The Real Problem

Every year my dad throws a huge party for sponsors of the firework display in our community. It started as something small that has grown over the years. As it has grown, the line to get food and beverages, along with checking in has grown with wait time. This has lead to people complaining and being upset at the fact that they have paid money and do not expect to wait. Some have even withdrawn donations at points.  People have not been pleased in the past about this and my dad needed to figure out how to keep the firework celebration going, along with keeping the sponsors happy.

Last year, my dad involved the help of others and sat down to think about ways to solve this problem since it has been getting worse. The first problem we worked on was the people standing in line waiting to get in. Instead of having nothing there, we hired a DJ and offered one of the sponsors the opportunity to share their own food. This went over extremely well with people because while they were waiting, they were able to snack on something and had something to listen to, instead of watching people walk by with food the whole time. The next problem we looked at was the wait for food. Instead of having one table with a line on each side, we expanded to two tables with a line on each side. This allowed for four lines to be going at once and allowing flow to be better. We had a lot less complaints and congestion after making the switch to this.

The example showed me that while people have their ways of doing things, and that sometimes people can be stuck in their ways, you may need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture to be reexamined. When it comes to the design problem/solution overall, you have to think outside of your comfort zone. Sometimes your way is not the correct way, and you need to ask for help in a situation to help things run smoothly and there is nothing wrong with asking for help in that.