Tuesday, January 8, 2013

#221 power

Car-buying is probably #1 on the things-I-hate-to-do list, so I am quite happy tooling around town in my 2005 vehicle.  It is in great shape, well-maintained and has served me well for 107,000 miles. 

Friday night as I pulled into the gas station, the red battery light went on.  "Drat!" I thought, "guess it is time to deal with getting the battery checked."  I mentally added that to the to-do list for Saturday and proceeded to drive home.  Within one mile, my headlights started fading on and off and by the second mile I virtually had no electrical power remaining.  No lights, speedometer, signals, heat, radio -- zip.  Fortunately, I was only two miles from home and was able to drive there in this condition (even though I couldn't power open the garage door when I got there!)

What happened?  How did I go from driving with no troubles to dead in the span of ten minutes?  I dutifully did my 100,000 mile check-up -- this shouldn't be happening to me!

My car probably has more computing power in it than the first rocket, yet it failed to measure the right things.  Instead of a your-battery-is-dead light, what I really needed was a your-alternator-is-dying light -- ideally to go on last week when I was at my Acura dealer in Illinois anyway. 

If we measured everything, we would be lost in a sea of data so deep that we would have no time to do anything except read reports.  But in your organization, as well as in your car, you need to find ways to keep tabs on the critical elements that keep things functioning.  A great battery, clean interior, full tank of gas and new tires mean nothing if the alternator burns out.  We often pay attention to the obvious -- what's lurking below the surface that could cut the power to your ambitions?

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

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