Thursday, December 29, 2011

Friday Fill-In

So it's been awhile since I've done this and really want to so ... here we go! Replace my bold words with YOUR words!

  1. Wait, wait and wait some more.

  2. Sushi is a little different.

  3. In addition, subtraction, and times, I do just fine.

  4. Grilling is the way we do it here!

  5. At the end of the year, I like to read all the past events penned on my calendar.

  6. Going to the snow is one of the things I'm looking forward to in 2012.

  7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to staying up late, tomorrow my plans include going to a New Years party and Sunday, I want to chillax!

You can get your 'Friday Fill-In' clicking on the title above or using the button in the left ♥FAVORITE SITES column. *or re-post in a comment below!*

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

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.'