Don't Be Rational

I was reminded of something today. 

A solution may be RATIONAL, but that does not mean it is the BEST.

Allow me to set the stage for a discussion on understanding the most important thing, and arriving at the best solutions.

I went to Tim Hortons this morning to get donuts and was told that I could not purchase more than six because "weekends are really busy." Aside from the awkward way this policy was presented to me, I found it strange that a company refused to secure an order from a willing customer. 

Working off of the information provided by the manager that "weekends are really busy," I understood that this wasn't some cruel conspiracy concocted to deny me of their circular confections, but instead was a rationing technique employed by management to ensure more customers could be served.

I imagine, that one day the manager was in a bind because during the course of serving customers the store ran out of inventory. On a busy weekend, this scenario could cause some serious frustrations and most likely a large number of complaints. Maybe at the end of the day the Manager evaluated the situation and said, "To ensure we can serve all of our customers, we will limit the number of donuts that can be purchased during peak service times."

However, I don't believe that this is the BEST solution. Rational? Yes. Best? No.

You see, I believe that this manager was focused on good things, but not the most important thing. My assumption is that this manager is basing her decision to ration donuts on a mixture of two metrics: # of Customers Served and # of Complaints (The former increased, and the latter decreased.) To accomplish those ends, she has decided the solution is to spread out her inventory by limiting the size of customer orders.

I am not a manager of a store, nor have I ever been, so I don't claim to be a guru with regard to metrics, but it seems to me that the most important thing would be: # of Customers Served and $'s Spent per Order. By changing the metrics we can clearly see that rationing inventory, while rational (pun partially intended), is not the best solution in light of the the most important thing. Reframing our criteria causes us to seek out different solutions. Instead of simply treating inventory as a constant (500 donuts per day), we might consider how we could make it a variable (6 donuts per customer).

There is a chance that I don't have the all the information, or a strong understanding of operating a donut shop (although I have done a lot of research on the consumer end). Maybe the store faces certain constraints that impedes its ability to treat inventory as a variable rather than a constant. Maybe they have supply issues, short shelf-life of ingredients/end product, quality standards, limited space for ovens, etc. My guess however is that the manager is solving the problem through the lens of the wrong criteria.

If you have made it this far in the article you are probably wondering a couple of things:

1. What does this have to do with me?

2. Why does this guy care so much about donut shops?

I will answer the first one.

I care about your effectiveness and success.

I don't want to see you implement a rational solution. I want to see you implement the best solution for your business, non-profit, home, church, etc.

Take the time to consider what the most important thing is and then explore all of the solutions through that lens. Some of them may be unconventional, but if they are legal, aligned with your values, and realistically improve the right metrics, then who cares!? My guess is that your consumer will be better served, and your operations will benefit.

Will I ever be able to get a dozen donuts at this Tim Hortons? I'm not sure. But I am certain that you can be a more effective leader and problem solver if you ask better questions, and keep The Most Important Thing in mind.

Thanks for reading.

Gabe