- Acadia National Park
The #4 post of 2012 is
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
My wife and I just returned from a great vacation a few weeks ago. We went to Acadia National Park in Maine which is beautiful this time of year. Like many travelers, we asked someone to take our picture while at a scenic overlook. This kind stranger gladly said yes. After a couple quick snaps of the shutter, the kind man zipped away on his Harley. We continued to enjoy the view from Cadillac Mountain then suddenly my wife begins to laugh and says, “I don’t believe it.”
Somehow, we have wonderful shots of the valley and my wife. But yes, I’m nowhere to be seen.
While I’d agree, more pictures of my wife and less of me are better, that wasn’t what we were expecting. Did the guest photographer understand the request? Did he know how to use the camera? Was the task more difficult than anticipated? My hunch is that he understood and was fully capable. After all, he mastered driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle on a winding mountain road before being promoted to amateur photographer. I suspect that he has a wickedly good sense of humor and quickly recognized my better half.
In any case, there is a Lean lesson to be learned. There are too many times when seemingly simple tasks are not completed to the expectations of leadership. This could be for several reasons. There are times when leadership thinks that the expectations are obvious and go without saying yet they are not so clear to others. On other occasions, there is a superficial discussion of what is needed but the discussion is not detailed enough so that all parties are truly on the same page. There are even occasions where the expectations are stated clearly, even in writing, but for a variety of reasons these expectations are not received or understood. There are times when the request is not as simple as it seems.
Communication is a two-way street but it is your responsibility as a Lean Leader to ensure that the communication has been effective. This can often mean that you over communicate, check for understanding, and follow-up on important communications even when it’s a seemingly simple task.
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