`What do you think?’ he asked.
`Pretty good,’ I said. `You’ve got some great people.’ I’d delved into content like 6-Sigma and we’d charted the flow of customer engagement throughout the service operation. This isn’t my usual territory and I’d worked really hard. I was very tired and, quite frankly, wanted to hit the road. But it was clear that the Ops Manager really wanted to tell me his own thoughts. And he was paying the bill so I opted to linger.
`What did you think of Jez?’ he asked. `We all think Jez is brilliant.’
`He’s certainly very clever,’ I said. `He’s not very enthusiastic about people, but he knows a lot about processes.’
`Yes,’ said the Manager. He swivelled round in his chair to face a huge flowchart stuck to the wall: about five large sheets of lined printer paper with maybe two hundred symbols and hundreds of connecting lines. It was a bit like an incredibly complex version of the London Underground map. `Jez did that. It’s the build-up of gross pay for our weekly payroll. No one else except Jez understands it.’ His voice dropped to a reverent hush. `Genius. Took him the best part of 5 weeks to complete. Jez tells me that he’s not sure he understands it himself!’
`Terrific,’ I mumbled respectfully. I got the picture clearly. Jez as Frankenstein, the brilliant creator of the uncontrollable monster flowchart. `But what about Jackie?’ I said. `I thought Jackie was very good. She picked up the new customer service philosophy very quickly.’
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`Yes,’ agreed the Manager. `Jackie came to us with a great reputation. We thought she was going to be as brilliant as Jez. But unfortunately she hasn’t really proved herself yet. We’ve given her a few problems that we thought were going to be really tough, but when she finished it turned out they weren’t really difficult at all. Most of them turned out pretty simple. She hasn’t really proved herself yet — if you see what I mean?’ I saw what he meant. |
