When Santa Implemented SMS (Streamlined Mission Service)
NOTE: This post is from one of our frequent contributors to this blog, "Birdseye59604.
It is the time of year when Santa is getting
ready to deliver gifts all over the world. He has one day to cover millions of
square miles, and there is no room for mistakes. Over the years there has been
some minor crashes on the rooftops, but nothing seriously that would stop
deliveries. Most of these crash and stop events were caused by poor sleigh
maintenance, lack of flight training for Santa, or poor approach by the lead
reindeer. With the increasing competition of cyber-toys, he had also noticed
less in demands for old-fashion toys. Santa had realized that he needed to make
some changes to stay in business as the lead in toy-delivery, and implemented
SMS last year.
It was not a simple decision to implement SMS.
The concept of SMS was simple, but it became a huge task to identify root-causes
of services malfunctions.
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Prior to SMS Santa used a lantern
to look for root-causes.
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The beginning of SMS started many years ago
when Santa suggested to Mrs. Claus that he should fire everyone who did a mistake,
including the reindeer. If he got rid of the “bad apples”, everything would be
fine with no issues. Santa set a goal to hire only elves and reindeer that
could not do mistakes. Due to public opinion, he had to keep Rudolph the Captain
Reindeer on without questioning his performance. He was convinced that if he hired elves and reindeer
that did not do mistakes he would exceed all customer service expectations. Santa
tried this approach for several years, but kept loosing elves and reindeer,
since it seems like everyone did mistakes.
Now, being defeated and humble he went to
Mrs. Clause for advice of what to do. Mrs. Claus, who was an SMS expert from
managing daily risks for centuries, forced him to implement SMS and to conduct
QAP (Quotes About Performance) of past delivery services. Santa objected
strongly since he did not understand why he had to implement a paper-trail
system, when he had delivered for centuries without any issues until these last
few years. Santa blamed the cyber-toys competition as a distraction to elves
and reindeer.
However, Mrs. Claus asked a question that
made Santa reconsider SMS: ”If you could only pick one person in the whole
world to make toys and deliver, who would it be?”
Santa was thinking for a long time until the
answer came to him. He happily ran over to Mrs. Claus, believing he had solved
the issue to run an operation without SMS and shouted out: “There is only one
person in the world that can do this job, and that’s me. If I was to hire only
one person, I would hire myself.”
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During the dark long winter
nights Santa looks forward Christmas to deliver gifts and happiness.
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“There you have it”, said Mrs. Claus, “SMS is
to hire only yourself for who you are and what you can do.” Mrs. Claus
continued, "Now, go out and fire everyone else so you can get the job
done."
“Well”, said Santa, “if I only hire myself, I
cannot get the job done and SMS is not doing me any good at all if it is to
only hire one person. I cannot make the sleigh fly, I do not have the strength to
pull a full sleigh and I cannot operate all the equipment to make toys. The only
thing I can do is to be the pilot of the flying sleigh.”
“That is all true”, said Mrs. Claus, “but
since you cannot do the job alone, and for you to hire thousands of elves to do
the job and provide excellence in service to boys and girls around the world,
you have to implement SMS.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Santa.
“It’s simple,” said Mrs. Claus, “Since you
would only hire yourself, you have to make a system in the organization that
reflect yourself. You just have to set up a system with policies, objectives
and goals to let everyone know what you are looking for. When that is done you
establish roles and responsibilities for elves and reindeer and set up processes,
or steps, to follow for successful deliveries. After all, you are the leader in
control.”
“Yes”, replied Santa, “but I always was the
leader and nothing has changed.”
“One thing has changed”, said Mrs. Claus,
“from now on, with the SMS implemented, you have to be accountable, and expect
accountability from all elves and reindeer. The only way they can be
accountable, is for you first to establish a non-punitive policy, where
everyone can report issues to you without fear of being fired.”
“Oh…,” said Santa, tonally confused about
what Mrs. Claus had just explained.
Mrs. Claus continued, “SMS is for you to take
accountability as the AE (Accountable Elf) and set the stage for excellence in
service by addressing human and organizational factors in training and
performance. Over time everyone will work just like you do, with
accountability, and this is as close as you can ever get to hire yourself.”
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| Santa went out to hire positive people and train them for excellence in customer service. |
Santa finally got the picture. He established
an SMS and went out to hire positive elves and reindeer who he trained to do
the job better than he could ever have done. The first year of SMS was a bit rough, since not
everyone understood the concept. However, this year looks better, as Santa and everyone
else is trained up. Santa has practiced his GPS (Gable Plan Slopes) approaches
and the reindeer are cared for to be in top-shape for the Christmas run.
Santa was also conducting a QAP of the SMS
program, and discovered that the North Pole might not be the best place to
operate. With the sea-ice moving, the GPS approaches do not always line up the gable-roof
or chimney simulation. Other issues SMS helped to point out, is that the cost
by operating at the North Pole is extremely higher than if he operated closer
to the market. Still, wanting a place that is remote, quiet and peaceful, with
opportunities for practicing GPS approaches, he conducted several risk analysis
of places with mountains, runways, available rooftops, chimneys, abandoned
sites and cold weather in the winter. The place he found was Butte, MT. Since
Santa is invisible during the rest of the year, except for Christmas, there
would be no impact for local residents or industry. Santa would be able to
train for his approaches from the tall mountains and land in the valley, and
the elves would be able to work shift-work during the toy-building season and
enjoy their free time with social activities. Santa sat back in his old rocking
chair and grinned. He finally could rest for a bit and let his SMS do the job.
BirdsEye59604
