Beware Reasonableness

reasonablessness

Here is a customer experience story for you. Today, I had given my car for servicing at my regular service station. As usual, there was a delay when I went to pick it up at the scheduled time. The car was still being washed. Post the wait & settling the bill, I finally got the car. I was keen to get home & avoid the evening traffic snarls. To my surprise though, I saw that the car was still dirty at many places.

On further inspection, I discovered it had not been washed at all. Not only was I charged for it, but I was also made to wait long for the wash. Obviously, I was furious and frustrated. I made a complaint to the managers. And I was on my way out after agreeing for a wash the next time there.

That’s it? Nothing more? Why didn’t I make a bigger issue of it? Why settle so quickly?

Beware the soul sucking force of reasonableness.
– Chip & Dan Heath

Inspite of the service station being clearly at fault, the reason I did not make a mountain of the issue was probably what had happened at the service station earlier in the day. Several acts that defied business reasonableness.

  • Early in the morning when I was dropping the car off, I had met the service manager. He wished me as soon as he saw me & ensured someone was attending to me at the earliest.
  • During both my visits on this occasion, I was offered drinking water (such a relief in Indian summers) & hot beverages.
  • Even more important, the person serving the water & beverages was genuinely smiling at customers. He seemed keen to serve & not just going through the motions.
  • And there was more than one person smiling at visiting customers, trying to make them feel comfortable & ensuring they were attended to quickly.
  • Even when the issue was discovered, there was no attempt to avoid the issue or blaming on lame excuses. All three levels of managers (service advisor, service team manager & the service station in-charge) –  acknowledged the issue, took responsibility for the same and apologised.

Decisions to the do the above acts could’ve all faced the challenge of corporate reasonableness. It is reasonable to save money by not giving free packaged water or beverages? Smiling, making customer feel comfortable & well attended to – this is a car service station, not a hotel for god’s sake!

The reasonableness defying acts were them building up their equity by take the initiative to give, give & give (the job jab jab in Gary Vaynerchuck’s terms). They cashed in their equity (the right hook) when they asked me to excuse them for their obvious mistake.

Click It or Soak In

When you are witnessing such a sight, why view through the camera? Why not be fully present for the moment?

Click It or Soak In?

This was my insta-muse yesterday. Many responded with a “Soak & Click” answer. But my friends overwhelmingly favored soaking in the sight. I love my insta-circle of friends!

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I personally almost always favour the Soak & Click routine.

Let me share my reasons of why I click too.

  1. Convert A Moment To A Memory: There are multiple ways in which a moment becomes a memory. Being mindful of the moment is one way. To take the time to think what you want to capture, frame a picture, imagine how the output will be & clicking it – is a form of mindfulness.
  2. Appreciate The Subtleties: Many a times, the feeling we experience while witnessing an extraordinary sight overwhelms us. We could always embrace the feeling & soak it in completely. It is beautiful. I also like to appreciate the subtleties  that make the sight special – the colours, textures, shapes, etc. Clicking pictures then becomes an art to capture these subtleties & accentuating their impact on the scene.
  3. Isolate The Beauty: Pretty sights today are inundated with people & other distractions (e.g.. the Colosseum is almost always wearing scaffolding for renovation). In the pictures I capture, I try to isolate the beauty from the distractions that might be surrounding it. What wants to remember them!
  4. Share The Awesomeness: The joy of any special sight is so much more when shared with someone. When experiencing it alone, I feel compelled to capture the moment to share with family & friends.

Criticism In Corporate Culture

Today, I came across two seperate reputed opinions about corporate culture. Unfortunately, both are negative.

The first one from a Bridgewater Associates (considered the most successful hedge fund in the world) manager:

In general hierarchical structures, you don’t tell people what you actually think.

You’re always managing other people’s perceptions of you and what they think of you, and trying to butter people up above, trying to make sure they don’t think anything is going wrong, that you have all the answers.

Radical transparency is designed to solve for a deadly sin of work life: office politics. In too many places, what happens in the meeting doesn’t matter nearly as much as secret alliances and conversations after the meeting.

And the second one (paraphrased) from Malcom Gladwell:

When I think back about my time in a large organization, the thing that was most frustrating to me was the extent to which people over time in organizations, put the needs & desires of the people on the inside ahead of the needs & desires of the people they are serving.

Sometimes people get so immersed in their envronment, that the people you are supposed to be serving sort of falls away. And you just think about what would make your life better.

One way to avoid this is to keep reminding yourself & the people around you the point of your organization & who you are serving.

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Incidentally, both of these were heard in the TED original podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant. The episode How to Love Criticism delves into how Ray Dalio addresses these in Bridgewater Associates with a corporate culture based on radical transparency & constantly getting better (kaizen).

What’s With #Times2Travel?

#Times2Travel

I have been using the #Times2Travel hashtag while posting my travel pictures for a long while now. Friends still ask me what it means. So, here goes a quick explanation.

#Times2Travel represents 2x Travel.

  • First time, is when I actually travel,
  • Second time, is when I nostalgically re-live the experience while researching & sharing pictures with friends

There are four aspects to my travel hashtag #Times2Travel.

While Traveling, Travel!
Typically, I stay away from social media & picture posting when traveling.  This allows me to stay focused on soaking in the experience & be with my fellow travelers when there. This also gives me the time to click pictures at leisure .. the way I want it.

Research At Leisure
I get around to post processing pictures (mostly shot in RAW) many weeks or months after the travel. This way, I get to research & learn more about my subject or location. Sometimes the learning is also friend sourced on the networks. Anyone in my friends circle who is more familiar with the subject or location, generously share what they already know. I’ve learnt a lot via this route.

Post Processing Is Refreshing
The process of research & post processing – I find quite soothing & refreshing. When I’m having a tough day – processing a picture is equivalent to 60 deep breaths. I have some downtime, I’d rather research my pictures than getting lost in the rabbit hole that the Internet is.

You’ve Been Informed
There have been multiple instances where I’ve been mistaken to be traveling at the time of posting photographs. My #Times2Travel hashtag is now seen as a sign of past travels .. and there are fewer responses to my post asking to catch up in far away foreign land.

You can check out my #Times2Travel hash-tagged pictures at both Instagram & Facebook.