Perhaps the greatest curse of any business that strives to exist at the quality end of the market.
The best metaphor for this that I have ever heard came from Michael Gerber in his legendary book, The E-Myth.
In his story, Gerber goes to a new barber shop to have his hair cut one day which has recently opened.
As a result of the fact that the business is new, it’s relatively quiet but the place is beautifully kitted out and the barber offers him a coffee whilst he waits and reads a brand-new magazine.
Gerber thinks to himself that this is perhaps the best barber shop he’s been in where he has the time to relax, enjoy a coffee and read something prior to his appointment.
He vows to go back forever to this barber shop.
When he returns 4 weeks later the shop is busier (because it’s successful) and he finds that he’s not offered a coffee when he attends even though the hair cut is the same.
While this seems like a small detail and small effect, Gerber was disappointed because someone has now broken a promise, a promise he never asked him to make in the first place.
McDonalds rarely disappoints because it has its standard operating procedure absolutely down to a tee because it’s very simple (in relative terms).
For many of us striving to be better, the McDonalds model the problem comes with complexity.
On Monday of this week, I sat at the water sports centre in Nottingham the day after the Outlaw triathlon (the now legendary iron-distance triathlon in Nottingham).
The day before I’d watched Louis cross the line as the youngest ever finisher of the Outlaw full triathlon in 9hrs 55 mins and the only finisher in the under 20 age group.
The under 20’s age group consisted of 18- and 19-year-olds because you’re not allowed to do an ironman until you’re 18.
Unofficially I believe that Louis is the only ever finisher in this age group, but it was published as an age group in the race and the results were presented that Louis was the winner of the under20’s age group and so we attended the prize giving with Louis’s Mum and Alison and Grace and Rosie (Callum was at school).
At the prize giving Louis was given 3rd place in the U25 age group… and no other prize.
The block of wood with the Outlaw logo and the name of the age group prize is not really of any relevance in the grand scheme of things but it doesn’t feel that way on the day.
The events and heroics that played out on Sunday the 25th July will live with me for a very long time and although I have the privilege of having Louis’s other Outlaw winner blocks for smaller events in my office, the lack of the under 20’s prize for the Outlaw 2022 will in no way dimmish his achievement.
The guys who run the Outlaw are extraordinary and fabulous people and the event is absolutely unbelievably good and so I just chatted to one of the guys immediately afterwards and said “oh, I thought there was an under 20’s age group”.
In the end after Louis’s presentation the guys at One Step Beyond quickly realised that there had been a mistake.
We all break promises almost on a daily basis but what they did was to contact Louis directly, apologise and make sure he realised that everything would be rectified, and his proper prize would arrive as soon as possible.
And so, that allowed Louis to get on, bask a little bit in the glory of what he’d achieved and move onto the next thing.
Broken promises are inevitable, bad reactions to broken promises are not.
Blog Post Number - 3153
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