Authority and Permission Not Required

One of the questions we ask at new hire orientation is some version of: “Tell us about a time you had a memorable experience that stuck with you.”

The prompt catches some people off guard, partially because it can be nerve-wracking to share stories with a group of people who just hired you, and partially because of the pressure people put on themselves to generate these fantastic stories.

Sometimes people get stuck and we have to grease the wheels with a memorable experience of our own. This is my most recent example:

Last week my cousins came to Santa Cruz for a birthday celebration and invited us to hang at their BnB, which was a stone's throw from the beach. It was a holiday weekend which makes anything near the water a complete disaster for parking.

We pulled into a packed pay lot with a train of cars all playing an automotive version of musical chairs, stalking pedestrians with fingers crossed hoping they would jump into the car right in front of us and we could slide into their spot.

After a few trips around the lot we got lucky–a family packed into the car right in front of us. We stopped and waited patiently (strollers, ice chests, and two small children take a while to load up).

Before the car pulled out, the woman driving hopped out, walked up to our window and handed us a small ticket.

“I paid for all-day parking so I figured this will make your trip just a bit easier.”

She handed us her ticket to display in our window.

Would it have ruined our day to have to shell out the $10 for parking? No.
Would a trip across the lot to the pay station have killed us? No.
Was it incredibly inconvenient for her to walk the five steps to the car and hand us the ticket? No.

But it made me smile, and I couldn’t help thinking that if everyone else I’d interacted with that day was that thoughtful, how all those seemingly small interactions would have made my day so much more pleasant.

I also had to ponder the question: Would I have done the same thing if our roles were reversed?

Now we can see the purpose of this exercise.

First, to note what it feels like when someone gives us the gift of a memorable experience, (this makes it more likely that we will want to do the same for others).

Second, to understand the power we have to improve someone's day despite not having any formal position of authority.

Every person in every position at our organization has a conduit through which to lift up another person. Even those who are not guest-facing work with a team and create products that deliver an experience.

You have this opportunity as well. It may not be built into the DNA of your workplace or even encouraged, but you can still choose to show up and go above and beyond. To connect. To inspire. To create these seemingly small moments of awesome that aren’t really small at all. It’s these moments that shape the tone of our days, seasons, lives, and the lives of those around us.

We shouldn't take them for granted.

Chris Baca