internal service month

match-1100912_1920 His hands fumbled for the release on his seatbelt harness. Tugging at the catch set him free and he began to slowly pull himself out of his seat and to his feet. Dazed and somewhat confused, he reached out his hands toward the voices racing toward him. They were concerned voices, but excited. The phrase “fastest man on earth” reached his ears. He strained to see the men who now surrounded him, their hands supporting him and patting his back, but he could not see them. He was blind.

It was December 10, 1954, and Colonel John Paul Stapp had just reached a top speed of 632 miles an hour, faster than a .45-caliber bullet, strapped to a rocket powered sled. He’d accelerated from zero to max velocity in 5 seconds. But his ride wasn’t meant to see how fast man could travel, or fast he could accelerate. This was a test to see how fast a man could decelerate, and live to talk about it.

At 632 miles per hour, Stapp hit the brakes and came to a dead stop 1.4 seconds later. His body absorbed forces 40 times that of gravity. His eyeballs shot forward in his skull, leaving him with two black eyes and blindness that fortunately only lasted a few hours. But Stapp had expected something like this to happen. It was, after all, his 29th trip on the sled.

Col. Stapp was a doctor with the United States Air Force, and an example (granted, an extreme one) of the sacrifices many take in order to support their coworkers. Stapp and his team conducted extensive research into the results of deceleration on the human body. Their work resulted in design changes to military aircraft and safety harnesses that have allowed pilots to literally walk away from catastrophic plane crashes. His findings have also influenced the automobile industry, leading to safer occupant restraint systems around the globe.

Service always involves some degree of sacrifice. That’s because service is more than just a job. It’s an attitude. Your job description might require that you perform certain actions in order to satisfy a customer’s needs, but the manner in which you approach your work determines whether it’s remains a job, or gets elevated to the position of service. As we celebrate Internal Service Month, I think it’s only fitting that we explore the sacrificial characteristic of service.

Colonel Stapp’s approach to his job illustrates three key aspects of sacrificial service.

1. He expected to sacrifice for those he served. Stapp knew his body would undergo an incredible amount of stress in pursuit of his research. He even anticipated that he might emerge from the speed sled having lost his sight. In the days leading up to the run, he practiced dressing and undressing himself in the dark so that he wouldn’t be totally helpless afterward. But Stapp knew that his sacrifice could save the life of the pilots he served. Service is suffering so others don’t have to.

2. He accepted that his sacrifice would be ongoing. One of the reasons Stapp knew to expect blindness was because he had experienced it before. His record-setting run wasn’t his first; it was his 29th. Previous rides down the track had left him with a laundry list of injuries. He’d suffered concussions, broken ribs, hernias, hemorrhages, and shattered bones. But Stapp wasn’t in this for the quick victory. He knew that service was the only way to ensure the desired outcome. Service is an attitude, not an act.

3. He volunteered for the sacrifice. Studying rapid deceleration was Stapp’s job. He’d been assigned to lead this particular branch of research. But he didn’t approach his work as something he’d been forced to do. After more than 30 test runs using dummies, Stapp determined that only live human testing could provide the data needed to protect live human pilots. The word went out for volunteers, and several showed up. But Stapp wouldn’t ask others to do what he unwilling to experience himself, so he was the first and most frequent test subject. After his record-breaking run, Stapp’s superiors had to forcibly ground him out of concerns for his long-term health. Service is a calling, not a job.

Do you know someone who has willingly gone out of their way to help you out? Which coworkers have given of themselves again and again so that your job could be made a little easier, or a little safer? Who approaches their work as a calling, rather than an occupation? Don’t you think that sacrifice is worth acknowledging?

girl-1186895_1920 Well, we’ve made it to July. That means we are officially half-way through the year. It also means that this is Internal Service Month. You may not have heard of this celebration before, and that’s ok. In fact I doubt anyone reading this has celebrated it before. But don’t feel bad.

I just created it.

That’s right. I decided, all on my own, that we need to take a few weeks to honor those who toil away behind the scenes. We need to recognize the men and women who work hard so that the rest of us can look good in the eyes of the customer.

A quick Google search shows me there are 854 million hits for “customer service.” The vast majority of them focus on frontline service – that’s the interaction between an employee and a customer. Volumes have been written about this subject and you can’t make it through a company meeting without someone waxing poetic about the importance of customer service. There are awards and conferences dedicated to customer service. There’s even an entire week of emphasis coming up in October.

Sadly, we often neglect to address the service that takes place behind the scenes. I guess out-of-sight truly is out-of-mind. The fact is, though, none of us would be able to service our customers without these magicians behind the curtain. Our support teams provide the foundation from which we are able to deliver those WOW moments to a customer. I feel it’s time they received their due.

When you think about it, there are really only two types of jobs. There are those that support the customer, and there are those that support the people who support the customer.

Have you ever seen acrobats at a circus, or cheerleaders in pyramid formation? The focus is always on the person at the top of the formation, and understandably so. They’ve put themselves up high, in a vulnerable position, where everyone can see them. When they stretch their arms out wide, the audience gets the payoff and applauds.

But they’re always standing on the backs and shoulders of several teammates. Those who form the base of the pyramid, and who form the link between the base and the performer up top are just as critical to the successful completion of the pyramid. Remove either one and guess what happens…the team experiences failure. The pyramid collapses and the customer misses out on a potentially extraordinary experience.

Think about the work done by these miracle workers:
• They support the products you sell.
• They create the resources you use.
• They maintain the systems you utilize to do your job.
• They handle every aspect of the customer experience that you don’t.

So yeah, I’m declaring July Internal Service Month.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share the stories of some unsung heroes – people who acted behind the scenes so that their teammates could succeed. By learning of their sacrifice, perhaps we can pick up a few lessons to help improve the service we provide to our own coworkers.

In the meantime, I challenge you to recognize the internal service heroes around you. Take the time to let them know how much their support means to you. Write a note…send an email…make a phone call, but let them know you care. I promise you one thing, it will mean a lot to them. Let’s make sure they know how much we appreciate the service they provide to us!