Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1074144
W EEKLY EDITION JANUARY 23, 2019 There's Power in Learning by Doing By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Directo r This article ran in the Decem ber 2018 issue of PRO Magzine Any adult who has ever tried to get a kid to tie their shoe knows that you can't merely talk them through it and expect a bow to appear. Similarly, no one learns to ride a bicycle just by having it explained. The novice has to try it a few times , fall a few times, and have parent run along holding th e seat until staying upright suddenly becomes second nature. As we think about improving the image of the portable sanitation industry, it may do us well to remember this idea. People are not going to respect portable sanitation just because we tell t hem they should. So how can we apply "learning by doing" to getting some respect for our industry and your business? I suggest the following: • Teach your customers how to respect your equipment by engaging them in the actual process of problem solving. T - s hirts in the tank? Invite the customer to view the tank with you and maybe even try fishing the shirt out themselves. Toilet paper disappears? Have the site supervisor be the person who stores it and replaces it. Whatever the problem on the site, try to ge t the responsible party to engage with you and the equipment physically. If you can move from talking to doing, the person in charge is more likely to "get it" and help change things for the better on their site. • Teach the public to respect portable sanit ation by educating them about our industry. As you probably already know, people outside our industry are often fascinated by what we do. Turn these interested parties into ambassadors by letting them "get their hands (a little) dirty." If you have clean e quipment you can use to provide a demonstration on an event site or at a community gathering, show them how a unit is placed, prepared, pumped and cleaned. To the extent that your insurance allows, you might even let some folks try pumping clean (of course !) water out of a unit AFTER you have let them use a pair of tongs to remove a soda can, a pair of briefs, and a diaper from the tank. Doing this will teach them very powerfully about how things really work. P AGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 5