Yes trendsetters, the Team that CRAP’s together stays together

Now that I have your attention,while the activity normally associated with the term CRAP is essential to maintain bodily health and wellness, at the World Bank Fitness Center  CRAP has a slightly different meaning.

So No, I  am not about to go into a lengthy diatribe (ahem) about the benefits of a diet high in fiber.

How then did the staff at the WBFC CRAP together ?

  Pull up a stool ( pun fully intended) and let me explain.

Is there anything worse than being a customer in any service business be it a fitness Center, hotel or restaurant than being met with blank stares, shrug of the shoulders or even worse replies like “ Errrr.. I dunno it’s not my job” to even the most simple of questions or requests.

Locker 234 was the number. I remember it well.

Why ? Because I reported it as a having a broken hinge, 4 different times to the front desk of the fitness center I was member of while not at the WBFC.

Each time I was met with all of the above gestures and the occasional assurance that “I will report it to the maintenance crew and they will fix it ASAP”

That locker took 6 months to fix. Why would such a simple repair take so long?  Not surprisingly perhaps, that particular fitness Center closed shortly after so I never did get to ask Management. My guess would be a combination of a lack of care and a specific communication plan or tool.

Full disclosure here Trendsetters. Over a 40 year career I had seen this type of scenario many times in the Fitness Centers where I worked both as an employee and a Manager. For many staff when a piece of equipment broke down, posting an “Out of Order” sign was where solving the problem ended.  I can also vividly remember the First Fitness Center I worked at where a luxurious whirl pool and sauna were the key selling points. Having to placate furious members for month on end when both the sauna and whirlpool continued to work only sporadically was not an easy task. Why were they not working ? I still no idea,.  There was no communication from Management AT ALL.

As Manager or fellow employee there was nothing more embarrassing than when a member asked “Hey Mike when is Treadmill #4 going to be fixed?”  Often I didn’t even know that Treadmill #4 was out of order. And only found out when I went over and saw the “Out of Order” sign. To make matters worse the paper sign was often starting to turn yellow or worn at the edges, meaning it had been there for at least a week.

Somehow miraculously the treadmill was going to fix itself just by the mere placement of a sign.

How  do we solve this problem and ensure all the correct steps are taken to ensure the machine is fixed promptly and back in working order for members ASAP ?

When devising our Service Goals and Action Plan we not only looked at staff engagement with members, as discussed in  last week’s Blog,  we also looked at all aspects of our operation.

Communication was seen as one of the key areas we needed to work on. Sure we had maintenance procedures, numbers to call etc. when a machine broke down etc.

Where was this Procedures manual? Oh gathering dust on a bookshelf somewhere in an old binder titled “Maintenance Log” or something like that.

What we needed was something that reminded us every day about the importance of communication. From Manager to part time staff employed for only a handful of hours per week, we need to be singing the same song and sending out a unified message.

This is where we came up with an acronym that encapsulated the key components of our communication plan.  

And what more colorful term that Malcolm Gladwell  in his book “The Tipping Point “refers to as the stickiness factor than CRAP !!

As the   attached diagram shows the CRAP  is a circular procedure that starts with:

  Communicating the Problem ,

  Recording it and responding and then taking   

  Accountability and Action to follow  the

  Progress and tracking of the issue through until completion when the problem is solved.

 The posting of the sign in our staff rooms at our 2 centers plus our continual use of the term in our daily emails added extra stickiness to our brand of CRAP !

Our actual guiding rule on the Action plan was :
Rule 6 :Communicate clearly both verbally and in your writing.  Making a clear and full explanation is like going around closing windows- the windows that might otherwise be left open to misunderstanding. Use the proper book in addition to email to record any maintenance work or incidents.

We  eventually eliminated the use of Maintenance folders to record problems. In today’s digital age everyone has access to a phone or mobile device. Every message regarding maintenance and any other pending issues, a staff is going to be late for work was prefaced with the CRAP acronym.

No longer could anyone say that they “never got the message” or “I wasn’t told”. A distribution list with all  Staff members email addresses received the CRAP emails.

This helped us greatly and ensured our response  to members wasn’t a blank stare or “I dunno it's not my job" excuse.  

         Seeing how well this was working we  then extended our CRAP system to all communication issues in the World Bank Fitness Centers. If a Group Exercise Instructor was unable to teach ,it was the staff member who took the message responsibility to CRAP the message via email to all staff so that the GRPX coordinator could start the search for a substitute teacher.

 

         Staff morale improved markedly as they felt more involved with the program and knew what is going on every day that they came to work. The CRAP system also served as a good barometer of how engaged individual team members were with our Mission.

If  a staff member felt that receiving the daily CRAPS wasa burden and preferred not to receive these emails well that was a pretty good indication that they were on the wrong bus.  So  yes, a few  individuals were duly let off at the next station.

Like any communication system it takes discipline and repetition to become part of the daily operation.  If a problem was not CRAP’ed to staff member the person responsible was asked why a CRAP email wasn’t sent. If a staff member asked me a question that was already sent as a CRAP , I asked them why didn’t you read the email ? There were no excuses for missing emails, with the time we all spend on Personal computers, mobiles etc. this was not acceptable.

If I was really wanted to get my point acrossI would  often ask the group at our meetings “would you have missed a message  it if it was posted on Facebook, or Instagram ?”

Rather than admonish the team for engaging in social media I realized early that you had to get with the program and use electronic messaging as your vehicle for communication.

So there you have it folks a team that CRAP’Stogether. The use of meaningful colorful , meaningful acronyms that are constantly reinforced can make for a more informed staff and in turn a more appreciative membership who receives more than blank stares and shoulder shrug replies when they ask  one of the many simple questions that  can arise in a busy fitness center. 

Who knows maybe a regular CRAP could have solved the  locker # 234 problem !!!   And yes I haven’t forgotten.