Jananas

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Romeo passed away last week. She was an awesome, crabby, affectionate character. She waltzed into my life the day after I moved into my house. Literally. She walked through the open front door and decided that this was where she was going to stay. Who was I to argue?

She spent the next 9 years sleeping on heating grates or on people or sprawled in the street in patches of sunlight stopping cars. [normally I'm not an outdoor cat person, but as with everything else Romeo was a special case]

She developed heart failure in December 2008. Our vet thought she had 12 lives. Or that God was a little bit frightened of her. I think that she loved life so much that she didn’t want quit and that she wanted just one more summer on the porch. She had a stroke in November 2009 and even though her back legs were weak, she kept going. Only instead of jumping onto things she compensated by climbing/clawing her way up.

After 22 months of fighting, she passed away on the front porch outside in the sun.

There is something special about animals with character. She demanded a place in my life and my heart and she got it. The house isn’t the same without you little lady and I miss you.

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I was at the airport last night bouncing around between cargo and customs, battling rush hour traffic the entire time. We managed to get everything done, but not without minor freak outs on my part.

I could kvetch about how terrible airports are and about how by the book customs agents are, but that isn’t really the point.

At some point in my freak out, Jason looked at me and told me that I didn’t need to be so huffy with the employee. He was right. But in that moment, when I frustrated and annoyed at the airport layout and pissed off that the employee answered my question about where specifically we were on the map he had just handed me with a verbal “you’re here” (duh – but where is ‘here’ on the map?)… In that moment, I didn’t care.

As a customer, I bear some responsibility for how any particular interaction occurs. I get that things go smoother if I’m nice. If I’m always nice though, what incentive does the other party have to step up their game, to fix problems, or to make things better? Its a two way street and if you happen to work in a job where there is a mis-match in information then being nice/more upfront may just be something that you should just do if you want to minimize frustration.

Jason also reminded me that a lot of why I was frustrated wasn’t the individual employees fault. Again, he was totally right.

It made me think about companies and decision making. That customer experience and interactions with employees start well in advance of a particular occurrence. In that moment, it wasn’t just me or the employee that were responsible for the interaction. The corporation needs to take responsibility as well. If your goal as a company is to improve engagement or customer satisfaction or reduce employee turnover, then you need to think about the bigger architecture.

Have you built your systems and processes and environment so that customers are receptive? Have you labelled doors well? Does your IVR direct calls quickly and clearly? Did the “you’re here” and the “you need to go there” parts well on the map so that they’re clear even when photocopied?

So much more can be accomplished if we take the time to think ahead. Forethought is today’s word of the day. How could you make your next big work project easier if you focus more on forethought and less on just getting it done?

Other lesson learned? I get way more stressed out and prone to anxiety when I haven’t eaten in the last few hours. We should probably just keep a bag of trail mix in the car for just such emergencies.

Accidentally breaking into an airport building after hours while there were cop cars outside didn’t do much to calm me down. Yup.

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I’ve found myself saying “Its not my job” a lot lately. I hate it. I don’t want to be someone who says those words. I don’t want to be someone who believes those words.

I’ll go out of my way to help people who help themselves. Or when it really is a bind. But I resent getting squeezed because the system/culture/people don’t allow enough time or can’t make up their minds. Being the low man on the totem pole (from both a title and organization point of view), I’m the one who is supposed to drop everything to rush to get things done. There’s little consideration to prior plans or fluctuating stress levels or wasted time and effort.

“Its not my job” is another way of protecting myself – from deadlines that are unrealistic or bosses who ask you to do work that is demoralizing. Its a safe way to say ‘no’ and pushing back. The problem

Maybe its time to start having some courageous conversations instead. Its scary to take a stance and put yourself out there as the one who’s vocally not going along with the way things run. But I’d rather be the person who speaks out in an attempt to make things better than be the person who mutters and holds everything back.

Do you have a picture of who you are? What could you change today to help you be more like that picture?

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