Consulting Personnel Training

My Cat Won’t Let Me Online asked:


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 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 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 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 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.
> >
> > 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.”

Natalie