Love for Lightweight Interventions

I love a lightweight intervention. So I particularly appreciated this United Airlines library cart I spotted recently at a gate area in a large international airport. It’s a creative, low-cost, low-lift way to try to improve customer experience. And it reminded me of when we launched something similar in a city government services building where I worked.

Our City Council office shared a building with several other City agencies, including workforce, human services, DMV, and others. I noticed adults with young children often sat in the lobby for long stretches while waiting for their appointments. They had phones or tablets to entertain the kids, but often wait times and the small lobby wore down any reserves of patience.

Of course the ideal solution was to reduce wait times, but I had no way to impact that. I did, however, see an opportunity to maybe help make the waiting less painful. I pitched my boss, who agreed to my plan as long as 1) it didn’t cost us any money and 2) any required maintenance was minimal and didn’t impact my work.

Facilities gave me the okay and one trip to surplus later, I had a beige metal cabinet with two shelves that I dubbed our Lobby Library. I put out an ask on my neighborhood Facebook page and stocked the shelves with gently-used kids books, along with a note to visitors that books were for use while they were in the building.

Every evening when we left, we'd straighten the shelves on the way out, lining books up neatly and featuring a few titles. Shortly after the building opened each day, the shelves were wrecked, little hands having dug through to find books they wanted to read.

I couldn’t have been happier to see the mess. I knew it meant people were using the Lobby Library. Kids were enjoying those books and grown-ups had an option that hopefully made it a little easier to entertain a bored child.

We were never able to track how many people used our Lobby Library, and we couldn’t quantify how much easier it made the experience of waiting, but we knew it was being used. That told us people were finding value in it, which to me, was a win. We operated it for years until we left office in 2023.

I’m not sure how much use United’s gate library gets, but I appreciate the creativity and care in seeing a stress point and making a thoughtful effort to improve it. If you’re curious what a lightweight intervention might look like in your context, reach out and let’s talk about it!