its way to the top of his list. After all, I’ve been teaching classes on that floor for several years now, and I have never even noticed the rug. But later that day, I went back and took a look. He was right… that rug is tattered and worn — it looks terrible!
I’m sure at some point, when the rug was new (20 years ago?), it complemented the space very well. But not anymore. It took someone new to the school — someone with fresh eyes — to notice what those of us teaching there year after year did not.
You Can’t Fix a Problem You Don’t See
It’s human nature to overlook changes that happen gradually over time. That’s true whether we are talking about an aging carpet or a work process with which we are involved regularly.
Years ago, my client Grant led a division of a biotech firm focused on marketing a service that generated revenues to support the R&D work of its scientists. Early in his tenure there, Grant instituted a regular Monday morning meeting between the marketing and phone sales teams. The purpose was to ensure the two functions were well coordinated and well informed about what the other was doing.
These were “stand up” meetings: no more than 15 minutes and focused solely on what was needed for the coming week. At first, they were highly productive. But by the time I started working with Grant, the meetings had devolved into something entirely different.
The marketing team, realizing this might be an easy time to get Grant’s attention, began bringing issues into the discussion related to other projects. The meetings became longer and longer, until eventually, the sales team stopped attending entirely.
As an outsider, the problem was obvious to me. Grant, however, hadn’t noticed — things had changed slowly over time.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is quite common. And while there can be comfort in routine and consistency, there is also risk — that areas for improvement are overlooked and that inefficiencies get baked into the way we do things.
So, how do you prevent this from happening to you? Some suggestions…
Look deliberately.
Anthony Valletta, CEO of the bartaco restaurant chain, recently wrote that a manager walking the room after being told something is wrong does so very differently than one who is making a routine survey of the room. This different perspective helps them see things that were already there, but they were not yet aware of.
Likewise, see if you can step back periodically and take an objective look at what, where, and how your organization operates. In particular, focus on processes that you perform frequently. It’s these areas that you are most likely to take for granted.
Invite an outside point of view.
You’ve probably heard the old joke that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. Granted, there may be some truth in that. But it’s also true that before the consultant shows up, some people don’t even realize they own a watch, let alone appreciate the value of knowing what time it is in the first place. An outsider sees things you may not.
So make it a habit to consult other points of view. Ask people — a trusted colleague, a mentor, a consultant — to visit your space and have a look around. Ask what stands out to them, what impressions they get, what seems wrong or out of place. In many instances, this will uncover opportunities you had never considered.
Reevaluate after changes occur.
The system that turns on the classroom projectors at BU has a built-in delay of about a minute, to give the projectors time to warm up before being used. But with the recent installation of LED lamps, the delay is no longer required. Even so, it wasn’t until a tech support person pointed this out that anyone realized the one-minute wait was unnecessary.
Any time you make an update to a process or a system, try to consider whether that update might have a ripple effect on other activities or actions.
Disrupt your routine.
Take a different route to work. Arrive at a different time than usual. Enter through a different door.
Small breaks in your routine may give you the change in perspective needed to see things differently.
Reflections
There is a famous quote, often misattributed to Mark Twain, that says, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
It’s challenging to take an objective view of things that are part of your regular, comfortable way of getting things done — looking and seeing are not the same thing.
Do what you can to continually reevaluate your work environment. As our new Assistant Dean demonstrated, sometimes the best new ideas are right at our feet.
