The Fixer...

It is a hot summer afternoon and I have just returned from school. After changing into my home clothes, I have some lunch and decide to take a brief rest in the TV room which is boiling hot. As I sit down, there is a fan in the corner of the room and I get up to go and switch it on. The fan is one of those white ones that revolves from one part of the room to another and has 4 buttons 1,2,3 and off. For whatever reasons, these fans are made in such a way that 1 is the fastest setting while 3 is the slowest (I still don’t understand this logic).

I press 3, the fan starts turning and then stops. I press 2, it starts a little faster than before and a few seconds later, it stops again... A little frustrated by this, I press 1 harder than I did the other two buttons and again it starts off faster than the previous time and after a few seconds, it jams again! It looks like something is stopping the momentum of the fan and I’m now boiling hot.

I then switch it off, put my finger through the small rails on the front of the fan and help it to spin manually with the hope that I would remind it how to do it’s work. I press 1 again after doing this for a few minutes and the fan spins for a few seconds and stops.

As I get frustrated by this procedure, I decide to unclip the front cover of the fan so I can give it a full power spin. I press 1 and as it begins to turn I give it a proper push. As it begins to slow down, I give it another hard push and hurt my finger slightly in the process.. As I react with the usual “ouch” I notice that the fan has been going for 2 minutes without stopping. An hour later the fan is still running and my sore finger is long forgotten. Am I a genius mechanic or what?

Late that afternoon, my mother walks into the living room and asks “who fixed the fan”? And like a clever kid who knows the answer to the teachers question I responded “me me me.. pick me” expecting loud applause. “Where is the cover?” she asks. ??

Every day we come across fans that need fixing in the work environment. Every company has that one thing that everyone knows is a mess yet everyone walks past it pretending it’s not summer and they don’t feel the boiling heat or complain about it. It’s the few who pick up their hand and actually DO something to change the situation who get noticed.

Yes your finger will get hurt, yes you won’t get the applause you expect and yes other people will benefit from your hard work but isn’t that what leadership is all about? Try stuff, experiment with various possible solutions and refuse to simply accept that this is how it is. “It just doesn’t work” mentality is a progress killer. The money is often hiding behind these fans.

A few days later, my mother tries to switch on the fan again and it doesn’t work. Her first reaction? “Maaaassssiiii.. come and fix your useless fan”.. I had just become the fan “subject matter expert”.. MY useless fan right?

Every glaring work problem presents an opportunity for you to become a subject matter expert.

Don’t walk past and complain like everyone else.. fix it