Downton Abbey is the blockbuster PBS television series set 100 years ago in Great Britain that explores the effects of societal, economic, and technological change on the British society through the eyes of the aristocratic Crawley family. The show is rooted in England’s great recession and follows the family drama through the sinking of the Titanic, flu pandemic, World War I, women’s suffrage, and the creation of the Irish free state.

Believe it or not, what fascinates me about Downton Abbey is what I have learned from it about parking:

• Stewardship. Downton Abbey is a big estate with a lot of moving parts. The Earl wants to preserve the property for his family, employed staff, social hierarchy, and economic ties to the town of Grantham. We in parking are stewards of our public resources, including parking structures, surface lots, public streets, staff, and all the other moving parts. Our parking stewardship is also tied directly to the economics of our local community and our reputation.
• Technology. In the first season of Downton Abbey, Violet, the Countess of Grantham, says, “First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel.” We are all comfortable or uncomfortable with various pieces of technology. Technology continues to change our parking interactions, from communicating to processing information to conducting transactions. Customers can pay for an on-street parking space while sitting in a meeting. We can video chat with upset customers in the field. And, pretty soon, our customers will be able to use at home 3-D printers to print their parking tags, vouchers, or other credentials.
• Diplomacy. The biggest takeaway from Downton Abbey is the diplomacy exercised during utmost turmoil in the characters’ personal lives, business transactions, or world events. This is something parking professionals can perfect. We are always under external stress from customers who are unhappy about tickets, having to pay for parking, or our facilities. We are constantly working to deliver a better parking product while meeting challenges within our organizations.

Downton Abbey is a drama about people moving forward through life. It encompasses the extended Crawley family (our communities) that has hired staff (parking people) to provide the stewardship of the family assets through changing times. To be successful in our jobs, we must continue to maintain utmost diplomacy and preserve our legacy.

After being aggravated over various aspects of Microsoft Windows and Office for years, I have finally found a point of total agreement with Bill Gates, and it is even applicable to parking and transportation!

In the 2013 annual letter from his foundation, he writes:

How does that apply to parking and transportation?

We have often written and worked with our clients to develop key performance indicators that will help them measure and improve performance.  From IPI’s Parking 101 to a recent Consultants Corner article in The Parking Professional, the recommendation has been to define key indicators and develop a program to collect and analyze them regularly.

Gates goes on to say, “It is amazing to me how often it is not done and how hard it is to get right…”

That is also true in parking and transportation.  Many programs do not regularly measure performance by gathering the correct data and producing useful information, so staff members may not fully understand the past and present performance of their programs.  Then, when a change is made in a program, management and staff are unable to determine how the results really differ from before.  This is more common than you might imagine.

Whether the issue is on-street turnover, response to changes in pricing, customer service complaints, lost tickets, on-time transit performance, or parking occupancy, measuring key performance indicators can help you understand what is happening now, and what you really need to change to improve performance.

Measurement is key to improvement.

When I think about the competence required to manage a parking business, I can’t help but think of one of my favorite master’s program classes called, “The Master Leader.” This class taught me how we process the resolution of issues that impact the efficiency of our business.

There is a leadership issue known as cause and effect thinking. Most businesses spend a great deal of time solving the symptoms of problems rather than their root causes. As a result, the real problems are never resolved. Cause and effect thinking limits the leader’s ability to understand the depths and variations of a problem before jumping to a quick resolutions that could lead to underestimating the problem and a false sense of confidence that it has been satisfactorily resolved. This type of thinking is inadequate to meet the complex demands in the parking industry.

What then is the answer? Paradoxical thinking! Briefly, paradoxical thinking is critical thinking, but the kind that clarifies the goal, looks at assumptions, flushes out that which is not seen, analyzes evidence, establishes an action plan, and examines the conclusions.

A simple example would be motivating employees to do their work. When you encounter an employee who is just performing satisfactorily, what would be your natural process to understand the problem and find a solution?  Please comment below and let us know what valuable conclusions and action items have resulted when you just switched the way you thought.

What is a parking manager’s greatest resource? You guessed it: the workers. The trick for managers is molding frontline workers and office staff into a productive, well oiled, customer service machine. So how exactly is that done? Retaining good employees and weeding out bad seeds can be a never-ending task, but beyond that, how do you turn a staff into a team? I believe it takes a two pronged approach that I call “Whistles and Pom-poms.”

Now, don’t worry. I’m not suggesting that you turn your next staff meeting into some sort of pep rally. But I do believe managers should be able to assume the roles of both coach and cheerleader. The sports world recognizes that both roles are needed to build a good team and it’s time that we in management realize the same thing.

The role of a coach (the whistle) comes into play when we lay out the game plan. A good manager should make sure that team members are clear about what their responsibilities are and that they are trained and equipped to handle them. The coach also promotes accountability, getting team members back on track when they do not carry out their responsibilities.

The role of cheerleader (the pom-poms) has more to do with the morale and focus of the team, but is just as important as the role of coach. A cheerleader praises success and even anticipates it. A good cheerleader does not wait until the first touchdown is made to break out the pom-poms. A good cheerleader supports the team, the team’s goal and, most importantly, consistently verbalizes support.

Where do you stand as a manager? Are you more coach than cheerleader? Or have you mastered both roles equally? Let us know in the comments below. And when you grab your keys and coffee tomorrow morning and head off to work, don’t forget your whistle and pom-poms!