Snores On a Plane
I’m flying home on a jet, there’s a lot of noise from the engines and people talking. I’m wearing a good pair of headphones which have a noise cancelling feature turned on and I’m listening to music. Then there’s a noise, like the sound the wings make when you hit a bit of turbulence. It was so loud that it startled me because I couldn’t feel any turbulence, so it felt like something must be broken and flapping around on the outside of the plane. The sound starts again and stops again. I honestly thought something was seriously wrong for such a loud noise to penetrate into the music I was listening to. Except no one had a face of panic on, most people were smiling. Confused, I took off my headphones.
It turns out it’s the guy in front of me (in front of me, where it should be even harder to hear) is snoring. And man is he good at it.
I thought what a great story this would make, but how on earth would I relate it to the software industry? Then the flight attendant saves me a whole heap of trouble.
She politely taps him on the shoulder and asks him to buckle his seat belt. That was it, the snoring stopped, he put on his seat belt, people went on doing what they were doing.
It was genius. Of all the ways she could have addressed the issue, this was by far the best because it stopped his snoring and saved him from embarrassment. It’s a talent that great managers have: solve a problem without creating a new one. Learn to recognize the solution which has the least amount of undesired consequences and you will do much better at your job.
