Garage Door Sensors and Seeing Through the Eyes of our Customers (5-11-22)

This week we will kick-off a series inspired by home improvements. We’ll start by looking at garage door sensors and seeing things through the eyes of our customers.

The other night we heard a random noise, and then the next morning the garage door couldn’t open. I called a repair person to come and check it out. My wife told me to make sure I had him look at the sensors. She explained they annoyed her sometimes because they were so finicky and would stop the door from closing properly. The repair person arrives and basically everything is broken EXCEPT the door itself. While the sensors weren’t broken, I mentioned that my wife had issues with them from time to time and I’d have to adjust them once every couple of months to get them working. It wasn’t a big deal, but still asked if he could do anything to help with those.

He replaced all the broken parts and hooked us up with new sensors (see beautiful picture). Fast forward a few days and my wife is raving about how the repairs have changed her life. I was confused why she was so excited about a working garage door. She told me she was excited the sensors worked. That’s when I learned that although I might have only been adjusting them once every couple of months, she was having almost daily fights with the sensors. I was only being notified of the issue if she was unable to get it to work. This revelation put her desire for new garage door sensors in a new light.

What does this have to do with anything? In the above situation, I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the sensor problem. I was only seeing the tip of the iceberg. I was so fixated on MY experience with the garage door sensors that I never stopped to consider that my wife could be having a different experience. If I would have known how troublesome the sensors were, I likely would have tried to do something to fix them sooner. As I reflect on this story, I can’t help but see the parallels to being customer centric. As we serve our customers, how often do we truly understand their needs? More importantly, how often do we truly understand the magnitude of what they are going through? The things that might seem small to us, might be significant to the people we serve. The only way we can help them is by walking in their shoes and truly seeing the world from their perspective.

The challenge: Are you seeing situations through the eyes of your customers?

Bonus thought: Take the above learning about customers and apply it to the people you lead. Do you truly understand things from their perspective?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Even Evil Fish have Birthdays (1-15-20)

Last week was about Tetris and building the right foundation. This week is about Super Mario and seeing the humanity in evil fish.

A few years ago I was playing Super Mario Brothers with my wife. In case you’re not familiar with the game, it’s your job to rescue the Princess from King Koopa. You play through a variety of levels to accomplish this task, including the dreaded water levels. We were at a water level, and to say it caused my wife to be anxious would be an understatement. She is terrified of any water level in video games. There is something about how the fish can move faster than your character that creeps her out. Anyway, we were in a level where this giant fish would jump out of the water and swallow you whole.

This fish terrified her. It got her every time and at one point, my wife got extremely frustrated and talked about how much she hated the fish. I said something along the lines of, “Come on, don’t hate the fish. Even evil fish have birthdays,” trying to make a joke about how even an evil fish shares something in common with her. She laughed, and now that quote hangs on one of the walls in our house.

So what does this have to do with anything? Although I said it jokingly, the point behind the comment was still true. Just because this fish thwarted her at every turn, didn’t mean she needed to hate it. This fish she completely opposed and her had at least something in common. Throughout my life I’ve found that when you disagree with someone, it’s easy to paint them in a horrible light. It’s easy to forget they are also human, and once you forget their humanity, it’s easy to turn them into a monster. Once they are a monster, it’s easier to hate them. It’s easier to justify treating them poorly. It’s easier to no longer feel like they deserve any amount of love, respect, or empathy. I imagine as you read this, a few dozen examples jump to your mind.

The challenge in all of this is remembering that the people you disagree with, even the people who are totally different from you are still human, and until we connect as humans it’s often difficult to move forward. The challenge: Will you strive to see the humanity in others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Everyone has Something Going On (4-24-19)

Last week was about the power of our own uniqueness. This week’s secret is that everyone has things going on in their lives that impact them.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are in a meeting with a colleague and they weren’t performing well that day. They were not as focused as they normally are and not on top of things. What was the reason why they weren’t performing that day? Maybe it’s because they weren’t prepared. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have the ability to understand what they should do. Maybe they are just bad at their job. Those would probably be a couple of the first things you’d think of. There’s another option though, maybe they had other things going on in life that were that were weighing on them and impacting them. No matter the case, don’t they deserve grace, empathy, and understanding?

You might be wondering where this is going. The secret in all of this is that we never know what is going on in a person’s life that might be impacting them. We’ve all probably been in a situation like the one above. We’ve all been the person who noticed that a teammate wasn’t performing on a given day. When we were in this situation, how often did we stop to check in to see how they were doing? How often did we stop to see if there were things outside of work impacting them vs. making an assumption about why things weren’t going well? I know that I always haven’t paused to think about how things going on outside of our walls might be weighing in on their lives.

We’ve also been the person who wasn’t performing, because we were being impacted by something. Maybe it was the death of a family member, sickness, sleepless nights from kids, battle with depression or addiction, or a million other ways that life can get to you. How important was it to you when people extended some empathy and understanding?

The challenge: The secret is that you never know what is going on in someone else’s life. When you see people, will you start by extending grace, empathy, and understanding?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Chutes, Ladders, and Different Lives (4-18-18)

Last week we thought about leveraging knowledge and Battleship. This week we are going to reflect on the different lives we lead by thinking about Chutes (slides) and Ladders. Chutes and Ladders is a game to see who can get to the final square first. As you move around the board you’ll land on squares with ladders or chutes on them. Ladders are like shortcuts that help you advance. Chutes are the anti-shortcut that cause you to fall back spaces.

Let’s pretend you and I were going to play the game with a twist. Let’s pretend you and I played the same game, just on different boards. We’d still use the spinner and follow all of the same rules. The only difference is that you’d play on one board and I’d play on another. If this was the case, what would be the first thing you’d wonder about? I’m assuming you’d want to know if the boards are the same. I bet you’d be curious to see if my board had more chutes or more ladders than you.

You might be wondering where this is going. I’d say that life is a lot like a game of Chutes and Ladders, where we are all playing on different boards. Some boards have more ladders than others and maybe even ladders that are better shortcuts. Some boards have more chutes than others and maybe even chutes that make people fall further. There is no guarantee of success in this game (life). Just because a board has more ladders, it doesn’t guarantee success. Also, just because a board has more chutes, it doesn’t guarantee failure. At the same time, we can acknowledge that your board shapes your life and we can acknowledge that the more ladders you have the greater likelihood you have for success. In the game example above I had us imagine playing on different boards. What does your board(life) look like? What ladders do you have? What chutes do you have? Think about the people around you. How is your board similar to theirs? How is your board different? How does your board impact the way you live and experience life?

I’m a straight white male, married with kids, middle class, American, from a small town, fairly intelligent, some athleticism, average looks, relatively healthy, in a job where I make enough money that I don’t have to spend my time being anxious about money, from a home filled with love where my parents have been married for over 30 years. If I’m being honest with myself, those are a lot of ladders in my favor. It’s really tempting and really easy for me to look at other people and say, “They could easily be in my place if they only do X, Y, and Z.” The fact is it’s not that straight forward or simple. Yes, I work hard and have made a lot of the right choices in life, but I can’t deny that those ladders (many I don’t have control over) have helped me and will continue to help me. I can’t deny that some people have chutes that will never show up on my board. Does your hard work and the choices you make impact you? Yes. At the same time, your life’s chutes and ladders impact you too. As I reflect on my ladders and my experiences I think of the wisdom a friend once shared, “Don’t feel guilty about your experience. Just understand that is YOUR experience and not everyone lives the same way.” The more I can do this, the more I can understand the people around me, and the better human/friend/teammate I can be for them.

The challenge: Do you understand what your board looks like and how it shapes you? Are you taking the time to understand and appreciate other people’s boards and how they shape them?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

How do your shoes impact your walk? (3-23-16)

Last week we ended the series of lessons I’ve learned from my daughters by talking about a game I play with Alice where we build a bridge between two people. The main idea is that it doesn’t matter how different two people are as long as they are willing to build a bridge to connect them. This week I want to continue with that theme of connection by talking about shoes. What shoes are you wearing right now? How do they impact the way you walk?

There is an adage that if you want to get to know someone you need to walk a mile in their shoes. I think another way of looking at this wisdom is to understand how the shoes you wear on a daily basis impact the way you walk and experience the world. Understanding how your walk might be the same and different from other people is an important ingredient in trying to connect with each other.

I’d like to share a situation where my shoes impact my world. When I go to the store alone with the girls I can’t tell you how many people say things along the lines of, “You’re such a great dad spending time with your girls.” Whether it’s verbal or non-verbal the fact is I get bonus points for spending time with my kids in public places. Basically the world applauds me for buying groceries. Weird, right? This doesn’t happen for my wife. My wife doesn’t get a pat on the back for taking the girls grocery shopping. Along those same lines nobody ever asks or expects me to “juggle it all” with work and family. No one has ever implied that I love my kids less because I work, but this has happened to working moms that I know. All of these things happen, because I’m a male who happens to be a dad and the expectations from society are different for me and my wife. In short, my shoes impact my walk.

The above examples were gender differences between parents. We could talk all day about other dimensions and I’d be able to share where my shoes make my walk a little different from other folks. Sometimes it would be positive and sometimes it would be negative. Overall, it’s easier to say that we are all the same versus dealing with the complexity of everyone walking in different shoes that impact the way we walk. If we want to have true connections then we need to understand our own shoes and how they make us walk, so we can find the right materials to build bridges.

The challenge: Do you know how your shoes impact the way you walk?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry