When a situation goes sour or the outcome is not optimal, often the overseers go looking for accountability. Often, this search is driven down the organization chain to the lowest entity.
Instead of taking the item of concern and building a chain of responsibility, to use for reflection and improvement, accountability is pushed down like the curse of the rotten potato.
On an outing to a buffet, me and two colleagues (Ed, Eddie: kids show called Ed, Ed, and Eddie :-) went out to lunch. Each ordered a baked potato (free, so why not). After the drinks arrived, the trio approached the buffet and filled up their plates. Shortly after, the potatoes arrived.
After the waiter departed, Ed noticed that his potato looked rather… odd. He smelled it and the odor was repulsive. Of course, everyone wanted a chance to smell the rotten potato.
The waiter delivered a replacement potato. Ed smelled his “new potato” and it was “rotten” also. I tried to convince Ed to report the second rotten potato, but instead Eddie offered to eat it for him.
Meanwhile, I was beaming that my potato was, as I described it, “flawless”. I decided to offer my potato to Ed, but he declared that it smelled rotten also. I could not understand. The other potatoes did indeed smell rotten, but mine smelled, as I put it, “like a potato”.
During the rest of the meal, Eddie with, my iron-stomach can-eat-anything abandoned the second rotten potato, Ed announced that the pineapple wasn’t ripe and that the lettuce was soggy, and I announced that the restaurant’s trademark rolls were hard.
By the end of the meal, our stack of plates, many of which still held uneaten food, had overflowed onto the neighboring table. The waiter finally came to take some plates away but the accumulated stack of plates in his hands slipped out of his grasp and crashed onto the floor. After picking up the broken pieces of plates, the waiter said “it’s just one of those days”.
Despite the fact that we had a bad experience in terms of food, we thought it was funny we didn’t think of filling out a comment sheet.
The story rings true for many. It’s interesting to see that people are better at putting up with things that happen than taking the time to fill out the “comment sheet”. To eat the rotten potato to avoid confronting the situation. Instead of contributing and getting the team to note what’s wrong and what’s right: to see everything as rotten.
What if we had taken the time to fill out the comment sheet? Would the owner have investigated where he purchased the rotten potatoes? Additional checks to make sure they don’t get to the cook? Additional instructions to the chief to dry the lettuce? Help for the waiter so he didn’t have dual responsibilities? Who is accountable?
Thank You for listening.