I had never imagined that the HALLOWEEN SALE was going to be so MASSIVE. We had enough people to work in both stands, we had the fruit and yogurt, the blenders and materials, and we had the set up. However, it ended up beign more work and time consuming than any other SALE we've had. In the beginning I didn't quite understood what was the reason for this, but when we begun to reflect I realized that the major problem was that people didn't have DEFINED ROLES. We've always had defined roles within the stand such as smoothie maker and cashier, but we've never had roles for the setup and cleaning of the stand. During BIG sales like this one we should have people assigned to different jobs that have to be covered before and after each sale. For example, have someone in charge of always making sure that the fruit is taken out previously so it begins to defrost. If everyone would cover a role all the time, it will make us MORE EFFICIENT and we would ASSURE ourselves that EVERYTHING is ready in the stand and NOTHING IS MISSING. This way we would also be more organized since each one would know and have a role they need to cover, thus no confusions. I believe that with a clear defined role TAKING INITIATIVE will be easier for everyone because we would have a clear idea of WHAT IS OUR ROLE and WHAT IS OUR GOAL, so while working on it we can think of other things to make our job better or if problems arise we can think of innovative solutions to solve it. Aside from DEFINING SPECIFIC ROLES for everyone I also believe that I should create a big checklist that is up in the room every time we have a sale. The reason behind this is that once everyone has completed their roles they can see the checklist and make sure everything is completed before the time of the sale or asking someone what to do. This will also have the TASKS more organized allowing everyone and me to VISUALIZE everything that must GET COVERED to succeed. Also it will keep everyone informed of what the sale looks like. One of the biggest struggles I had while organizing this event was that all the time I had people coming to me and asking what they should do. With such a massive event in mind I couldn't think of all the tasks that had to be completed and the role everyone should cover. By having the checklist I would be able to have my tasks clear and we wouldn't have the problem of having people confused or walking around without a task. BLENDZ would be MORE PRODUCTIVE. Through the sale I learned that you can plan and organize everything you want in ADVANCE, but what really counts is the moment of execution of the plan. By this I mean having people with clear roles so that they can work independently and we don't have three people doing a task that can be covered by one. Also nothing would get forgotten and every aspect of a SUCCESSFUL sale is covered effectively. If one person has their role clear they don't need to be asking for help from someone who understand the role or they don't get confused and thus work faster to accomplish small tasks. During this sale we took very long to cover over things that could be done in minutes because everyone wasn't aware of the roles or how to cover them and this make the process slower. This was partly my fault for not making the class aware of how things work for the set up and not only for the sale. Having EVERYONE aware of the event and the jobs that have to be completed (the checklist) is essential so things get done fast and properly. The day before the sale I was sure everything was under control; however, the next day when the deliveries started I realized that it was much more complicated than what I had anticipated and it required more hands than the ones I had thought. I had trained everyone for how the stand was going to run, but not how to set up for the sale. I learned that without a REAL LOCATION every time we do the sale it will require a lot of hands because we always have to set up and bring everything down all the time. Therefore, as long as we have this problem in order to tackle it down the smarter solution is to have CLEAR and CONQUERED roles by each person, this make this CHALLENGE smoother because not only one person is thinking everything ahead, but the challenge is divided into small parts that are have one person thinking them through and mastering it.
1 Comment
Corey Topf
11/2/2014 05:10:29 am
Drew! As I said the other day, this was a huge event, and you clearly put a ton of time into planning it. But you're right, I think we're all realizing that even the smallest tasks need to be assigned to someone, otherwise we overlook them. We keep getting better at this, but it also feels like new things keep popping up. :)
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