Cousins Joe and Connie go absolutely bonkers over a few things: their children and grandchildren, anything Disney, retirement and fishing. Joe and Connie bought a recreational vehicle that enables them to travel the country to visit grandkids and Disney World while wetting lines en route.

Close to convincing my lovely wife, Bernadette, RVing is the way to go, I was unprepared to relay to her Joe and Connie’s recent RV saga. It had to do with imperfect situations and making things better. Not perfect, just better. 

There’s a moral to the story for business owners and managers to empower their employees to make things better. Not perfect, just better As Teddy Roosevelt said: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”

A basic tenet of RV life is self-sufficiency. You have sleeping quarters, a kitchen and even your own bathroom and shower. If you have the imagination and money, you can travel in the lap of luxury as long as you have gasoline and potable water.

With some RVs, like Joe and Connie’s, there’s a small shower attachment that can be used outside to enable campers to rinse off. As Joe and Connie were fishing with their grandkids one beautiful Colorado weekend, Joe discovered the outside shower leaked and the potable water drained out.

Joe figured the best thing to do was immediately pack up and head back to Denver. With that single action, he demonstrated decisiveness is critical in maintaining both marital bliss and keeping pre-teen grandkids from suffering an even more miserable time than getting skunked at fishing.

After dropping the kids back home with their parents, Joe and Connie drove to an RV dealership in hopes of making things better. But one frustrating salesperson after another and one clueless parts clerk after another brought Joe closer and closer to losing it.

“Did you buy it here?”

“We can schedule an appointment to have it fixed, but that’ll be at least another 6 to 8 weeks from now.”

Joe pleaded to simply help him make it better. He even asked the parts clerk for a hose cap to seal off the outside shower. They could do without the shower. Joe just wanted to save the potable water. Even the parts clerk couldn’t or wouldn’t help Joe.

Every person Joe came in contact with could and should have been empowered to make things better. Not perfect, just better.

Joe asked to speak directly to the owner.  After watching a salesperson carry on an animated conversation with someone in the owner’s office, the salesperson returned and told Joe the owner wasn’t in.

Snap. Joe lost it. “Can’t anyone help me?” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Startled by the scream, a service manager finally came to the rescue. Joe found the one person who could actually address his issue. Someone finally either appreciated his frustration or just wanted the chaos to end.

The manager said it would require a followup visit to address the issue. He added, “We have some plugs in the parts room that will work. You won’t be able to use the outside shower until we have the final fix, but you’ll be able to maintain the potable water for inside use.”

That’s all Joe wanted. He didn’t want to make things perfect, he just wanted them better.

Joe asked why he had to go through such consternation when the solution was so evident and available. Sheepish, the service manager admitted, “Unfortunately, that’s not how we do things around here.”

How many other organizations, departments and employees are hamstrung because “that’s not how we do things around here?”

Could anything like this happen in your organization? If anything like this is even remotely possible, I recommend you empower your employees to make things better. Not perfect, just better.

Servant leadership can and does work. Serve your employees by allowing them to serve your customers.