Business Travel
Robert Jolles

The Palin Effect

 

This week I was conducting business in Kansas City. I have a great client there so I'm in Kansas City about two or three times a year. You know you're at a place a little too often when you not only know the flights you will be taking by heart, you even know where the flights you are taking are coming from… by heart.

I know the return flight from Kansas City like the back of my hand because it has been delayed six straight times. Yes, Kansas City has had some pretty tough weather over the year, but the fact is it isn't the weather in Kansas City's fault. It's the weather in Chicago. If you have ever had a flight coming out of Chicago around 4:00 pm you know exactly what I mean. It seems like a flock of birds can delay that airport.

So this week I was coming out of Kansas City on my usual delayed flight, and a funny thing happened. It wasn't delayed. I checked with the gate agents a couple of times and they kept telling me the inbound from Chicago was on time. If you are a Road Warrior reading this you're probably getting a pretty good chuckle right about now because you know gate agents are notorious for telling you your flight is on time. That is until it's time to board your flight that hasn't appeared at the gate yet. That's when you finally hear, "Oh, it hasn't taken off from Chicago yet."

But not today. That plane left Chicago in rush-hour, (yes, there is actually a rush-hour on the tarmac late in the day in busy airports), must have caught some strange tail wind, and was actually on time. "It's too good to be true" I thought. "We'll probably have a mechanical delay, or be missing a flight attendant."

But not today. The crew was on board, and we had no mechanical delay. We took off on time, and landed on time in Washington, D.C. I wanted to shake the captain and crews hand, and therein lies the problem.

I'm going to coin a new phrase here that I'm calling, "The Palin Effect." I know it seems like ages ago now, but after watching her debate many of the pundits fawned all over her performance, and why you ask? Because she not only didn't disappoint, she exceeded expectations. And what were the expectations you ask? To not fall on her face or horrifically screw up. Because our expectations were so low, and we expected her to disappoint us, the mere fact that she did what she was supposed to do was a tremendous victory… just like my flight.

Lesson: Well the lesson isn't to reduce expectations so low that you can't help but achieve them now and then. I think the lesson is to insist that the companies or individuals we associate with get there act together and get rewarded for a funny thing I like to call, "exceeding our expectations."