Daily Lesson from Life 10 January 2009

"Lim shocked by RM1m toilets

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng expressed shock at the cost of recent renovations to toilets at the Bayan Lepas International Airport. -Sat, Jan 10, 2009 The New Straits Times

GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday expressed shock that the cost of recent renovations to toilets at the Bayan Lepas International Airport came to RM1 million.


Lim, who held a meeting with airport officials in Komtar yesterday, said he was briefed that the renovation costs for the toilets amounted to RM250,000 each.

"I was told there are four toilets. They must indeed be very expensive toilets."

The airport's senior manager, Abdul Wahab Yusof, had earlier informed Lim that the high cost was due to vandalism. "That is why the cost came to about RM250,000 each," he said.

Lim had, during the meeting, urged airport authorities to maintain cleanliness in the airport's toilets. "I have received complaints that the toilets are very dirty.


"I am sure tourists arriving at the airport, and others who use the toilets, will be disgusted if they are dirty." "

An interesting topic for reflection.

Leaving aside the country that the incident was reported, the lessons for me are:

1. identification of the issue or problem: it appeared to be the toilets at the international airport were dirty when international visitors used them. Or it appeared to be the vandalism that caused the renovation cost to escalate sky-high and hence caused the toilets to be dirty!!;

2. for me the issue or problem is not a singular reason but a multiple one!
e.g. the root issue is: how can we have toilets that are not too expensive and yet kept clean?;

e.g. if vandalism is the key reason, then have close-circuit cameras installed, tightened the security and increase the frequency of patrol. At the same time, heightened the educational efforts to exhort users to keep the toilets clean and dry with proper usage/in-your-face posters/functional facilities for people to dispose of their thrash and what-not;

3. the answer provided by the airport manager is incomplete. There is a possibility that the answer given is an excuse and NOT a Valid Reason!

As leaders, we need to be able to distinguish between an answer that is 'an excuse' and 'a Valid Reason'! When it is an 'excuse', we can ask further questions to help the people to understand that they did not fully understand the issue and that the root causes were not identified, hence no permanent solution can be provided or generated!

From this episode I hope to bring out the need to have accurate thinking when identifying issue/problem so that we can attempt to provide solutions that address the real issue/problem!