Insight #184
Herewith a festive true story. Once upon a holiday season, a waitress… no, not a server, a waitress. This true story happened decades ago, so let’s try this again.
Once upon a holiday season, a waitress struggles to juggle her many customers crowded into a sports bar-type restaurant. One patron is particularly unsporting and sings a constant “Miss! Miss!” refrain. The waitress maintains her composure with a polite, “I will be there in a moment, sir.”
When she finally catches her breath at his table, the customer complains, “Miss, this potato is bad.” The waitress picks up his fork and smacks the potato while saying sternly, “Bad, bad potato.” She then walks out of the restaurant, never to be seen again.
The moral of the story is vegetable, animal and mineral.
The potato could have been bad because it was vegetable. The waitress, being animal, was not bad. However, her behavior probably was.
But why did her behavior turn bad? I wasn’t there, so I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t there because I avoid raucous, frenzied places. The waitress was paid to be there and, if need be, to deal with a sack of bad potatoes. Even though the state of potatoes was seldom her fault.
However, she was not mineral. She had no crust designed to deflect endless, relentless refrains of “Miss! Miss!” triggered by bad potatoes not of her making.
And that’s where mineral comes in. To prevent the fizz going out of getting work done well, managers must minimize bad potatoes at the source.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“It’s never good management practice to assume one more straw won’t matter.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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