Category: Symptom

The case of the Coffee Shop Customer Complaints

Background: A popular coffee shop has been receiving frequent customer complaints about long wait times during peak hours. Many customers express frustration, and some even leave without ordering, affecting sales.

Workaround:

The shop manager decides to offer free coffee vouchers to customers who have to wait too long. This helps reduce complaints because customers feel compensated for the inconvenience, but it doesn’t solve the core issue of long wait times.

Symptom: Long wait times for customers during peak hours.
Workaround Applied: Offering free coffee vouchers to appease customers who wait too long.

Deeper Analysis:

On further investigation, the cause of the long wait times is found to be bottlenecks at the order-taking counter. The baristas are quick at making drinks, but there is only one register, so customers have to queue up to place their orders.

Cause: Bottlenecks at the order counter, leading to slow order processing.

Root Cause:

Digging even deeper, the root cause is discovered to be the lack of staff training on how to efficiently take orders and use the register. Additionally, the shop’s layout has the counter placed in a way that creates congestion, making it difficult for staff to move around freely during busy periods.

Root Cause: Inefficient staff training and poorly planned shop layout.

Solution:

The coffee shop implements two key changes. First, they retrain staff to handle orders more quickly, using clear scripts to minimise confusion. Second, they redesign the shop layout to add a second register and create a more streamlined space, so the staff can move efficiently even during rush hours.

Solution: Improved staff training and a redesigned layout with an additional register.

Outcome: With the new measures, customers are served faster, and wait times are reduced significantly. The shop no longer needs to rely on free vouchers to keep customers happy, as the main problem of long waits has been effectively addressed.

Summary:

Workaround: Offering free coffee vouchers to compensate for long wait times.
Symptom Addressed: Customer dissatisfaction due to long wait times.
Cause: Bottlenecks at the order counter.
Root Cause: Inefficient staff training and poor shop layout.
Solution: Retrain staff and redesign shop layout to improve workflow.

This example demonstrates how addressing the root cause, rather than just applying a quick fix, can lead to a more sustainable and effective solution.

Problem examples Symptom

The Case of the Late Pizza

Background:
Mark is hosting a small gathering at his apartment and decides to order a few pizzas to keep things easy and enjoyable. He places his order online with his favourite local pizza shop, which promises delivery within 30 minutes. However, an hour passes, and the pizzas still haven’t arrived. His friends are starting to get hungry, and the delay is becoming frustrating.

Workaround:

Mark decides to prepare some quick snacks from his kitchen—crisps, dips, and a few drinks—to keep everyone’s hunger at bay while waiting for the pizzas. This temporary solution helps to keep his guests satisfied for the time being, but it doesn’t bring the pizzas any faster.

Symptom: The pizza delivery is taking longer than expected, leaving guests hungry.
Workaround Applied: Serving alternative snacks to keep guests satisfied while waiting.

Deeper Analysis:

Curious about the delay, Mark calls the pizza shop to check on his order. The restaurant apologises, explaining that they’re short-staffed tonight, which has slowed down both pizza preparation and delivery times. To address this specific issue, they prioritise Mark’s order in the kitchen, promising it will arrive soon. The pizzas eventually arrive, but this workaround only helps for this single order and doesn’t solve the ongoing staffing issues.

Cause: Staffing shortages at the pizza shop, leading to slower pizza preparation and delivery times.

Root Cause:

A few weeks later, Mark orders from the same pizza shop again and encounters a similar delay. When he asks about it, the manager explains that they’ve had trouble hiring enough drivers, especially on weekends, because of increased competition from food delivery apps. As a result, they’re frequently understaffed, which affects delivery times.

Root Cause: Difficulty in hiring and retaining delivery drivers due to high competition with food delivery apps.

Solution:

To solve the root issue, the pizza shop decides to partner with a food delivery service, which provides access to more drivers during peak hours. By outsourcing deliveries, the pizza shop can ensure timely service even when they’re short on in-house drivers. This solution leads to faster deliveries, more satisfied customers, and reduced pressure on their own team.

Solution: Partnering with a food delivery service to supplement their delivery staff during peak times.

Outcome:
The next time Mark orders from the pizza shop, his pizza arrives on time, and he no longer has to worry about delays or finding workarounds for hungry guests. The partnership with a food delivery service has resolved the delivery issues and restored his confidence in the restaurant’s reliability.

Summary:

Workaround: Providing alternative snacks to keep guests satisfied.
Symptom Addressed: Late pizza delivery causing guests to become hungry and impatient.
Cause: Staffing shortages leading to slower pizza preparation and delivery.
Root Cause: Challenges in hiring and retaining delivery drivers due to competition from food delivery apps.
Solution: Partnering with a food delivery service to supplement delivery staff during peak times.

Anecdote Explanation:
This story shows how a workaround (serving snacks) can help address a symptom (late pizza delivery), but it doesn’t fix the underlying cause (staffing shortages). Even prioritising Mark’s order doesn’t solve the ongoing delays because the real issue lies in the pizza shop’s inability to consistently maintain enough delivery drivers. By partnering with a food delivery service (the solution), the pizza shop addresses the root cause and ensures timely deliveries in the future.

Problem examples Symptom

The Case of the Leaky Roof

Background: John lives in an old house that he loves, but one rainy night, he notices a small leak in his bedroom ceiling. Water drips down onto the floor, creating a puddle. John is worried, but it’s late, and he decides to do something quick to manage the problem.

Workaround:

John places a bucket under the leak to catch the water. This helps prevent the water from damaging the floor, and it gives him peace of mind that the problem is under control for now. However, the bucket doesn’t stop the leak itself; it only catches the water, and John has to empty the bucket every few hours during heavy rain.

Symptom: Water leaking onto the bedroom floor during rain.
Workaround Applied: Placing a bucket under the leak to catch the water.

Deeper Analysis:

After a few rainy nights of emptying the bucket, John realises that he can’t keep doing this forever. He climbs up to the attic and sees that the cause of the leak is a hole in the roof. The hole allows rainwater to seep through the ceiling into the bedroom. John tries to patch the hole with some plastic and duct tape, which seems to work temporarily. But after a couple of weeks, the tape starts to peel, and the leak comes back.

Cause: A hole in the roof, allowing rainwater to leak through.

Root Cause:

John decides to call a roofing specialist to inspect the roof. The roofer discovers that the hole is just one of several weak spots, and they are all due to old, damaged roof tiles that have deteriorated over time. The roofer explains that the roof is over 20 years old and hasn’t been maintained properly, which has led to cracks and leaks. Simply patching the hole won’t solve the problem because new leaks will keep forming.

Root Cause: Old, damaged roof tiles that haven’t been maintained, leading to cracks and leaks.

Solution:

The roofer suggests replacing the old roof tiles with new, more durable ones. By installing a new roof, John can prevent leaks from happening in the first place. Although it’s a bigger investment than placing a bucket or patching holes, it addresses the underlying issue, ensuring that his home stays dry during future rains.

Solution: Replacing old, damaged roof tiles with new, durable ones to prevent leaks.

Outcome: John decides to go ahead with the new roof installation. After the new tiles are in place, the leaks stop completely, and John no longer has to worry about placing buckets or patching up holes. His home is safe, dry, and more comfortable, and he doesn’t have to spend every rainy night running around with buckets and tape.

Summary:

Workaround: Placing a bucket under the leak to catch water.
Symptom Addressed: Water leaking onto the bedroom floor during rain.
Cause: A hole in the roof letting water seep through.
Root Cause: Old, damaged roof tiles that haven’t been maintained.
Solution: Installing new, durable tiles to prevent leaks.

Anecdote Explanation: This story shows how a simple workaround (the bucket) can temporarily deal with a symptom (the leaking water), but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem (the hole in the roof). Even trying to patch the hole isn’t a lasting solution because the real issue is that the roof is old and deteriorating. Only by replacing the roof tiles (the root cause) does John finally fix the problem for good.

Symptom

Symptom Sensing

What is a symptom?

In order to tackle a symptom you first need to know what one looks like. The word symptom can be used in many contexts, I’ve listed some examples below:
- Medical: So you wake up one morning and you’re feeling tired still despite sleeping through the night. You also feel a sore throat and a fever. What you’re feeling – the tiredness, fever and sore throat – are symptoms. These are indicators of an underlying condition which could be a common cold, flu or that you’ve been overworking. In this medical context there symptoms are what the doctor will look for to help diagnose and find the actual condition to treat.
- Practical mechanics: Imagine you’re driving your car and the ‘engine light’ comes on. This light illuminating is a symptom indicating that the car’s engine or related systems are not functioning as expected. This light by itself doesn’t tell you which subsystem or part is at fault but it does signal that further and deeper diagnosis is needed to fix the underlying issue.
- Technology: You’re using your computer and you notice it starts to run slower than usual with programs and tasks taking longer to execute. This decrease in performance is a symptom. It suggests there could be underlying problems such as low disk space, creaking hardware or a malware infection. The symptom of slowness triggers you to investigate further to resolve the issue.

In all of these examples the symptom is the observable sign or manifestation of an underlying issue or condition, prompting further analysis and investigation to address the root cause.

How to spot a symptom?

We aren’t all sitting around eagle eyed and watching out for symptoms every hour of every day, and it’s true to say that symptoms can creep up on you when you least expect them and usually could do without them (engine light anyone?!). So what are some practical things we can do to keep alert to spotting symptoms:
- Monitor for changes: In the medical context you might be alert to feelings of fatigue, pain or appetite.
- For the mechanical you’ll watch your dashboard lights, listen for unusual noises or feel for changes in performance.
- Then in the technology context it’s monitoring performance and speed, watching for frequent crashes or errors, listening for sounds from hard drives or fans and checking for any overheating.

Monitor & watch for indicators in your car dashboard, or watch for frequent system crashes or errors.
Listen for unusual sounds from the car or hard drives and fans.
Feel for changes in vehicle speed or performance, overheating in your computer.
Monitor, listen, feel

To bring us back to the project management context and how be able to identify symptoms effectively, you will need to use a mix of observational skills, tools and methods.

Tools you can use?

There are many and varied options that could be used, below are a number of the key ones.

Observational Skills:

Active Listening – paying close attention to team communications, any concerns raised or feedback will help reveal simmering issues with processes, people and team dynamics.
Critical Thinking – Having a critical eye when reviewing and evaluating project progress, achievements and decisions can help spot differences between what was required/expected and what actually was delivered
Attention to detail – the small things like changes in project metrics, trends and performance can be signals of larger issues.
Emotional Intelligence – Individual team members well-being and team morale can foretell problems with workload, responsibilities mismatch, stress or interpersonal frictions.

Tools:

Project Management software – tools like Asana, Trello and Jira are capable of providing dashboards showing project timelines, product and deliverable status making it easier to see blockers, bottlenecks and delays.
Risk Management tools – not everyone’s favourite but tools to identify, assess and prioritise risks will help predict potential areas of concern before they become symptomatic of bigger worries.
Time-sheeting / Tracking software – giving the ‘time’ element of the project management triangle (with cost and quality) and understanding where and how time is being spent on the project can signal scope issues or inefficient resource usage before it becomes a headache.
Feedback and Survey tools – taking a heartbeat from the team and stakeholders regularly using tools like SurveyMonkey or Goggle forms can flag early challenges with direction, communication gaps and satisfaction.

Methods:

Regular check-ins and meetings – gathering on a regular basis for status or check-in meetings enables voices to be heard and blockers or concerns aired across the team that might join dots sooner to catch problems early.
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) – for thinking about internal but also the external factors affecting the project a regular SWOT analysis cycle can pay dividends.
Earned Value Management (EVM) – being able to track variances from the plan can give early signals of the project going off course and EVM enables project performance and progress to plan to be objectively measured.
Root Cause Analysis – using methods like the Five Whys can help in cutting through to the ‘real’ issue that’s creating the symptoms seen (more on this later)

The Mindset needed?

Knowing that there are symptoms to spot is one part of the jigsaw, having ways to spot them and tools to help target them are more pieces. A major element often taken for granted and not considered is the powerful human aspect of mindset. You need a particular mindset to be able to connect the dots nad fathom out what the signals are telling you and see the problems coming.

Openness

Adaptability – being open to changes and the unexpected. To see the symptoms often requires noticing and sensing things that are deviating from the norm that needs a more adaptable mindset.
Acceptance to Feedback – having a willingness to listen actively to all sources of feedback, data, report metrics, tools, feedback from team members and stakeholders or advice from experts and suppliers. The feedback gives you a perspective through other people’s eyes that you might overlook.

Curiosity

Inquisitiveness – Dig into the how & why of things happening in and to the project, these how and why questions can uncover symptoms lurking just behind the data or reports that aren’t immediately obvious.
Continuous Learning – keeping up-to date on your knowledge of new tools, methods, practices in your field and nurturing your deeper knowledge can aid in identifying symptoms others can’t see.

Vigilance

Attention to Detail – paying close attention to anomalies and minor changes. Symptoms can be hidden in the finer details that can be missed if you’re not monitoring carefully.
Proactivity – not procrastinating and having discipline to follow up on details can help ensure early symptoms are caught.

Critical Thinking

Analytical Approach – bringing logic and reasoning to your understanding of situations and in identifying potential problems and developing conclusions. this rigour helps to cut through and differentiate between ‘normal’ variations and genuine symptoms of underlying problems.
No Knee-jerk thinking – take a problem solving path when symptoms are identified, be disciplined and analytical rather than reacting hastily or with emotion.

Empathy

Perspective – being aware of an understanding the stresses and pressures team members face in team environments can help identify symptoms of dissatisfaction, disengagement and even burnout.
Emotional Intelligence – recognising and interpreting the emotions of others can help to guide you to underlying problems that might not be openly communicated or surfaced.

Resilience

Persistence – don’t give up at the first hurdle. Some symptoms can be elusive and need time and patience to accurately identify and understand.
Flexibility – if at first you don’t succeed and your initial assessments don’t hold water, being resilient allows you to recalibrate and come back at the problem from a new angle.

Adopting this mindset fosters an environment where problems can be approached constructively and resolved efficiently.
Richard

Adopting this mindset enables a more effective and comprehensive approach to identifying symptoms across a variety of contexts. It doesn’t only help in recognising issues earlier but also fosters an environment where problems can be approached constructively and resolved efficiently.

Symptom

Being responsive or lack of Availability of seniors?

Post author By Richard
Post date 13 September 2023
No Comments on Being responsive or lack of Availability of seniors?

Being Responsive as a senior?

Have you ever been in an environment where you find the bottleneck is being responsive or the availability of seniors?

There’s a decision needed and you just can’t get hold of him or her to make the call. You’ve prepared your pitch or presentation with all the information they need to give you the right answer but you just can’t get time with them.

Pick another scenario where you’ve asked for an hour, you get given 30 mins and just as fast as you can you rattle through only to get to the end and be told they can’t make the decision as they didn’t get through all they needed! Gaaahhhh!

So it’s a failure of sorts but not necessarily one of our making, still frustrating when it happens. We’re going to look at ideas that we can give to our time-starved execs or managers to help identify the problems and offer up options to overcome them.

In this scenario we’re assuming the executive who is time starved is also operating under a backlog of decisions and demand that is gradually (but persistently) growing as the lack of time is strangling their ability to tackle items in a timely manner.

Problem: Senior management are unable to be responsive

Options:

1. Task their Executive/Personal Assistant to call each [direct report | work stream | project] ‘Lead’ to ask ‘What do you need from Senior Management this week?’ and collate a bullet list of the items and prioritise it for them. (A build on this is for the EA to ask what do you need ‘NEXT’ week instead of this week…) then respond asynchronously to the lead with the update/feedback/decision from the senior.

2. Hold a ‘morning prayers’ call with the direct reports to run around each and ask the same question to download from them same time same place style – and then the senior can respond asynchronously and task his or her EA to find time for any more challenging issues to resolve with that lead individually.

3. Have No Meetings days – take time each week where a strict no-meetings rule applies and work jointly with a direct report (to help the senior to focus and avoid drift) to tackle only the priority items during this time with the aim of resolving 3 backlog items as a minimum.

A second constraint we might be struggling with seniors over is where they are simply overwhelmed by the demand upon them. This could be that they are victims of their own success and too popular for decision-making, more likely there are delegation challenges that they’ve just not addressed.

Problem: Senior Management are overwhelmed and becoming a bottleneck

Options:

1. The senior can define a ‘Delegated Authority’ list which provides greater empowerment and autonomy to direct reports and leads for decisions on their work streams | projects | programmes.

2. Deputise ‘delivery’ decision making to a direct report for a [day | week | select decisions] at a time – giving a great development opportunity to direct report and a ‘test of the system’ for decision-making across his / her management structure.

3. Task his or her EA to maintain a ‘decision bottle neck’ list with the number of days each decision request has been outstanding to aid in prioritising which to proceed with.

4. Task his or her EA to work with a direct report to T-shirt size decisions on the Bottle-neck list and suggest alternative routes for resolution where possible. (A development opportunity for the direct report and for the EA).

5. Enforce strict self-discipline for dedicated decision/bottleneck meetings to work through the backlog and reduce the snowball of demands.

6. Enforce Senior Management Team (SMT) time to focus on the prioritised backlog and ask the direct reports to field some issues | decisions | problems forming a task force from their own teams to work to resolve items.

Feel free to add to this list with your own problems or options to improve things, we can all use more options to get things done.