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.
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.
I noticed that she warned each customer to be careful on the slick tile floor. She was genuinely concerned about each shopper’s safety. Eventually, I heard her comment to one customer about how much easier this would be if they would only let her have a mop. She recognized that she could do a better job of keeping the customers safe if she had the right tool.
I did not approach management about this issue, but it did make me wonder where the breakdown was. Had the employee asked for a mop? The floors were clean inside, so I’m pretty sure they have mops for employee use. I am certain that they have many different types of mops for sale in the store. Perhaps the employee could have asked to get one off the shelf.
My bigger concern was that the employee clearly felt that she would not get a mop from management. “They” won’t let me have one. Maybe she didn’t ask, but leadership should have been more proactive about encouraging the employees to take ownership of the situation. If the manager had been walking the gemba, he or she would have seen this employee struggling to keep the store safe.
Ironically, a nearby store within the same company recently settled a lawsuit from a customer that slipped on a grape on the floor in the produce section. The store’s leadership should have been highly aware of protecting customers from slippery floors, especially during heavy rain on a busy shopping afternoon.
I’m not sure where the breakdown happened in this situation, but it does reemphasize the importance of empowering the employee to find a solution rather than just identifying the problem. Would she have gotten in trouble for leaving her post for a few minutes to get a mop from the janitorial area? Would she have gotten in trouble for taking a $5 sponge mop from inventory? Either action would have enhanced the customer experience. She would have provided a safer shopping area and demonstrated how much the store cares about its customers. She could have helped avoid the potential for an expensive legal situation if someone had slipped entering the store.
What about your process or workplace? Do you have any “if only they would let me have a mop” situations? Do your employees know they have the authority to resolve dangerous situations? Do your supervisors encourage proactive action when employees recognize a problem?
Take a walk through your gemba and talk to the folks who are directly interfacing with your products or your customers. Find out what slippery situations they have been waiting to solve.
Comments
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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