A few weeks ago, I got caught speeding and had the embarrassing situation sitting next to a policewomen being shown my offence on the speed camera and speed gun.
I took the punishment and paid the fine as soon as the notice arrived.
Two weeks ago I received a letter from the fines department saying that, although I’d paid my fine I hadn’t sent my licence to them for the points to be added. AND if I didn’t send my licence within a week they would refund my £100 and take me to court.
I have to admit I didn’t read the whole document when I’d paid the fine and didn’t realise that I would have to send off my licence, otherwise I’d have complied. Now I was being threatened with court I wanted to speak with someone to clarify why they needed my licence, seeing as though the paper part was no longer valid, I mean what were they going to do with it?
The person on the phone stated that the licence needed to be sent back so they could check that the details were correct and the points could be logged on their computer. I replied saying that the policewomen had used my licence to book me in the first place and therefore they know the details are correct and they had used the details to send me a letter already, so why do I need to pay to send the licence, only for them to post it back next week?
The response was “It’s just the way it is”
I wonder how much that costs each year, just because it is the law – an outdated law.
The next thing that got me thinking was the system at my Daughters sixth form. On a day where she doesn’t have a lesson until 2pm she has to physically go and sign an attendance register in the morning, otherwise she is marked as absent. She can’t call or even email which means she has to ‘hang around’ for 5 hours before going to her lesson. Another example of a system or process that is no longer fit for purpose and needs changing.
I am sure that there are many examples of this at most organisations, to a greater or lesser extent, but no-one takes the time or has the responsibility to change things.
Having visited a client of ours in Lithuania I experienced a massive difference between the way our police work and how their police force work – technologically! In Lithuania they are paperless and everything is recorded via a tablet which is stored on a main server back at HQ. So if they book someone for speeding it is processed immediately, after checking the persons details using face recognition software.
There is no re-checking, no posting licences and no extra cost to the tax payer – it’s done efficiently.
Often, if we have something that is no longer doing what it was designed to do, there are examples of other people with a more efficient, better way of doing it.
“It has always been done this way” probably costs companies money, their reputation and possibly their customers, just because it’s too much effort to change.
What sticks out for you in your life? What is not really working any more and what can you do to improve it? Go MAD….
Enjoy your week…