Mind you p's and q's and c's

The term "mind your p’s and q’s" is thought to have originated in the 1800s. Typesetters would have to insert about 2600 little lead letters in printers blocks for each page of print. Every letter would have to be placed in reverse and opposite to what we would see so as to obtain a clear message.  Swopping the “p” and “q” was a common mistake. 

The Coronavirus has demanded that we all “mind our p’s and q’s” and I will add our communication - the c! The consequences are not only weird words but an impact on productivity and our sanity! I saw this play out recently and all could have been resolved with less pain through better planning and communication.

Global Pandemic

This global pandemic over the last six months has caused a worldwide economic tragedy. Our country has lost billions and most businesses have been affected. I have been able to handle much of the financial and psychological pain so far. That was until today!

Poor planning and bad communications; the printers' p’s and q’s so to speak, have caused much frustration of late and have led to very fractious engagement with the Krugersdorp Traffic Testing Centre. Even worse, they do not seem to care!

My q experience

Some context is necessary. My son is in the final phase of completing the requirements before getting his Drivers' license. This has been a long process and everyone wants this to end. To complicate matters the Learners' license expires in the third week of this month, in a mere thirteen days’ time! During "lockdown" testing the competency of a Driver is the least of anybody’s worries. As "lockdown" level five dawned there was much confusion about what was permitted and who was allowed to do whatever. Needless to say, it took us a month to secure a date for the Drivers test. I can just imagine other drivers in a similar situation urgently needing to complete the last step before gaining independence from co-drivers!

I should have predicted the events which followed our 70 km road trip to the Krugersdorp Traffic Testing Centre on Friday last week. From a distance, we could see that things were a miss - a chaotic array of cars, people, trucks, and buses jammed in front of a locked entrance. All that the security guards could confidently say was that the centre was closed despite earlier messages that they would be open. Eventually, we discovered that they “should” open again on Monday. Much frustration, cursing, and anger ensued, but the gate stayed locked.

The trip!

On Monday we embarked on the same trip and were met with a similar scene. This time there was a clear queue of cars which stretched down the road and around the corner. The first customer arrived at 5:30am, two hours later as we arrived there must have been 100 cars ahead of us! Much discussion later revealed that there was an internal meeting while everything remained closed. A further two hours were eventually followed by a poorly communicated short message relayed through the security guards: "Only those with confirmed appointments will be helped; no one else. No payments, renewals, booking confirmations, or collections!" 

I can’t express the level of frustration we experienced trying to convince them that our appointment would expire and we would have to re-book. We left Krugersdorp, despondent, downcast, and disappointed. We still have no clear indication of the next steps. All I know is that within two weeks the Learner License expires. No doubt we will be visiting Krugersdorp again soon! 

While patiently waiting in the queue I considered what a little bit of planning and better communication could have meant to everyone, especially the few hundred people waiting to process what should have been simple.   What do planning and communication look like in your organisation? Have you made provision for this in a crisis situation? Are you minding your p’s and q’s and c's - communication?

How do we improve?

How could this situation have been handled in a better way? What would you as the leader of the Testing Center have done differently?Allow me to make two interlocked suggestions:

1. Planning is productive! The World War Two leader Winston Churchill has been credited with the saying "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!" Surely, if the Testing Centre had positive cases of COVID, some sort of contingency should have been drawn up. We always have choices no matter the situation we face. If the decision is not to open then communicate this, first to all of your employees, then your customers and finally, the public. Surely there are contact numbers of those who had made bookings. 

2. Communication is critical! When communication is not clear then employees start to spread their own version of the truth and this may end up causing miscommunication. Planning the communication is critical to ensure clarity of the message. There were three security guards at the gate. If they had received a clear message from management they could have proactively communicated to those of us at the back of the queue. Those without appointments did not have to wait in the queue as they would never have been helped. We were effectively in the dark about what was happening at the front of the queue.

What is the communication like in your company. Are you managing you p's and c's and effectively taking care of your p's and q's!