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 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 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 round, 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 our 'you know what'. That way, 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.'

I asked, '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.