Passing the Buck

[SecTrainer]

"Passing the buck" is a frequent complaint heard from service providers - both internal and external - not only with respect to their clients, but about other providers in the value chain. Basically, it's a situation in which someone, some other unit in the company, or the client is seeking to transfer responsibility for a situation, a service issue, a task or an expected outcome from their hands to ours. Naturally, our first reaction to such situations is one of resentment, or perhaps stubborn refusal and denial (passing the buck back to where, in our opinion, it belongs).

There might be a couple of better ways to think about, and hence deal with, these situations - even to the point of transforming them into opportunities. As someone said, "Perception is everything". Like most platitudes, this one is an oversimplification of a fundamental principle, namely that our ability to solve problems depends greatly on the attitude that we bring to them.

What if we change "passing the buck" to "passing the ball"? The play calls for the quarterback to keep the ball and run with it, but the defense penetrates the backfield and he's being chased. As the tight end, your assignment during this play was downfield blocking, but the quarterback signals you that he wants you to get open so he can pass the ball before he gets sacked.

"Well, there he goes again - passing the buck onto someone else!", you think to yourself. Making a mental note to complain about this despicable tendency at the next team meeting, you continue blocking (your "job" on this play) and you even chuckle a bit to yourself as the quarterback gets creamed for a 10-yard loss. "Serves him right, the buck-passer!", you mutter while large men dance on the quarterback's face with hobnail boots. Had you only known, the defense was so focused on nailing the quarterback that you could have taken that short pass in for a touchdown. "Oh well, at least that @#!!*& buck-passing quarterback got his! I bet he'll never try that stunt again!"

Well, not with you anyway, because you won't be playing professional football anymore.

Absurd? Perhaps, but isn't that exactly how some of us "play" our "positions" as service providers? "Not our job!", we mutter. "Not in the contract!", we screech. "We didn't sign up for this!" "We're doing what we're supposed to do!" The quarterback is signaling that he wants to pass the ball, but we can't see the opportunity he's giving us. All we can think is that he called the wrong audible and now he's trying to lay the whole thing on our shoulders. To hell with him! Let him eat dirt and die!

Another way to think about these situations is whether they present new opportunities to extend our sphere of influence and leadership - not "passing the buck" but "passing the flag". When the flag-bearer on the field of battle is hit and falls, do we stand there clucking at him for being such a fool as to be wounded, or do we take up the flag and carry it onward, resolved to bear the standard of excellence higher and further than he was able to do? Do we, like soldiers on the battlefield, make it a point of honor that the flag will not touch the ground, regardless of "why" it is dropped, or whose "fault" it might be?

Sure, "passing the buck" is often just that - an attempt by someone else to evade their own responsibilities, to shirk the load, to transfer blame. But it can also be a tacit acknowledgement of their own inability or unwillingness to do the job, and if we think about these situations right we can often see in them the seeds of opportunity - to expand our own role and to step up to the plate. We're the pinch batter who, having done nothing to to account for the fact that the team is down by a run in the ninth inning, don't think to ourselves "Oh, sure, now I'm going to be blamed if we lose - that coach is such a buck-passer, and the guy in this batting spot is such a loser!". Instead of focusing on the possibility that we'll be "the goat", we seize the opportunity to be the hero - they don't come often. In fact, it's the moment we always dreamed about when we were a kid in Little League...and the moment has arrived. We take the team on our shoulders. The runner on second takes his lead...we see the pitch coming almost as if in slow motion...and blast the winning run into the upper deck.

Or do we strike out because we clutter our mind with resentment and finger-pointing at others who muffed that fly ball in the fourth, or couldn't bring home those runs in the seventh?

[ptbeast]

To carry your metaphor a bit farther...

You had best be sure that the quarterback is signaling you. Too often that tight end sees what he perceives as the quarterback in trouble, after all, there is a defensive end loose in the backfield, so he slips his block and gets himself open. The problem is, the quarterback wasn't looking for him, he wasn't supposed to be a receiver on the play. The guy he was supposed to block, however, is now running free and sacks the quarterback.

I understand and appreciate the point that you are trying to make. I am simply cautioning to keep an eye on the big picture, because while a 'passing the buck' situation can be an opportunity, it can also be a trap. I have seen too many cases where people thought that they were stepping up, but in the process sacrificed performance of their primary mission.

Just food for thought.

Dave

[FireRanger]

Sometimes we need to pass the buck as you call it. An example is that some blames my security staff for allowing a burglary to occur at a remote site. They blame me because my site is supposed to monitor that locations cameras and alarm systems. However, I am too short staffed to properly do so, which was noted in the last site survey sent to and signed off on by the client. Then in another site survey, also sent to and signed off on by the client, I say how that remote site is in a bad city, in a bad part of town and should have mobile patrol hits and officers on site for a specifically set schedule. In my case above, yes I am most definitely going to pass that buck that is for damned sure. Why? I did my job perfectly as the quarterback for this team and so did my fellow players. It was the coach in this case who failed to see the writing on the wall and I am not as team captain gonna let my team get trashed all over for something we tried and did our best to prevent.

Another problem with turning a pass the buck situation into an opportunity is, contract creep. If something is not in our contract, we need to seriously think it over before we willing do it. Especially if we do said service for free, because it just might end up as a permanent item in the Post Orders.

However if we encounter a passing the buck situation it can be positive for us as well, an example is;
EH&S says it's not their department's job to pay for something in relationship to the fire alarm system, facilities says, because its gotta do with the fire alarm it's EH&S's problem and not theirs so they refuse to touch it. Security comes along and thinks, hey my integrator can do this no problem they do fire alarm stuff all the time, hell thats why we went with them so they could our access control system and fire alarm system in together. Security says "we'll do it", and out comes the integrator, he fixes the problem and avoids the local FM from fining hte bejesus out of the client's property. Now lets say this little operation cost the Security Department $400, but the fine would have been for several thousand dollars and would have been reoccuring every so often till the problem got fixed. Who is going to look better come time to get budget approval for a large project? EH&S, Security or facilities? Who is going to look better come time to cut a few heads from the payroll? The department who made the local city happy and avoided a huge fine, or the two departments who were intent on paying hte fine and pissing off the local city cause it wasn't their problem.

So yes ST you are correct there are times that picking up the buck is good, but not always.

[Sgt.Campbell]

The one consideration every manager and supervisor needs to be aware of when reading this post is that there are certain instances in which liability outweighs customer service.

Sometimes, the client will ask something of a company that is unethical, illegal, or simply morally corrupt. The easiest way to maneuver around this particular obstacle is to say, "I'll have to take it back to my supervisor for approval," or in the case of the maanger, "I'll push it to our legal department for consideration."

When the client is asking for simple tasks, however, we need to make every reasonable accomodation to ensure that service is being provided. Just don't go opening that hotel room door for the night manager, start writing speeding tickets on county-maintained streets in HOAs, or arresting trespassers and placing them in cuffs before consulting the higher-ups in the organization.