[BITList] The Spoon

[John Feltham]

\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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