Parallel Parking: the sacred cow

My first born successfully completed her road test and received her driver's license today. Many would be able to appreciate the contrast of mixed emotions between pride and trepidation produced by your baby girl being authorized to drive a large automobile – by herself.

The nearly three years of preparation for my daughter's historic day provided many tense moments for her parents, as well as a few heated discussions (adolescents just don't like to take advice from their parents). The majority of these special memories came out of the "Parallel Park". In fact over 90% of our special practice time together was spent on the intricacies of parallel parking. Out of the thousands of aspects that one needs to be aware of to successfully drive (signs, rules, laws, etc.), most new drivers fear having to parallel park more than anything else.

How many times in your life have you actually parallel parked? If you are like most people, this is not something you do everyday ... or even every month. Most people may only parallel park once per year. Could this be because parking lots have been invented virtually eliminating the need for parallel parking?

The skill of driving a vehicle in reverse and putting it into a very tight space between two other vehicles is certainly not simple and does require practice. But I have become convinced that something is wrong when this [parallel parking] is the primary focus of a new driver and has been since I first received my license. And I am going to go out on a limb here, I am sure that not many people are killed in the act of parallel parking a vehicle.

Whenever things (things: simple word for processes, business, organizations, etc.) get big and organized, people have a tendency to get lost in their focus. That which is important seems to get lost in the myriad of details. Businesses find themselves spending massive amounts of time and money on elements, programs, metrics and sacred cows - that if never existed in the first place - no one would have cared or noticed. All of this at the expense of what is important ... you know ... stuff like, sales, profit, customers, and the bottom line. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and take stock of what we are doing. Is this really that important? Is the benefit of this ____ going to outweigh the input cost? Does this support or fit our mission or purpose for being in business in the first place? Is learning how to parallel park critical to one's driving ability?

Just as organizations should kill useless sacred cows, testing new drivers on parallel parking should be stopped. Let them learn it if they want to and instead focus on the driving "stuff" that is really important – that which will preserve life – theirs and others. What is the worst that will happen (if parallel parking was no longer a focus)? New drivers wouldn't be able to shop downtown. On the other hand, it is amazing how desire has a way of motivating people to learn new things. I bet my daughter would figure out how to parallel park if that was the only way she could get to shop.

Parallel Parking: the sacred cow

Pet Bureaucracies

After over a year of cat-lessness, I finally succumbed to the whining of the women (wife and 2 daughters) around me, and agreed to get another cat. We decided to rescue our new kitty from the highly bureaucratic SPCA – Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (our local animal shelter), and realize in hindsight that it would have probably been easier to adopt a child. After filling out the mountain of paperwork, and waiting several hours for the highly complicated series of checks, authorizations, procedures and form review, we were able to take our new hyper-kitty home to begin the process of house destruction. I did warn my wife ahead of time about the irresistibly tantalizing lure of her beautiful curtain thingies that hang on the side of each of the windows, to a cat on speed.

The goal or purpose of animal shelters, humane societies – or whatever they call it where you live – is to rescue animals and provide them with new loving homes. If they cannot provide a new home, the animals are "put down" (euthanized) and many people have a problem with that. So, you would think that these organizations would find a way to avoid this. Well, where I live – you would be wrong to think that.

It was a Saturday – busy day for the local animal shelter. The building was chalk full of animals of all types and sizes - looking their cutest - waiting to be rescued. The building was also full of people – mostly families with children that were just dying to adopt a pet. From a business perspective, this is a win-win combination. On the wall is a large digital counter with the title above "Number of pets adopted today" (I suppose to make everyone feel good about the work they are doing). It took us a total of 4 hours to adopt a cat! We were there until they closed. Total animals adopted that day, 45. My guess on how many families left without adopting because they grew tired of waiting – well over 100.

The bureaucracy was unbelievable. We filled out multi-page applications and questionnaires, asking questions like "what will you do if the cat scratches on the furniture," and "how much do you expect it will cost to care for and maintain a cat." I was mentally preparing for a polygraph test. I left with ten times more paperwork for a pet kitty than I received for the purchase of our home. Come to think of it; we left the hospital when our kids were born with no paperwork and you would think someone would provide some kind of manual for them.

All of this "over-complication" is the result of well meaning people trying to ensure that these animals get into a home where they will not be neglected or abused. However, now completely buried in the weeds of their own unnecessary rules, regulations, paperwork and formalities, these well meaning people have thwarted the goals and purposes of their organization. They are not alone – every organization has their own "pet bureaucracies" which are fed and nurtured.

Every process and system must be continually challenged for worthiness in an organization. "Stop doing lists" need to be just as important as "start doing lists." It is obvious that when focus moves off of the goal or purpose that your organization exists for and instead on to the "way things get done", results will diminish. Yet, like an addict on drugs, far too many organizations fall into this "addiction of process" and can't seem to shake it.

Leaders should constantly look at the processes, procedures and systems in their business and ask themselves these questions:

• What is the worst that would happen if we stopped doing this?
  
• If we stopped doing this, what purpose-focused endeavor could we direct that time and energy to?
  

It's time to euthanize the sacred cows in order to avoid "putting down" the results.

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Pet Bureaucracies