Scenario – MaryAnn Hayward: What Would You Do?
It was a late December day, and MaryAnn found herself, yet again, with a terrible headache and no plans to fix her current situation. The Cancun hotel she had worked at for the past two years was quickly coming up to its busiest winter season in years, and as Front Desk Supervisor, she not only had to supervise the front desk clerks during the busiest shift when all the jumbo jets arrived from the U.S., Canada and Europe, but she was also the only supervisor who really understood the new reservation system the hotel chain had recently installed. MaryAnn never saw herself as a "techie," but she seemed to be the only one who could manage to bypass the system when it caused a problem with a guest reservation or when it simply refused to print out the correct statements for guest checkout.
Today had been a particularly tough day for MaryAnn. On five separate occasions with three separate desk clerks, Mary Ann had to intercede to help solve difficult challenges. In the morning, Juan had a line at the front desk six customers deep. It always seemed to take Juan longer than anyone else to check a guest in, so MaryAnn took over and pitched in. No sooner had the line dwindled than MaryAnn heard Patricia raising her voice to a guest who had been complaining about the long lines and the heat. Patricia had little patience for people she perceived as "wealthy tourists who think I am here for their every little desire." It was a good thing that just walking over to stand behind Patricia seemed to work today for MaryAnn. Later in the shift, the computer system started to act up again. Three separate guests were unable to get their updated statements, once because the guests had changed rooms and the system could not consolidate their statements accurately and the other two because the system went down while the statements were being printed. Although Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell from Chicago were particularly rude, personally blaming MaryAnn in rather loud voices, MaryAnn made sure that each guest left with the reassurance that MaryAnn would personally mail their final statements and that she and the hotel were dreadfully sorry for the trouble caused.
Each time MaryAnn bid a guest goodbye with, "We hope to see you again next year," she almost hoped they would not return, and yet, she knew that if reservations went down, the hotel would have to reduce staff, and that meant she would have to work harder and longer than she did today—if, in fact, that was even possible.
You are MaryAnn Hayward. What Do You Do?
Workshop Description
The ability to think things through to solve problems in a logical way is truly an indispensable skill in today's work place. Since time is always short, people seem more inclined to jump in to solve problems rather than using critical thinking skills to look at the issues from multiple angles. Sometimes the result is the wrong solution; sometimes it is the right solution but doesn't address the root cause of the problem. Additionally, administrative professionals who can offer proactive solutions to problems for their teams, can save their companies and institutions time and money.
What You Will Learn
This 2-hour Lunch 'n Learn Workshop will teach you:
- the importance of logic and structured analysis in problem solving
- how to use "tree diagrams" and "force field analysis" as problem analysis tools
- how to deal with problems that appear to be "just a personality conflict"
