Learning Resource for all problem solvers

1. How to solve the
business and other
problems with common
sense
(Illustrated with a case study)
There’s a distinct lack of common sense in our world. What once
was “common” has mysteriously vanished, with an impact on every
minute of our lives. But there’s encouraging news, too: a solution to
the problem.
As a global consultant, I am ostensibly hired by organizations to
create or fix brands, but nine times out of ten I find myself wrestling
with broader organizational dysfunction: corporate blindness and
miscommunication, terrible customer service, products that make no
sense or don’t even work, or packaging that sends us into a rage.

2. I can confirm that the lack of common sense is at epidemic levels in
the corporate world.
The solutions are often simple, but hardly common. They require
companies to look deeply at the root of the problem and consider the
core customer experience.
Two years ago, before COVID-19 hit, Swiss International Air Lines
hired me to reinvent the concept of economy-class travel. At least,
that was the presenting problem. When I met with members of
senior management, it was clear they had certain aesthetic fixes in
mind—changing the welcome messages on the video screens,
softening the glare of the reading lights, improving the snack
selection, etc. I told them that before I could even think about
welcome messages, lighting, or snacks, I needed to figure out the
real reasons why repeat passenger levels had dropped and why the
airline ranked #18 for on-time arrivals.
Over the next months, I convened ground staffers, pilots, and crew
members together so they could understand what their colleagues
actually did for work. I brought cabin crews into passengers’ homes
so they could hear first-hand what it’s like to be an airline passenger
in the early 21st century. One unexpected word kept coming up to
describe the experience of almost every flyer: anxiety.
We would expect to see anxiety levels rising during COVID-19, but
in fact we first made this observation before the pandemic.
Passengers reported that they experience anxiety about getting to
the airport on time. They’re anxious about spending time in close
proximity with strangers, TSA staff, and the airline crew. There’s
anxiety about suitcases being over the weight limit, and about
properly emptying their pockets before going through the TSA line.
Even after clearing Security, there’s anxiety about boarding the flight
and whether there will be room for a carry-on. COVID-19
compounds all these worries, as passengers shuffle through a
seemingly motionless queue, struggling to keep a proper social
distance.

3. On the plane itself, passengers worry about their seatmates, the
WiFi, whether the flight attendants will run out of vodka. Will it be
snowing at your destination? How long will it take to get a taxi? Has
the airline lost your luggage? If they didn’t, will your bag be the last
one to thump onto the carousel?
Welcome messages, reading lights, and snacks aren’t the biggest
issue for most airline passengers. Whether they’re aware of it or not,
their biggest issue is the mix of apprehension, claustrophobia, and
fear that make up what we call “anxiety.”
Seriously, is this news to anyone who’s ever boarded an airliner? I
asked the folks at Swiss International: Isn’t this simple common
sense?
Within a few months, the company had a new department up and
running. Focusing on ways to minimize anxiety for the average
passenger, it also trained its eye on other places in the organization
where common sense was conspicuously missing. Soon the
company began doing things differently.
Most passengers don’t realize that the airplane is actually the safest
part of their journey, in terms of exposure to coronavirus. Swiss
made small changes designed to reassure passengers, anyway.
Today, Swiss International crews hand every boarding passenger a
free hand sanitizer. The least suspected, yet actually most COVID-
infected, object on the plane is the seatbelt. Today’s passengers
arrive at their seats to find their seatbelt adorned with a small seal
that says, I’ve been sanitized.
Typically when you disembark from a plane, an orange-jacketed
cleaning crew is waiting to storm on-board, flip up armrests, vacuum,
scrub, wipe down, and bag cans, wrappers, magazines,
newspapers, and anything else passengers left behind. Just before
they finish, they push the armrests into their default, down position.
Why, though? A colleague of mine timed how long it takes the
average passenger to maneuver past a stationary armrest to get to
the middle or window seat, versus when the armrest is in the upright
position. Two or three seconds. He did the math. There are 220 to

4. 240 seats on an Airbus. That’s about 10 minutes of unnecessary
fumbling.
So Swiss International decided to skip that step and leave the
armrests upright, saving time and making it easier for boarding
passengers to reach their seats. In the passenger’s overall
experience, it’s barely noticeable; but not having to struggle with the
armrest is one more small step toward easing the passenger’s
overall discomfort and anxiety. And it’s just common sense, isn’t it?
Passengers experience anxiety about what they’re going to
encounter when they depart the plane in an unfamiliar city, too.
These days, if you’re on a Swiss International flight from, say, Zurich
to JFK, 40 minutes before the plane lands the captain comes on the
loudspeaker. In addition to supplying gate numbers, he tells you how
long the wait times are at Customs and Immigration, he gives you a
weather report, and he provides an estimate for how long it will take
a taxi or car service to reach the city. The airline isn’t responsible for
any of these things and has no control over them, but this
information helps to reduce your anxiety level. It also suggests that
the airline takes your time, your feelings, and your concerns
seriously.
In less than a year, an internal survey showed Swiss International
Air Lines had become synonymous in customers’ minds with
timeliness, safety, consideration, and empathy. Revenues were up
before COVID-19 hit, along with the number of returning customers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “common sense is genius
dressed in its working clothes.” But the fact is, Swiss International’s
initiatives weren’t groundbreaking, didn’t require an army of
McKinsey consultants, didn’t need a multi-billion-dollar budget, and
most of them didn’t cost one single dollar to implement. But they
were all born with one thing in common. They derive from a point of
view that experiences the world not from a corporate office, but
through the eyes of the customer. As we continue to reimagine
airlines for the post-pandemic era, actually thinking about the
customer would be a good place to start.
Adapted from The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red
Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS by Martin Lindstrom (Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2021)

5. Jayadeva de Silva for Humantalents International