Page 132 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

without seeking prior approval of higher office. The work could be
supervised by me on Saturday afternoon and the Chief Cashier on Sunday
who had already agreed on the merits of the proposal. There was a strong
reason for not talking to the local union leaders about it. The chances of
their agreeing after the feel good effect of the execution of this proposal
were very high and I never saw any reason for disapproval. But Branch
Head seemed not so much interested and kept on procrastinating. I was
not at ease with the current situation. I persisted and ultimately he agreed
but did nothing in this matter for another month.

He proceeded on leave for a week and I was in charge. I saw this a right
time to execute the plan "Decongestion". Everything was completed
properly on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday morning, staff arrived and
started settling down. Everything looked the same but they just felt good
due to decongested space. They exchanged glances with each other and
accorded quiet approval and did not come to me to talk about this. I
thought, may be, the leader would talk about it to the Branch Head on
his resuming the duty next week.

The Branch Manager resumed duties. Had a look at the branch and found
it much spacious and congestion free. He appreciated the effort to
provide solution to such an irritant defying solution since long. Union
leader also did not approach him to object to it which made him happier
as he did not want any confrontation with the union leader on this issue.

Insights from the episode

Don't think only constraints always, think solutions also.

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