How Would the ‘Junior Management Trainee’ Solve the Banana Peel Problem? (and other stories)
Placing a ladder over a banana peel to avoid people slipping on it is not the most efficient solution. However, if you look at organisations (certainly the bigger ones), it is quite strange that they have built so many ladders into their structures and systems. A ‘ladder’ in this context is used to indicate an inefficient pattern that we keep repeating because it has proven successful in the past, although it currently isn’t very efficient or doesn’t lead to the results that we want. It could be a procedure that we’ve installed 10 years ago to solve a certain problem, and although that situation doesn’t occur anymore, the procedure is still in place. Here are some examples of how people in a certain role would solve the problem:
The Health & Safety Manager puts a big fence around the banana peel and makes sure that everybody who walks within 20 meters of it wears a helmet. They might even organise an awareness meeting to explain the dangers of a banana peel lying on the floor.
The HR Manager checks if there is someone in the company who has banana peel pick-up-skills in their profile. If not, they will send a high-potential candidate on a 3 week long banana-peel-pick-up training to make sure that person has the right skills to do the task.
The Legal Counsellor waits until somebody falls over the banana peel and then sues every banana producing company in the world.
The Innovation Manager organises a brainstorm session with a multidisciplinary team to generate hundreds of ideas to solve this challenge. He then gathers the solutions on a one-pager and delivers them to the CEO.
The Government Employee hires a team of management consultants that come in, analyse the situation, and deliver an extensive report explaining that there is a banana peel on the floor. They advise waiting for 4 weeks until the banana peel has rotted away.
The Quality Control Assessor creates a checklist with relevant criteria (size, thickness, colour, shape, …), and does a risk assessment of all possible scenarios depending on who may slip on the banana peel.
The Agile Scrum Master creates a Scrum Board, breaks up the epic “banana peel problem” into 15 Stories and 8 Tasks. He plans 4 sprints of 2 weeks for the estimated Work. Each morning the Scrum Master does a short stand-up meeting with the banana peel-developers and the banana peel product owner to assess whether the situation of the banana peel has changed.
The Company Coach asks the banana peel if it hurts to lie on the floor. He then proceeds to reflect together on some options on how the banana peel could solve it is own problem.
The visual facilitator takes a flipchart, draws the banana peel, and listens carefully to all reactions from bystanders. Then he draws them, notes comments down, groups them. He then makes people voice what they now think the best course of action is.
The Junior Management Trainee follows the ‘problem’-procedure which means that they must print 7 documents from the internet where they fill out the problem and the possible consequences. He gets extra points if he can add a business plan with the necessary figures on how this will affect the quarterly results of the company. This document has to be signed by his direct boss who will discuss it in the next management meeting where they will take the ‘right’ decision. If he is lucky, he will be informed two months later about the decision.
The Communication Specialist starts to collect quotes from leaders saying how critical removing the banana peel is in the company strategy. He then launches a communication campaign with videos, infographics, and a roadshow to warn the employees about the dangers of a banana peel. A few months later, the team invites leaders to give an update on the status of the banana peel… but no one shows up. The management team has been so busy re-defining their strategy and re-aligning their organisation charts, that no one remembers where the cursed banana peel is or who (if anyone) was held accountable for removing it.
The handyman or cleaning lady sighs before picking up the banana peel and throwing it in the nearest waste bin.
