Lee Cockerell uses the acronym WIN (What’s Important Now?) in his book The Customer Rules to refer to times when an employee must decide when to serve a customer. While there is always some aspect of the job that needs to be completed at Disney, cast members must always focus on customer service and customer relationships first. The cleanliness of a gift shop is important, but not at the expense of a customer. Employees must ask themselves, “What’s important now? Should I wait on this customer or continue to rearrange these products on the shelf?” According to Cockerell, there is only one answer to this question. After all, the customer rules.
When you are in the classroom, you will be faced with these types of decisions every day. Try to decide what’s important now. Should I meet with a child who is struggling to pick a book during independent reading time or clean up after this morning’s science experiment? The choices that you make as a teacher will impact the relationships that you have with students, colleagues, and parents. After school, should you call a parent to let them know that their child had an awesome week at school or grade 5 more essays from the pile on your desk? Strengthening a relationship should always take precedence over the daily workload that you deal with. When facing one of these decisions, start by using the WIN concept, ask yourself, “What’s important now?”
Rich (@RACzyz)