Reader Contest: Improve This

Maybe the winter is forcing more people to stay indoors and read blogs, but I am happy to say that the amount of discussion in this space has seen a nice up-tick lately (see here and here).  True to Challenge Dividend form, these comments are helping me craft my theory in many ways.

Since there's a critical mass of readers out there, it's time for a test.  Looking at the photo above (thanks, Seth Godin), apply what you know about the Challenge Dividend and tell me:

1. Why did this fail?
2. How can it be fixed?

This is going to be a competitive challenge with pride and a prize on the line: The person with the best answer (selected by yours truly) will receive a $10 iTunes gift card.  Entries should be placed in the Comments here, and the deadline is Monday, January 15, at 12pm EST.  One entry per household, and please keep total answers under 500 words.  Good luck!

Comments

[Michael Graham]

The two words that kill challenge at work more than anything but "you're fired" are "work rules". Work rules is the term used to describe what each position in an organization can do, and importantly, can't do in their jobs. Job descriptions are one thing (and can be destructive in their own right if used incorrectly), but work rules go way beyond by actually limiting one's scope.

While not used by every organization, most mature organized labor contracts have a myriad of work rules clauses. And, I would guess that the work crew responsible for this week's wonderful picture is just living out their collective contract. In this way, most 'lazy workers' aren't lazy at all, they are just following the rules!

The biggest problem with work rules is that they eliminate creative problem solving at the all but the highest levels in an organization. So, not only are the vast majority of employees not supposed to solve problems, they aren't even supposed to point them out! Narrowly defining one's responsibilities and actually preventing employees to branch out kills the challenge that comes with the new. And when challenge is dead, status quo the best that you can hope for (improvement is impossible).

And as the above picture suggests, often times status quo would be a vast improvement over the resulting reality.

[bender]

It's funny, when I saw the image, right away I went to "people are lazy." But I figured that wouldn't get me the iTunes card...

I think Graham has a point about the work rules. But I think there's another compelling point in the idea of public services not having any competition--so they don't have to serve the customer (the public) well.

If the branch doesn't get moved and the community is upset by a crappy paint job, what's the community's alternative? Hire an independent contractor? Go to Sherwin Williams and do it themselves?

The reality is that there is no competiton for Public Works like this, and until there is, there is no incentive to deliver stellar service.

My possible solutions would be:
1. Privatize public services, and hire companies that offer good service at a decent rate
2. Make the work environment more competitive. That means always be willing to let poor performers go if you can find good people to replace them. Which would be a sea change for civil service jobs.

Now give me the damn card...I've got a Midlake album I've had my eye on...

[bender]

On a side note, I grew up with a guy who is now a surveyor for the city of Cincinnati.

On a rainy day, he makes about $65/hour to sit in the city garage and play cards with his crew.

...For 8 hours.

[Jonathan Richman]

First off, this is a great scene that typically one would only see when they didn't have a camera handy. Glad someone preserved this.

Michael's comments about "work rules" are right on, but I'll look at a different aspect of this phenomenon than he did. I blame this on a "we've-always-done-it-this-way" philosophy. With a state or local job like this, there really isn't a reward for innovation; there is reward for conforming. In fact, in some union work, you can't even do a specific task unless that's part of your remit no matter how much better things could be if you did that task at the right moment.

Is this what happened here? Surely, there is a crew that travels in front of the painting crew to remove any debris, maybe even a street sweeper. So, when the paint truck arrives to this spot, with folks specifically allocated to their jobs like driver, "the guy with the cones", the "spray man", etc., they do what they were told to do. The driver drives, the cone guy picks up the cones, and the sprayer sprays.

Consider this, to Bob’s original question; we know the Challenge Dividend says that challenge should lead to improvement. However, think about the sprayer for a moment. He has to guide the spray of the paint to ensure, in as much as possible, that it is straight, a certain distance from the edge, etc. When the tree comes along, you know that he’s paying attention and actually takes pride in what he’s doing. How so? If he weren’t paying attention the tree would have been painted. If he didn’t take pride what he was doing, there wouldn’t be such a remarkably well-placed line around it. His job, according to his boss? Keep the paint on the road. Period.

I suppose the question for a state run operation like this is: what’s the challenge? Assuming many municipalities do lane striping themselves: what market force is challenging them to be better? However, to change this dynamic, if the state or municipality really wanted to take advantage of the Challenge Dividend, they could always open this job up for bids from outside contractors. Guaranteed…the cost of all the painting would go down and the quality would improve. But do enough people take advantage of Bob’s concept when there’s nothing (apparently) immediately on the line for them personally? Perhaps no, and perhaps this is the reason for all the mediocrity that is out there in the world.

One final note: this is all not likely the fault of the paint sprayer or a crew that could care less or some bureaucratic rules. Rather, most modern paint stripers (the official term it turns out, I couldn’t resist figuring out how these things work) are actually controlled through laser or mechanical systems. So, you simply program the spray (in this case) to be 6 inches from the nearest obstacle (which should be the side of the paved roadway) and start driving. Perhaps, we need to blame this all on the striper truck manufactures and not the guy driving the truck.

[mk]

i went to lazyness also, but since bender already kinda mentioned it, i thought on it some more. i think it boils down to motivation and character. there was not enough motivation for that person to move that branch. sure, you could blame 'work rules,' but when work rules fail, a person's character should be there to back up.

isn't that how it is for all of us? when i slack, it's because i'm not motivated enough to go the extra mile. money, recognition, internal warm fuzzy feelings, thoughts of any guilt or consequences i might have to deal with—not enough to motivate me.

to keep things like this from happening, you need two things. first, you need a work environment where an individual's actions matter (both in positive and 'negative' ways, though obviously more positive) and you need to make sure, as best you can, that the environment is filled with people of good character.

[maly]

By conciously choosing the more challenging route in all pursuits, one improves himself and everything around him just by virtue of the excercise! That's why the paint edge on the road is flawed. The driver made the wrong choice. Or worse yet, made no choice at all...just avoided the entire problem altogether.

How do you fix it? By choosing excellence despite the hassle of doing so. Pretty simple, really : )

[-challis]

This is really fun! I already missed the iTunes card but still wanted to suggest two things.

1) Lots of people get killed on the sides of roads...especially with no shoulder. Getting out of the truck is a high risk proposition.

2) The glitch in the line will not likely impact driver safety. The shoulder lines out on country roads are often very crooked...not that much, but certainly not as perfect as one would think (I used to do a lot of back roads cycling).

Still, I would risk my life to get out of the truck and move the branch. It's a designer thing. :-)