The spoon
A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an
organization...
Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, 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 noticed he also had a spoon
in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around saw that all the staff had spoons in
their pockets.
When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?"
"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired a consulting firm to
evaluate all 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 was able to replace 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 noticed that all 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 found out that we can save time in the
restroom. By tying this string to the tip of "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 percent."
"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."
2015