The situation comical at this point.
It started off as light pitter-patter sounds on the roof. No big deal, could be lots of things.
Then it became more regular. Then we started seeing droppings. The she got hungry…
If you haven’t guessed it yet, our guest is a rat. She’s been sneaking into our office for over a month.
One day we came in and she (the exterminator claims she’s preggo and really hungry) had taken the liberty of gnawing through Nate’s backpack to dig out some almonds he had forgotten about.
SOUTH – 0 | Ratilda – 1
The drawing of metaphorical first blood led us to begin setting traps. After several rounds of failed attempts by the “men” in the office, we decided to bring in professionals. I’ll keep their identity secret so as not to smear their name – just know their company rhymes with ‘blorkin.’
Finally, they’d rid us of this vermin! Yet, here we are a month later with the same rat (potentially rat-S) rummaging through our stuff and eating anything in sight. Her damage includes, but is not limited to:
- A backpack
- A leather laptop bag
- All of our pride
- A pot of flowers
- Food straight out of the traps
- A wooden door
- Every garbage can in the office
- Droppings in every room of the office
- Tracking “deadly” poison all over our furniture
At this point we think it’s funny and it doesn’t bother us. There’s nothing we can do but give a pitiful laugh, shake our heads, and throw our hands in the air.
Which is sad. Sad because this is a legitimate problem. Sad because it needs to be dealt with. Sad because it is causing more problems and could cost us money.
Maybe You Don’t Have Rats
Many organizations deal with problems in the same manner. Someone sees a problem, the company acknowledges it, and it is left unresolved. A number of problems stay dormant like this until something catastrophic happens.
The problem may be difficult so it’s just left as is. People have things to do. Things like email, meetings, and conference calls. All way more important than the festering problem that is getting worse every day.
It may be a “that’s not my job” scenario (if it is, you NEED to read Linchpin
But you know what that means? If you do the thing nobody wants to do, you build tremendous value in yourself. And if you’re the business owner, that should be you every time, nobody should have to coax you into doing it.
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
– John Wooden, Legendary UCLA Basketball Coach
Or maybe – this is my favorite – it’s widely recognized and everyone thinks it will just fix itself. Somehow, the rat will just go away. Or she won’t do any “real” damage. She’ll get tired of eating our food and rummaging through our office. She’ll politely let herself out and clean after herself. Ain’t happenin.
Nothing fixes itself. Ever.
Problems only get worse by neglect. A problem left to smolder will be blazing AND will have spread by the time it’s addressed.
How To Face Problems In Business
Head on. That’s the only way.
If we stayed up and hunted this rat, I can almost guarantee we’d catch her in one night. She’s been seen multiple times by the guys who work late. We had a BB gun in the office the other day that could have been used to snipe this rodent from 10 yards away.
Yes, it would take a bunch of extra effort. Yes, it would be gross to have to do. Yes, it’s much easier to fail time and again with traps and poison that aren’t working.
It’s significantly harder to sit through a night and hunt a rodent.
It feels good to believe each other when we tell ourselves, “We’re doing everything we can! ” while we push out our best pouty face. But if it came down to brass tacks and your business was in jeopardy, you’d respond decisively, no matter how difficult the choice.
We’re accustomed to taking the easy way out. When crap hits the fan, we put on our game faces. Unfortunately it can take crap all over the room for that game face to come out.
That’s the thing, you never know when an issue is going to blow up. So take the time to fix it now before you’re spending more resources than you can afford to fix a problem.
No More Rats
The rat has been caught and the problem has been solved. Fortunately, we didn’t lose any business or large amounts of money dealing with this scenario. That’s not always the case.
The inventory problem you’re having? One little break-in or fire could bring your organization to it’s knees.
The extra person you’ve been meaning to hire? One account can change your company, but you’ll never land it without the right team.
Or how about the fact that your business model isn’t scalable? It’s hard to face the facts, but it’s better to do it now than to wait till it’s too late. Changes are most effective when they’re done early with a planning mindset versus late with a panicked mindset.
Solving problems in business is about leadership. It doesn’t have to come from the top, but that’s a great place to start. Don’t just look at the current situation, look at the potential ramifications of the problem being let untouched. If you can’t live with scenario worsening, do something about it.
If it’s up to you – and it can ALWAYS be up to you – face the challenge head on and deal with the problem today. Not tomorrow and not when it starts costing you “real” money. Your future self will thank you.
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Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great weekend!
