A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an
organization. Very Impressive! Last week, we took some
friends to a new restaurant, 'Steve's Place,' and noticed
that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his
shirt pocket.
It seemed a little strange.
When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed
that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons
in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our
soup I inquired, 'Why the spoon?'
'Well,' he explained, 'the restaurant's owner hired Andersen
Consulting to revamp all of our processes. After several
months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the
most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop
frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.
If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the
number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours
per shift.'
As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it
with his spare. 'I'll get another spoon next time I go to
the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right
now.' I was impressed.
I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the
waiter's fly.
Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same
string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I
asked the waiter, 'Excuse me, but can you tell me why you
have that string right there?'
"Oh, certainly!' Then he lowered his voice.
'Not everyone is so observant.
That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we can
save time in the restroom.
By tying this string to the tip of our you-know-what, we can
pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to
wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by
76.39%. I asked quietly, 'After you get it out, how do you
put it back?' 'Well,' he whispered, 'I don't know about the
others, but I use the spoon.'
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