Red Bay, Alabama: We are... Moving On... Tommorrow

Communication.

Throughout my life I can point to instance after instance where the ability or inability to communicate has played a crucial role. It wasn't until I had been working at HP for a couple of years I realized just how important the ability to communicate really was to someones success, or to getting something done.

Many times seemingly unsolvable problems between individuals, companies, and yes, even inanimate items such as computers, were quickly resolved once communications began. I learned as a Systems Engineer to communicate complicated computer concepts, issues etc. Translating those concepts into easily (or more easily) understood analogies often worked wonders and helped us resolve issues and win more sales.

I try to always remember two things 1) the message needs to be crystal clear and 2) most of us can only remember three things with clarity from a conversation/presentation, etc.

I was thinking about all of this over the weekend -- the same weekend I was supposed to be spending in Hot Springs, Arkansas, relaxing in, well, some hot springs. Instead, due to some communication issues with the service personnel, MLA and I had to spend the weekend in Red Bay waiting to get the door fixed. And we wanted it completely fixed, not just "better than it was...".

To ensure clear communications I keep this story in mind:

A preacher who wanted to show children the evils of drinking and smoking put worms in a bottle of whiskey and worms in a jar filled with cigarettes and cigarettes smoke. In both cases the worms died quickly.

When he asked if anyone could explain what all of this meant, one of the youngsters raised his hand, and when called upon, said "If you drink and smoke you won't have worms".

Good visuals, strong impact, unfortunately wrong message!

So, today, when I went to discuss the one remaining issue I was as clear as possible about what I wanted to happen and when. Sure enough, the Service Manager got the right people on the case and they were very focused on getting the problem resolved to my (really MLA's) satisfaction.

What was the last item? Well, the door kept jamming when you used the automatic levelers on uneven ground. Which is why you have levelers; for those times when the ground is uneven. Testing them on perfectly level service bay floor means little or nothing. The only real test is on uneven, unpaved ground.

The team removed the door and frame from the wall of the RV, realigned the door in the frame, remounted the whole assembly in the RV wall using new locations for all of the screws, caulked all around and -- viola -- no more door jams. And it was fixed by the close of business. Communications is paying off.

Which translates to us being able to (finally) head off to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

See Ya!