Problem story: And we burned the clutch plate of the car... 01/24

Back in 2014, on a family trip with in laws, we were in the stunning Kaas plateau reserved forest in Satara, a good 100km south of Pune. The road there were so narrow that they could barely accommodate one car. We encountered a situation where an oncoming bus didn't stop at a crossing, despite our signals and stopped a feet apart from us on a steep inclined. And in no time, a line of cars formed behind the bus, leaving us with no choice but to reverse our car up a steep slope. 

Being a novice driver, I handed over the challenging task of reversing the car to my wife. After struggling for a good 2-3 minutes with half clutch and full accelerator, she finally managed to reverse the car up the slope without letting the car go front and bump into the bus. However, this resulted in smoke from the engine compartment which was sign of burning of the clutch plate, due to excessive friction. 

In retrospect, we were all so focused on reversing the car up the slope that we failed to ask ourselves a simple question: How can we assist her in this situation?

If I could turn back time, I would:

Going back in time, I would do the following:

1. Request everyone to exit the car (her uncle and aunt were sitting in the car during this reversal)

2. Assess the situation objectively by inspecting the car’s surroundings

3. Ask the bus driver & nearby car drivers (there was a good enough crowd watching us) if they could assist in any way and any instructions on how we should reverse in this situation?

4. Discuss with my wife, acknowledging the difficulty of her task and asking, “What can we do to assist you in reversing up this slope?”

5. I’m confident that one of us would have suggested using a stopper in front of the wheels to prevent the car from moving forward and hitting the bus while reversing. 

This simple solution was the key to resolving the entire situation - a stopper! 

You could see the grin on my face, reflecting my surprise at not having thought of this solution earlier, and the proud smile on my wife’s face, a testament to her successful maneuvering of the car in such a challenging situation. And her uncle enjoying a nice sip of tea!

Similarly, when addressing a corporate issue, if the entire team is solely focused on the problem, most of the time everyone ends up being an observer while one person attempts a solution. Instead, ask the person, “How can we assist you?”

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