Is It Really Just 'Vanilla', or Are We Overlooking the Real Hidden Challenge?

Guess what HR consultants are constantly tasked with? Believe it or not, it is challenging in-workplace problems, asking for deeper solutions rather than quick fixes on the surface. Like an auto mechanic ducking his head under the bonnet to investigate why a car's engine is malfunctioning, sometimes, HR professionals usually to have to dig deeper to identify the cause of a particular problem. Let's explain it this way through a metaphor, via a story that you all probably recognise - How GM Motor's team figured out why a customer's car disliked vanilla ice cream, and how that led them to address a rather unusual engineering issue. 

"My car doesn't like vanilla ice cream" was the opening line of the feedback letter (yes - letter - handwritten on paper and then posted) a customer sent to General Motors to complain about how his brand new Pontiac car had malfunctioned. At first, his feedback was dismissed and labeled as silly or crazy.The customer then sent a second letter detailing the unusual car problem he was having: every night, he would drive to the ice cream store with his family, and whenever they bought vanilla ice cream, the car engine wouldn't restart, but with all other flavors it would be fine. The company executives were then intrigued and sent an engineer to assess the situation. The engineer confirmed that the car problem was actual, as described by the customer feedback, and upon further analysis, was able to explain the mystery. As it turns out, whenever the customer bought vanilla ice cream, it would take less than five minutes for him to head back while the car engine was still too hot. But the car engine had time to cool off because other flavors took longer to be chosen. Thanks to that customer feedback, General Motors could identify and fix the vapor lock problem (causing fuel to dissipate as vapor) in all of their cars from then on.

Most workplace problems, like the sputtering engine, have their roots in deeper problems. To detect and fix them, here are a few tips for HR consultants :

Observe the Environment: Immerse yourself in the workplace culture. Spend time observing workers, interviewing them, or observing workflows to understand the situation.

Ask the Right Questions: Dig deeper for root causes. For instance, is morale low because of bad leadership or unclear expectations?

Recognize Patterns of Leaks in the SOP: Ongoing conflicts or high turnover in specific departments could indicate more profound systemic problems, such as inadequate training or poorly aligned incentives.

Test Hypotheses: Pilot programs or surveys must be deployed to test assumptions before implementing large-scale solutions.

The Solution: Fixing the Root Cause: This story reminds us that fixing problems is not always about repairing what has been broken-it's about realizing why it was broken in the first place.

General Motor's success in this case, at least, was due to the perseverance and empathy of the engineer. HR consultants have to do the same. Having witnessed the problem for themselves-seeing, questioning, and scrutinizing-they should be able to recognize causes and gain trust from their clients.

When the equivalent of a sputtering engine presents itself, troubleshooting hinges on understanding why the trouble does and what it does. It may all start simply with trusting the customer and taking the car for a spin to buy ice cream.