Overcoming Recurring Issues

 A further look reveals the wasps are building a nest on the side of my house and they were also infiltrating my poor handyman works and getting into the house. So a call to the wasp man ends in shock. $450 and he’d be there in 3 hours. It could have been 3 weeks, months or years as my ears ceased to operate when I heard $450.

The wasps were getting aggressive and I’ve got to take care of the family (without spending $450).

So I jumped in the car and came back 5 minutes later with the tools for the job. I tried to be a bit covert but I was spotted by the family who got pure enjoyment looking at “Wasp Man Dad”. The tools were a $2 bucket with eyes cut out and a $4 aerosol can. I put on my sun glasses, a coat and a pair of jeans and put the bucket on my head. The wasps knew the game was up. Of course there was no enjoyment knocking off the wasps but the deed was done and the family was safe.

Now let’s say you have some metaphoric wasps in your department. Let’s say you look around your office and every recurring issue is a wasp. How many wasps are you swatting every day? You can swat away every day but you’re not addressing the hive (root cause). Lots of people choose to hand ball the problem to another department. It’s like saying I have wasps, will you get rid of them. Your assumption is that it is going to be the most pressing job for the other department.

So if you find yourself swatting wasps, maybe it’s time to take control. Ask for the tools to fix the recurring issue. Maybe the recurring issues are costing you $70K every year and if you invested in some coaching the issue would be resolved. In essence don’t outsource big issues. Sometimes all you’re doing is asking another department to swat your wasps. But the wasp hive is still growing and the wasps are getting more aggressive.

Thankfully in memory of the fallen wasps we’ve now got a course for your department to get rid of the wasp nest.