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If I Only Had a Mop

Empower your employees to handle slippery situations

Craig W. Alexander
Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:55
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I was recently in a local big-box retail store. My family had run another errand, and I was waiting for them inside the entrance of the store. It was a busy Saturday afternoon, and it was raining very hard outside. People were hurrying into the entry area to get out of the rain, and there was a lot of water on the floor. I was waiting off to the side, so I had a pretty good observation point for the “entry process” to the store.

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There was one employee in the entry area to greet customers as they arrived. She was working hard to make things nice for the customers. She had paper towels, and she was wiping down the shopping carts and staging the dry carts near the door to make it easier for people. She was smiling and seemed really intent on helping people who were coming in from the rain.

 …

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Comments

Submitted by Jeff Dewar on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:01

Applying an empowerment test

Great article Craig!

In addition to your questions at the end of the article, I think it would be helpful for line managers to be given a checklist or test to use when thinking about empowerment, especially when they observe a poor choice.  For example:  1.  Did the employee have the ability to make another choice of work process?  2. Did the employee know that their choice of a work process was poor?  3.  Was it practical to use a better work process (e.g. a mop may have existed, but was not accessible in a timely manner)?  

Jeff

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