Sometimes you’re forced to face an ugly reality; doing so can often lead to a way to make things better.
Like for instance when someone in uniform — your UPS guy, say — treats you differently just because of the package you come in — y’know, manhandling you, roughing you up, hurting you and not giving a crap because, hey, you’re only a —
bicycle.
I mean, in a perfect world, that wouldn’t happen, right? But we live in a world where too many people in uniform set their behaviors based on whether they believe what’s on the inside of one package is worth less than something that’s wrapped in a different package.
Here’s what happened: see, Dutch bicycle manufacturer Van Moof was having a problem with its bicycles being delivered in the U.S. Seems a lot of them were being damaged in shipping, to the point where Van Moof actually filled their entire Brooklyn store with bikes that had been damaged and then had to be refurbished, to be sold at a deep discount.
So someone at Van Moof had the genius idea of putting a picture of a flatscreen TV on the outside of the boxes — since the boxes were otherwise identical to those used to ship flatscreen TVs. The result? Voilà! A 70% to 80% reduction in damaged bicycles in the U.S., according to Taco Carlier, the co-founder of Van Moof.
So here’s the thing:
It shouldn’t have been necessary for Van Moof to come up with a solution that effectively misrepresents what their bicycles are, in order for their bicycles to receive the same kind of diligent care and protective service that every other item receives. I mean, they should’ve just been able to just, oh, say, take a knee at the local FedEx shipping facility and said hey, guys, can you please be more careful with our bikes? I mean, frankly, if the shipping guys had been doing their job they way they were supposed to have been, not even that kind of protest — er, I mean, request — should have been necessary; the shipping guys should just automatically treat every single package with the same care and respect.
But the folks at Van Moof were pragmatists: they knew that the word “should” doesn’t carry much weight out in the real world. They recognized that the guys in uniform were making judgments strictly based on what they saw on the packages: “Oh, a bike? Guess I can treat this one like crap!”
Van Moof’s folks understood that the only way their bicycles would be protected rather than beaten up would be to convince the guys doing the beating that they weren’t dealing with “just” bicycles, but rather were dealing with much more important, worthwhile and valuable flatscreen TVs — because flatscreen TVs, as anyone knows, deserve better treatment than bicycles.
So they didn’t change anything about what was really inside the package; they just made the guys whose job it was to take care of and protect the package believe that they were dealing with a valuable and precious package.
If only there were a way to make everyone in uniform believe this about everything they’re supposed to protect and serve . . .
