Today we are constantly confronted with examples that testify to the severe lack of common sense in our crazy world. Martin Lindstrom, author of The Department of Common Sense, knows this like no other. As a global consultant, organizations typically hire him to build or promote brands. However, nine times out of ten he turns out to be a change agent who identifies and fixes problems such as corporate blindness and incoherence, awful customer service, useless if not out-of-the-box products, frenzied packaging and a general lack of intuitiveness in both the real and virtual world. We publish an excerpt from the book with an example of what a lack of common sense in business can lead to.
Gore-Pool
High efficiency, productivity, morale and happiness all depend on the extent to which common sense is inherent in an organization. In turn, its absence affects some very unexpected things, such as the TV remote control.
Two years ago, on my way to a conference in Miami, I checked into a hotel. Wanting to watch the latest news, I reached for the remote. It was surprisingly complicated, and looked as if I could launch a rocket with it. Tiny numbers. Lots of buttons. Three separate number blocks. Where’s the power button? Could it be the red button that says “On”? But, wait, why are there two red buttons? What does the “Source” button mean? And what does “a-b-c-d” mean? And all those arrows? After alternately pressing all the buttons in a row, the TV finally came to life. I watched the news for a few minutes and then tried to turn it off. But I couldn’t do it! I found two “off” buttons on the remote. When I pressed one of them, the light in the room became dim and erotic. When I pressed the second one, the air conditioner was off. The TV still worked. As a result, I climbed onto a nearby table and, bending over in three bends, pulled the plug out of the socket, which caused the TV, minibar, and floor lamp to turn off.
A few months later, on a flight to New York, I met the passenger sitting next to me. Quite by chance it turned out that he was an engineer for the company that designed this woeful remote control. “You’ve probably never heard of our company,” he said. “Wanna bet?” – I objected.
Turning on my laptop, I showed him a PowerPoint slide showing the ill-fated remote. “What the hell is wrong with your guys?” – I resented.
Who owns what?
He stiffened in his chair and then explained that the company was having internal problems with various departments claiming their share of ownership of the remote. There is no way for the departments to agree on who “owns” what. Eventually, the TV remote control was divided into zones corresponding to each internal division of the company. One zone is for regular TV. The second one was for cable channels. A third for satellite TV. The fourth belonged to the guys in charge of broadcasting big band or hip-hop music around the clock or showing a crackling Christmas log in winter.
It was as if this engineer was proud of this solution to the problem. Gone were all the internal squabbles. All units were now equally represented on the console. “Except I have no idea how to turn on the TV!” – I added. He looked at me, still not understanding anything.
What does a super-sophisticated remote control have to do with a lack of common sense in an organization?
Very simple. As the engineer sitting next to me observed, an ordinary TV remote (with its logographic set of arrows, keys, buttons, numbers and letters) displays many problems of incoherence and power struggles within the company. Just as a small crack in one side of a footbridge might indicate more serious defects in its support, a non-intuitive remote control indicates the same problems in the company that produced it.
As half a dozen disparate divisions claimed their part of the remote, no one bothered to look at it holistically, that is, from the consumer’s perspective. Guilty
without fault
In all likelihood, the intra-corporate units don’t even keep in touch with each other. This is why we consumers look at this schizophrenic plastic monster with such confusion, irritation and anger. The whole point is that the root cause of the lack of common sense tends to come down to miscommunication between organizations, employees and consumers.
What’s the worst part about this? And that we end up blaming ourselves again, even though it’s not our fault for not being able to figure out the design of the remote control.
Talking Objects
This is just one example of how the objects around us inevitably point to larger problems of lack of common sense in organisations
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It could be the Waze app claiming traffic congestion on nearby highways and redirecting me to a small side road, which means I, along with hundreds of other Waze users, will now end up in a ten-kilometer traffic jam on it.
It could be airlines asking you to raise the porthole flaps (for safety?) or lower them (something to do with the environment?). Or, again, airlines limiting the amount of liquid passengers are allowed to take into the cabin to 30 milliliter bottles, overlooking the fact that by collecting the contents of all those small bottles into one large bottle, a passenger can get enough liquid to… well, you know.
Or the fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s online questionnaire has a question, “Are you a terrorist?” and a box in which the person applying can check a box if they choose the answer, “Yes, of course!”
Or the fact that some bank card readers require you to swipe your card, others require you to insert it, some require you to sign a check, others do not.
And here’s another example. To avoid standing in a long line, you buy tickets to a concert or other event online and find that the only way to get those tickets is to stand in a long line at the box office.
Or the fact that one company I know requires employees to request sick leave 24 hours before taking sick leave (I don’t quite understand how this works on a physiological level).
I could go on and on giving examples like this. Virtually all of the stupidity and inconvenience we face as consumers can be attributed to a flawed or broken corporate ecosystem that, for whatever reason, has repudiated common sense principles.
From the book Common Sense Department.
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