A Story About Managing

A manager set up a team to look at the way the department responded to customer requests and complaints. The team consisted of employees involved in various functions of customer service. The manager studied the way his team worked and decided that the average time to handle customer calls could be reduced from 72 to 24 hours by eliminating certain steps. At the first team meeting, he outlined the purpose and goal of the team, then presented his findings and asked the team to come up with a plan to reduce the turnaround time on requests and complaints.

The team responded by saying, “What do you need us for? It looks like you’ve done it all yourself.”