Clarity, Please!!!

Last week I attended Boy Scout camp with my oldest son on his first scout camp experience. He was excited. I was excited. We couldn’t wait to get going. All that excitement was quickly squashed by the literal hours spent in line waiting for the various levels of registration.

One of the staffers actually had the job of running up and down the lines asking the Boy Scout troops to move back behind arbitrary lines marked by different trees or other vegetation. It’s a chaotic picture if you can imagine it. The thought occurred to me that instead of asking teenage boys to stand behind a non-existent line, maybe they could actually make a red line, with clearly posted instructions and dedicate that staffer to processing registrations.

So why didn’t she do that? It comes down to a lack of empathy. She was busy, so she couldn’t see that we were not busy. The line was clear in her mind, but layers of restless 12 year old boys who would rather be swimming were never going to grasp it.

So here is my plea, to scout camps, businesses, churches, governments… make what you need clear and visual. Make it so a five year old could figure it out. Dedicate those valuable herding resources to providing real value. If it’s hard to show empathy and see things from the outside, get somebody from the outside and please be humble and listen to them.