The Slow Elevator Problem, Dirty Floors In A Men's Restroom, And A Dutch Bicycle Maker's Shipping Problem: How Changing Your Mindset Might Help You Solve Problems
The 3-Word Quote: ‘Prevention Trumps Treatment’
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1.
The elevator was far too slow.
It was so slow, in fact, that the office building owners received numerous complaints—and even threats from tenants promising to cancel leases if the problem wasn't fixed.
The owners were worried.
They met several times to brainstorm solutions for the elevator problem.
They could replace the elevator, but it was time-consuming and far too costly.
They considered replacing the drive that ran the elevator, reprogramming it, and using a different algorithm. Still, they didn't believe that would solve the issue.
They thought about many solutions until they ran out of ideas.
The owners then presented the few possible solutions to the building managers for input.
None of the ideas seemed like the perfect solution.
The managers were worried that the tenants would complain about the time involved in any repair. The owners' primary concern was the cost involved.
However, one manager proposed a different solution to the elevator problem - one that had yet to be mentioned.
The owners listened to the idea, agreed, and immediately implemented it.
It was simple, quick, cheap - and highly effective.
Elevator complaints nearly disappeared overnight.
2.
The cleaning services manager at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam had a sticky situation on his hands.
Actually, the sticky situation wasn't literally on his hands; it was on the floor.
His job was to ensure the airport was clean and comfortable for travelers.
However, one area in the airport continued to cause issues and was the most challenging area to keep clean.
It was the men's restroom.
And the area that was especially dirty was the men's restroom floors - under the urinals.
The workers had no issues keeping the actual urinals clean, but the floor area underneath each urinal was constantly dirty, unsanitary, and, well, sticky.
The manager had an issue with 'spillage' - in short, quite a bit of urine ended up on the floors.
And no matter how often the crews mopped the area, the problem seemed to stick around.
The people in charge met and discussed possible solutions. They discussed hiring more attendants and positioning them in the restroom and contemplated using different cleaning supplies.
They even pitched the idea of fining people who seemed to make a mess on the floor.
But the problem was quietly solved by a simple idea.
The idea was so successful that 80% of the 'spillage' was eliminated, and this novel solution even saved 8% of total cleaning costs.
The idea was so popular it spread to other airport restrooms over the years.
3.
The bikes arrived at customers' homes looking like 'they'd been through a metal-munching combine harvester.'
Bex Rad was the creative director at VanMoof Bicycles. His words above summarized what happened to many of VanMoof's bikes when they shipped their high-end products to customers.
The bikes that arrived at customers' homes were often a mangled mess.
Damaged bikes agitated customers, becoming a significant issue for the company.
The Dutch company aimed to sell 90% of their bikes online, so shipping and delivery were paramount.
Rad hoped he could change the shipping company for a simple solution.
He searched for a carrier as obsessed with delivery and logistics as his company was obsessed with bikes.
But regardless of the carrier, many of the bikes arrived damaged.
They tried small companies, large companies, and start-ups. The bikes were sturdy and well-built, but the delivery problems persisted no matter what shipping company was used.
But then someone in the company had another idea.
It was a strange idea, but the company decided to try it.
And their problem disappeared.
The Takeaway:
So what do a slow elevator, a dirty floor in a men's bathroom, and a shipping problem at a Dutch bicycle company have in common?
All are examples of solving a problem by analyzing it differently - they are what author Dan Heath calls 'upstream thinking.'
In other words, the three examples are ways of thinking that eliminate problems before they happen.
The slow elevator was solved by a manager who understood that the real problem was not just the slow elevator itself but people's displeasure with waiting for it.
The elevator was slow, but the real issue was people were impatient.
People just hated to wait, even if just for a minute or two.
So, the solution was simple - the manager hung a mirror next to the elevator.
A Harvard Business Review article points out that the mirrors didn't fix the slow elevator, but they ended people's complaints about the elevator.
The elevator was still slow, but tenants stopped threatening to cancel the leases.
But mirrors ended the complaints because they gave people waiting for the elevator something to do - which was spending the waiting time looking at themselves.
Give them something to do or focus on for even a minute, and the wait ceases to be a concern.
Virtually overnight, complaints about slow elevators in the building disappeared - thanks to the mirrors.
***
The sticky floors at the airport in Amsterdam were gross - and they were a real problem.
Aad Kieboom, the airport manager, devised a solution that worked.
He took realistic-looking photos of a common fly and etched them into each urinal. These etchings or 'pictures' were placed right above the drain in the urinal.
A fake fly in the urinal.
The fake fly gave men something to 'aim' at as they used the bathroom.
And the flies worked amazingly well.
The pictures improved men's aim, and 'spillage' was reduced by 80%.
The urinal fly idea had wings - now, several other airports use similar solutions to achieve cleaner bathrooms.
It was a simple solution, but it required complex thinking.
***
Like the building managers with a slow elevator and the airport staff with the dirty bathroom, the Dutch bike manufacturer brainstormed numerous ideas.
Ultimately, they knew the real issue was how the shippers handled the boxes that contained their bikes.
They believed the boxes were handled too roughly, causing their bikes to be destroyed.
Their first instinct was to print the word 'fragile' on the boxes, but that did little to help.
But printing something else on the boxes did help. In fact, what they printed on the box virtually ended their problems.
The team decided to print a picture of a flat-screen television and put it on the outside of all their bike boxes.
Damaged bikes caused by shipping issues dropped by almost 70%.
The bike shippers now believed they were moving huge flat-screen TVs - the picture caused the delivery people to handle the boxes with kid gloves.
It changed their mindset.
No one wanted to be responsible for a broken TV, so the delivery people treated the boxes with extra care.
The slow elevator, the dirty bathroom floor, and the broken bike shipping solutions were all simple and inexpensive.
Heath's book Upstream is actually about solving problems before they occur.
These three solutions were unique but reactionary, but they can remind people to reframe problems and think differently.
All these solutions might have initially been scoffed at, but when people are genuinely searching for solutions, nothing should be off the table.
Thinking in a problem-preventing versus problem-solving mindset is always a good place to start.
After all, prevention is often more beneficial than treatment.
***
3 things before you go:
Read: don’t read a ton of James Patterson, but this has to be the best thing he’s written; older but always relevant
Read: if you ever played with legos, check your closet (or your kids’ closets) for these sets
Listen/watch: have included this once before but you can’t pass up 20 Beatles songs in 6 minutes; great covers/arrangement
Hope to see you in 10 days.
-Jeff