True Ownership

What happens when something goes wrong at work, and it repeatedly goes wrong? As in all day long? How do we change a systemic lack of employees seeing that they own the problem and not just management? 

The law in TN states that there are certain days that liquor can’t be sold in retail stores. Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to be specific. Where you notice the problem is at the cash registers. 

Shoppers pick up their wine on Easter and head to check out. All of a sudden, they are told they can’t purchase it. The cash register flashes a message to the sales’ associate that the sale is not allowed and something about underage and some sort of long cryptic message.  New cashiers are baffled that somehow the system knew this shopper is underage without having given up their ID. They set the bottles aside. They may eventually ask what the deal is and be told by those who have been through this before about the law. After a few hours, there are shopping carts full of wine bottles to return to the shelf. I’m not making this up. 

Lack of communication. Lack of training. Lack of ownership of the problem. No one seemed to see it coming. There is no system that triggers a change. Shoppers (and employees) are somehow supposed to know. No one thought to put up signs where the wine is sold. No one informed the cashiers. No one owned the problem.  Admittedly it is management’s problem but all too often no employee says anything to management. You may think this is crazy but If you look, there is probably something like this that happens where you work. It is infrequent but knowable. The default is to let it run its course. It only happens a few times a year. We are blind to simple solutions.