My student activities colleague Chris Geiger created a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post about what those of us in the profession would have done had we been involved in the Southwest Airlines meltdown. He wrote: “We would have had free pizza and t-shirts (“I flew Southwest and all I got was this t-shirt, “Ho Ho Holy Crap where is my luggage?”), pictures with Santa, hot chocolate bar, kids’ activity area, free counseling, probably even a petting zoo! Ha!” Others chimed in with suggestions to add a jumpy house to ease aggression, a competition to find your own luggage, the massive piles of luggage lined up in alpha order, pet therapy, coloring sheets, button-making stations, and more.
In addition to having a plan to address issues when the infrastructure fails, organizations must prepare — or at least be prepared to be flexible — to address the service issues when things go awry. Southwest could have (should have?) authorized the airport managers to spontaneously do what they could to make the wait more palatable for the travelers. While others were working on the operational fix, front-line staff could have been deployed to make the best of a horrible situation in the airports. A cup of hot chocolate or slice of pizza wouldn’t have mitigated the inconveniences, but it would have been a bit of salve at the moment.
If your organization finds itself enduring a meltdown, try to create an experience around it that provides levity amidst the acknowledged gloom. When the situation is so bad that you want to cry, the other option is to laugh.
