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.’
>
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