Stuck in an Elevator

This week, Jake got trapped inside an elevator. Not for 10 or 15 minutes, but for a solid hour. 

From within, he did all of the things: he pressed the “emergency call” button, he called the front desk with spotty cell service from within, he pressed the “open door” button. 

From outside, two gentlemen from the facilities team along with the hotel's general manager stood outside the door, debating what to do. The facilities team tried key after key after key, none of which opened the door. 

Someone placed a call to the elevator service company, who shared that a service tech could be there…in four hours. 

Finally, Jake suggested that the hotel team call the fire department (non-emergency), which they did. The fire department arrived, opened the elevator doors (the elevator was somehow stuck between floors 5 and 6, even though Jake was going to floor 4), and got him out.

The hotel had just opened three weeks earlier. Everyone working there was extremely nice and genuinely trying to help.

And yet, nobody seemed to know what to do with a stuck elevator. 

This has led me to reflect on:

What happens when good people are operating inside a system that isn't prepared for the moment? 

In this case, everyone wanted to help. But nobody knew how.  

This was not a case of individual failure or lack of care. 

It was a gap between intention and infrastructure. 

As leaders, we can consider:

• How can we help our teams be successful by closing the gap between intention and infrastructure?

• Are our systems (whether our team, our organization, our technology, or even our neighborhood committee) set up for this moment, or is it operating based on a playbook of the past?

While we can't prepare for every situation and we don't want to create policies for random one-off scenarios, we can equip and empower people to navigate what arises—through knowledge, tools, resources, escalation paths, and in this case, having the right type of key in the box behind the front desk. 

We can consider: what do people need from the system in order to know what to do in the moment? 

In the meantime, whenever possible, I'll be taking the stairs.

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