Why should you care about this parking lot?

The Daily Drip

I walked past this yesterday:



This paint is the first thing you see when you pull into the preschool parking lot to pick up your kid.

It appears as though the speed limit used to be 15 mph, but that it was changed to 5 mph.

Tell me, what is the point of doing the work at all if it doesn't have any effect?

I turned to my partner and said:



Seeing this little detail made me think of the old adage:

"No one has the time to do the work right, but everyone has the time to do it over again."

Here's what I think probably happened.

Someone at the preschool said "we need to reduce the speedlimit in the parking lot. People are pulling in too fast and since this is only a few feet from where our pickup line is, it creates an unsafe environment for our kids."

Then someone said, "let's repaint the lines so parents pulling in will know the speed limit."

"Great idea, Jill. I'll call a contractor."

Atta girl, Jill.

So, then the preschool calls Bob's Contracting and gets a team to repaint the lines.

This is what they got.

The problem here lies in the hands of a few people.

1. The contractors who painted the line didn't think further than "is the speed limit painted?" That's as far as they got. They were hired to paint the speed limit. So, they painted the speed limit. Job done.

2. Bob, the manager of the contractors, didn't say "hey, this work we did might not be quality work. We should make sure it's what our client wanted."

3. Jill and the preschool team didn't say "hey, this work isn't quality. We'll need the speed limit to be more clearly displayed. What are our options?"

This isn't one person's fault. Blame is almost never that easy. But I do think it's important to note that it might have only required one of these people to speak up.

Multiple people are responsible. It only takes one to make things right.

Consider this little image the next time you're speeding through a project (something I have a tendency to do).

It might sound ridiculous, but if it's an important project (like the safety of 2 - 5-year-olds), it's probably worth evaluating that your output has the intended impact.

After your evaluation, remember that your voice might be the only one needed to remedy your situation.

"You have an unfair advantage--you care more" - Seth Godin