A Glass of Wine

Everyone, believe me everyone, should be consciously looking to identify problems, and to implement solutions every day on the job.  It is what makes work interesting and builds a successful organization.  Just doing what you did yesterday will not make-work exciting, nor help your company meet international competition. But, how can you find problems easily?  How can you see things today differently from yesterday?

Watch what happens when you go to fine restaurant and order a bottle of wine.  The waiter or the Wine Stewart shows you a wine menu and might even recommend something in your price class.  You select the wine and the waiter agrees your selection.  He/she then goes and gets the bottle and brings it to your table and shows the label to you.  He is double checking that he selected the right bottle.  Then the cork is removed and even smelled by the waiter.  If pleased with the smell, a little wine is poured and given to you to taste.  You, if experienced, will roll the wine in the glass, bring the glass to your nose, sniff the aroma and taste it.

The waiter will watch you carefully and wait as long as necessary until you taste the wine and express your pleasure.  Afterwards, everyone’s wine glass will be filled.

The secret to finding and solving problems at work is to act as a waiter serving fine wine.  You simple do your best at work and when you pass your work to your fellow worker, you simply watch to make sure they are pleased with what you have done.  If not pleased, then you have a problem to identify and solve.

But back to the waiter, who is happy with your pleasure on approving the wine.  But have you even seen a waiter after serving you the food just stop, wait and watch you carefully until you tasted the food?  I have never seen the above serving wine scenario when the food is served.  I have never seen the waiter wait by the table until everyone has tasted their food to express their pleasure.   They do it for wine but not for food, how come?

On the job, however, you should always check to see that whatever you do is done right to the satisfaction of the next worker, your customer.