One of my friends is in the Navy. He recently shared a story with me that I thought had implications for the business world. The story he relayed was of a uniform inspection.
A few days before an upcoming inspection, he found a cover (or hat) that is normally white but this one was light blue. It was obviously a gag and being sold in the store on base. He bought it and then placed it in his locker. On the day of the inspection, he was getting ready with a friend and he opened up his locker and acted surprised. He said, "Oh No!" His friend could sense the distress in his voice and urgently asked, "What's wrong?"
Without saying a word, my friend pulled the light blue hat out of his locker and held it up. The sailor he was playing the joke on instantly stated, "We got problems." My friend did his best to contain his laughter and let the prank go on as long as he could.
What is the lesson here? What did the sailor say when he thought his fellow sailor was about to fail the inspection? He said, "WE got problems." Not, "YOU got problems." You see, this sailor saw a problem in his unit as his problem.
John Maxwell tells us that if we have been with a company for longer than one year every problem in our department is our problem. Don't sit around and wait for problems to be solved because it isn't currently your problem. I assure you of this, if you allow problems to go unchecked because you believe it is not under your job description, eventually the problem will grow and it will become your problem. At this point, solving the problem is going to be a greater challenge.
Remember...It is about team work. If your co-worker has a problem then..."We got problems."
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