By Colleen Gallion
For those of you who attended the Parking Industry Expo (PIE) this year, I hope you had as much fun as I did! One of my favorite things about talking leadership with folks in parking is how the very nature of the industry takes tried-and-true “best practices” and turns them on their head.
For example, it’s pretty tough to “surprise and delight” customers who want nothing more than to pretend you don’t exist! When business as usual doesn’t apply, amazing opportunities for innovation can arise.
During one of my workshop sessions, we had a fascinating conversation about times when employee enthusiasm can pave the road to hell. Sometimes, the desire to enforce the rules creates a nightmare for management, and it’s difficult to get staff to stop black-and-white thinking when they know they are “right.” As a group, we brainstormed ideas for addressing this challenge, and I’d love to share some of them with you.
Follow improv rules
The No. 1 rule of improvisation is often referred to as “Yes/And.” Whatever the other person throws your way, you accept it as the reality of that moment and build off it. If you’ve got a team culture that could be described as “Fifty Shades of No,” then this is the one for you. Have folks role-play some common customer scenarios, and the only way they can respond to the “customer” is with a “Yes/And.”
Here’s an example:
Customer: “What do you mean, I can’t park here? It looks like a parking place to me!”
Team member: “Yes, it does have lines like a parking spot, AND cones are blocking it off and a sign that says NO PARKING, so let’s find a different place for your car.”
Let it get ridiculous! See the smoke rising from the brains of your staff as they are forced to think differently about the problems they face every day.
Know the score
Winning releases feel-good chemicals that have conditioned us all to become slightly addicted to winning. The problem arises when our personal definitions of winning conflict with the overall goals of the team we’re part of.
For example, if it’s my job to give out tickets on campus, and my definition of winning is giving X number of tickets a day, how likely am I to give someone a warning instead of a ticket? The fact that my daily ticket goal has generated more complaints than my manager has time to deal with isn’t my problem. That’s his scorecard, not mine!
As leaders, look at your staff’s behaviors and ask yourself, “What game are they winning?” Next, ask yourself, “What is the game that I want them to win?” Are they at odds?
If so, then your game needs to become their game, and they need to be rewarded for it.
What is an acceptable number of complaint emails for you to deal with each month? What behaviors need to change to get there? What kind of incentives can you put in place to help your team reach that goal? Getting everyone playing for the same “win” can make a world of difference.
Make the invisible visible
Many people see parking rules as random, arbitrary, and meaningless. They hold as much weight as the “No Soliciting” sign on their front door. If they get a ticket, it’s not because they did anything wrong, really. They just got caught breaking a rule that doesn’t really matter anyway.
If you are currently screaming at the page, good! You’re seeing the disconnect between people’s perception and reality! You know the rules are there for a reason, and usually that reason concerns safety.
Let’s return to our ticket vigilante who makes it his goal to give X number of tickets a day. On good days, his motivation is to get people to follow the rules for their own safety and the safety of others. On more frustrating days, it’s about punishing people for breaking the rules. What if you could harness that energy into real behavior change?
What if, instead of giving out tickets, he gave out “public service announcement” (PSA) warnings? Here’s an example: “When you park here, people in wheelchairs can’t access the sidewalk. Twice this year, people have been injured because someone, just like you, parked here. Please don’t do it again.”
I’d be fascinated to see the data on repeat offenders after the true consequences of their choices were made visible to them. There would be some repeats, but I bet giving PSA warnings would create behavior change without those nasty complaint emails.
Take that enthusiasm for rule following and ticket giving and redirect it to supporting behavior change within your team and with your customers. Let me know what brilliant results you get!
COLLEEN GALLION is an ICF-certified professional coach whose passion is supporting entrepreneurs and founders in building healthy and sustainable teams. For more information, visit www.gallioncoaching.com.
