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Welcome to Leading Organizations that Matter, a podcast about leadership and how we find impact, meaning and joy in our work. I'm your host Ray Spadoni and today's topic is When Failure Is the Norm. I write about the notion that failure can essentially become normalized in my book Saving Organizations that Matter, describing the fact that organizations facing persistent challenge can acclimate to poor performance. So much so that it becomes a shield, a crutch and a barrier. A devastating barrier sometimes to improvement. I thought about this recently as I was progressing through the drive thru line at my local Starbucks. It sparked a memory. We all remember that outlets, retail outlets like Starbucks struggled quite a bit during COVID You know, there were supply chain issues and staffing shortages and so forth. At my own local Starbucks, the one a mile down the street from my house, the drive thru was closed fairly often, Store hours were shortened quite a bit and they even just completely shut the store down early and typically without warning. Lots of organizations face that situation during the worst part of the pandemic and I know I certainly can live without my high end coffee addiction. But mission driven organizations, they provide services and care that clients and patients can't do so easily without. So Covid was tough on them. I know the team at Starbucks in my town pretty well. I often chat with them while I'm waiting for my order or I will stop in to do a couple emails before going home. I heard from them about all the difficulties that they faced during COVID I remember that well and how they basically continue to power through them. However, I observed during that time that many if not most of the other Starbucks that I visit on a regular basis essentially went back to the pre Covid conditions of service and access quite quickly. But not so with my local one. The drive thru lines remained long, the wait times in the store were endless, the quality and the consistency of the product suffered and this went on for a long time until there were changes. One day I went in and the line and the drive thru line was a lot quicker. And from that point forward I definitely noticed a sharp improvement. The friendliness of the staff got better, the quality and consistency of the product, no problem. And when I noticed this dramatic change after a while I on one particular day thanked the staff at the drive thru window. The person responded by saying that a new manager had started recently. So given my fascination with this sort of thing I just point blank asked what has the new manager done that the old manager did not? Without hesitation, the barrister said. She listens, she pays attention and she expects more okay, there it is. So in my Failure is the Norm chapter in my book, I went on and on about this, but this young woman at the Starbucks window summed it up perfectly in just a few words. Listen, pay attention and expect more. What a great lesson. Thanks for listening. Leaving a positive review and letting others know about this podcast will help a great deal. My mission is to help empower organizations that matter by supporting those who lead them. I offer coaching, mentoring and consulting services. You can learn more about me and my work@racepadoni.com.