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 that he,
too, 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 asked: "Why the spoon?"
Well, he explained, "The restaurant's owners hired a consulting firm
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 after enjoying my soup, and,
yes, he was able to replace it with his spare.
"I'll get another spoon the next time I go into 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 our
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%."
"After you get it out," I inquired, "how do you put it back?"
"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the
spoon."