The spoon

A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organization.


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.

:sand: