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 w aiter 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 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 Andersen
Consulting
to revamp 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 t rip 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
could
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 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."
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