When you ask the stewardess about your vegetarian meal, she is bewildered. She hasn t heard anything about special food orders, but the plane is about to take off and nothing can be done now. You should have contacted us earlier, she reprimands. There would have been no problem if only we had known in time. No one the passenger encountered had the authority to handle the specific problem, and no one dared step out of his normal role to try to solve it.
All organizations have some negative moments of truth.
Part 2 Let s now suppose that the organization had changed its structure by flattening the pyramid and putting a team of people in charge of the Stockholm New York flight from start to finish. The team has 15 members, two of whom function as coaches, one indoors and one out by the plane. The indoor coach sits in on the flight crew s briefing and consults with them about pre-flight information such as the appropriate time to begin boarding, whether any infants . . In the morning, the indoor team assembles at the check-in counters to solve passengers ticketing problems, assign seats, handle fragile baggage, and so forth. When a mother arrives with her baby, she is . . .