The Spoon 


A lesson on how consultants can make a difference 
in an organization. Very Impressive! 

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.'