Managers - Do you encourage preemptive problem solving?

I was traveling yesterday and the airport I was leaving from got hit with bad weather. I was there very early and started to get worried as saw the delays and cancellations go up on the board. I was flying from Florida to Atlanta to Cincinnati. My connection in Altanta was tight and earlier Atlanta flights were leaving late and a couple were cancelled. If I missed my connection in Atlanta, I would be stuck there overnight.

I called Delta to discuss - proactively - some options. Oh, one more bit of data. The flight I was book on was oversold and they might be looking for volunteers to take alternative flights.

The Delta folks were friendly but of no help. They had not been empowered to proactively solve likely travel problems. There was a direct flight going from Florida to Cincy with available seats that would leave one hour before my flight to Atlanta. Changing to this flight would solve two problems: getting me home amd reducing the oversold situation on my original flight. But they could not make the change because:

1. My flight to Atlanta was not YET listed as delayed - because it was still a few hours out. And even thought most flights were at least 30 minutes late due to bad weather, they could not assume this would be the case.

2. My oversold flight might NOT need volunteers - this would not be known until boarding time.

3. My bag was already checked in - and they knew exactly where is was being stored.

Does this happen in your workplace? Do you tie people's hands if they try to prevent a problem from happening in the first place? One of the major complaints I hear from managers is that they do not spend time being proactive. Sometimes this is caused by poor time management and sometimes this is a systemic problem and being proactive is too much hassle to bother with.

Page two: My flight to Atlanta did leave late. My flight from Atlanta left on time. Even my bag could not make the connection. And they did indeed ask for volunteers.

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This is really a mess. Problem solving should be there.