The Milkshake Moment

Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth

Steven S. Little

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470257463
• eBook ISBN: 9781118039526
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Development
• Index: Business

Growth is the central focus of every business, yet many businesses continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot. In Milkshake Moment, Steven Little shows you how to identify and overcome the stifling behaviors built into your organization and get you back on track to substantive change and real growth. Read Milkshake Moment and find out how to ditch the pointless policies and stupid rules so you can give your customers what they really want; they'll reward you for it.

Section 1

The Milkshake Moment

Chapter 1

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

The story you’re about to read is true. Of course everything you will read in this book is true, but this story is particularly true because it happened to me. A few years ago I traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, for a speaking engagement.

Anyone who travels for business knows that it is hardly glamorous. After 9/11, however, it became even more frustrating, and it keeps getting worse. I don’t think I’d be overstating it to say that business travel today is horrific: irretrievably lost luggage, annoying security searches, perpetually oversold flights, infuriating rental car policies, frazzled counter staff . . . I think you get the picture.

Despite all the traumas of travel, I decided a few years ago to always keep a smile on my face. The way I look at it: if the business travel industry gets the best of me, they win and I lose. I just can’t allow that to happen.

I keep a smile on my face by keeping my eye on a prize. My prize at the end of every business travel day is a vanilla milkshake . . . a thick, gooey, luscious, indulgent vanilla milkshake. I’m talking a hand-dipped, old-fashioned, malt-shoppy kind of milkshake. I don’t just like ’em; I love’em. Both my career and my mental well-being literally depend on them. The image of that milkshake is the proverbial dangling carrot that gets me through even the worst travel day.

It had been a particularly difficult day of planes, trains, and automobiles. I was to arrive at the Baltimore/ Washington International (BWI) Airport at 7:00 P.M. for dinner with my clients at 8:00 P.M. Unfortunately, I arrived at midnight. In other words, there was nothing out of the ordinary so far.

I grabbed my bags and stood in a long taxicab line to take the 20-minute ride to Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor. I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry, but smiling, because I was going to get that vanilla milkshake. Pulling up to the hotel at this late hour, the thought occurred to me, “At least there won’t be a long line to check in.” But once inside I realized I wasn’t the only one having a difficult travel day. Apparently the entire Eastern seaboard was similarly inconvenienced, and it appeared most of those travelers were also staying at my hotel. I faced a 30-minute wait just to check in. Keep your eye on the prize, Steve . . . keep your eye on the prize.

The thought of that milkshake was still working its magic. I could almost taste it. Everyone else in the lobby must have been wondering why I was smiling.

Eventually it was my turn and I was given one of those plastic magnetic keys for room #809. I put one bag on each shoulder, trudged over to the elevator banks, pushed the button for the eighth floor, and found my room. After deciphering the electronic door handle schematic, I repeatedly swiped my plastic key—but to no avail. It didn’t work. The room remained locked. So close, yet so far.

As any business traveler knows, getting a plastic key that actually works is always an iffy proposition at best. In my own personal experience, the incidence of hotel key failure is directly proportional to the cumulative road hassles of that given day. Rehoisting my bags, I shuffled back down to the lobby.

Keep your eye on the prize, Steve . . . keep your eye on the prize. See your milkshake. Be your milkshake.

I returned to the front desk and got in line with the other people holding faulty room keys. I was still the only one smiling.

I returned to room #809 with my second key and this time it worked. Yes! I didn’t even put the bags down. I hurried straight to the phone and immediately hit the button for room service. As soon as I heard the ring on the other end, my mouth began to water. The moment had arrived. It was time to claim my prize.

“Good evening, Mr. Little, this is Stuart in room service. How may I help you?” Stuart’s voice brimmed with enthusiasm. He was so chipper, filled with the idealism of youth. Quite the eager beaver for one o’clock in the morning. Yet he sounded quite polite and well trained. At this point in the transaction, I was relatively encouraged . . . at this point, anyway.

“Stuart, I’d like a vanilla milkshake, please,” I said. A seemingly simple request, right? Well, not quite.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Little, but we don’t have milkshakes,” Stuart replied regretfully.

I was crushed. In that instant, my smile flickered. Quickly I regrouped.

“All right, Stuart, let me ask you this: Do you have any vanilla ice cream?”

“Yes, of course!” he responded with renewed enthusiasm.

“Okay, Stuart, I’d like a full bowl of vanilla ice cream.”

“Yes sir, right away, sir! Is there anything else I can do to serve you?” Stuart asked.

“Yeah . . . do you have any milk?”

“Yes, we have milk!” he replied confidently.

“All right, Stuart, here’s what I would like you to do. Please send up a tray with a full bowl of vanilla ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a long spoon. Could you do that for me, please?”

“Certainly, right away, sir,” Stuart responded triumphantly.

I hung up the phone and a few minutes later there was a knock. Sure enough, at my door there was a tray with a full bowl of vanilla ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a long spoon—everything needed to make a vanilla milkshake. But of course they didn’t have vanilla milkshakes.

Now let me ask you an important question. Is Stuart stupid?

Chapter 2

Half Empty or Half Full?

Seriously, is Stuart stupid? It’s a legitimate question. Certainly an argument could be made for Stuart’s stupidity.

However, for all I knew, Stuart could just as easily have been a certified genius. After all, he did manage to pull together precisely what I ordered, down to the half glass of milk (a somewhat unusual request).

Frankly, Stuart’s IQ is beside the point. For the purposes of this book, let’s assume Stuart is not stupid. It’s the system that’s stupid.

Stuart’s behavior is not unique. Like the vast majority of employees everywhere, Stuart wanted to do a good job. To this day, he probably still thinks he did.

In Chapter 1 I promised to tell you the full truth, and here it is: out of the 100 or so hotel rooms I stay in every year, I run this experiment approximately half the time. It’s not every night, as some hotels don’t offer room service, while others specifically offer milkshakes. I conduct this experiment only when a milkshake is not on the room service menu. More often than not, they do have all the ingredients to make me happy. Yet I usually end up with the same full bowl of ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a long spoon (some assembly required).

Why does this keep happening? Why can’t individuals like Stuart deliver Milkshake Moments? I’ve had plenty of time to ponder that question now that I’ve received over 200 do-it-yourself vanilla milkshakes from America’s leading business hotels. Let’s take a look at some of the underlying causes that lead to these systemic breakdowns.

Stuart is standing at a point-of-sale screen popping in orders with his company-issued plastic access key. For all intents and purposes, his key is as dysfunctional as my original room key. If his screen doesn’t say “milkshake,” then a milkshake simply does not exist, and the most magical key in the world can’t make one appear. The supposedly foolproof system is designed to ensure that Stuart can’t make the organization appear foolish. Yet even a casual observer can see that the system has pushed the organization well beyond foolish. It is now sitting squarely in the land of lost opportunity. How’s that for irony?

Think about this. I represent the mother lode for the business travel industry. Remember, I stay in over 100 hotel rooms a year and I’m not exactly price sensitive. Stuart could have charged me $25 for that milkshake and I would have been happy to pay it.

I actually feel sorry for the major business hotel chains. In an effort to standardize their systems, they’ve taken individual judgment out of the equation. They spend billions of dollars in marketing to get people like me through their doors and billions more in staff training to make my kind happy. Yet they continually blow it, due in some part to a stupid point-of-sale system. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It goes much deeper than that.

Let me ask you this: Do you think there was a blender in the kitchen? No, it was in the bar. And as anyone who has ever worked in the hospitality industry knows, the bar staff and the kitchen staff don’t always play nicely together. For them, sharing is often a challenge. I want “food and beverage,” and they’re offering me “food” and “beverage.” They’re like the Hatfields and McCoys, two warring factions that have been doing battle for so long they have forgotten what they’re fighting about. In fact, many times they’re not even working for the hotel: The two functions have been outsourced to competing organizations. Now, that’s a stupid system.

Legend has it that Stuart arrived on the front lines at the height of the Great Blender Wars of 2004. He got caught in the crossfire and is still a little skittish about approaching enemy lines. Maybe his commanding officer warned him to avoid the minefield of “special orders.” Undoubtedly, his trenchmates have convinced him that keeping his head down is the only way to survive.

Any time there is a breakdown like this, the root causes go well beyond the obvious limitations of a third-party point-of-sale system or the internal politics of blender access. Despite my feelings to the contrary that fateful night, Stuart’s inability to deliver a Milkshake Moment is not the end of the world. It is, however, symptomatic of a much broader organizational malaise.

This milkshake story is not just another example of bad customer service. It’s much more than that. This is a larger tale of lost opportunity. Invariably, the root cause can be traced back to factors that are much more fundamental. Peel back the bureaucratic layers of any organization and you will find a broad range of self-imposed limitations, from antiquated hiring practices to poor workspace design to short-term financial myopia.

Here’s another way to look at it.

Imagine, if you will, a championship football game that has come down to its final seconds. Your team, behind by two points, has managed to move the ball into field goal range. With the clock stopped, out trots your team’s rookie field goal kicker, Shanky Wydewright. A hush falls upon the 80,000 in attendance as millions more watch anxiously at home. The moment of truth has arrived. Everything hinges on this one kick. If Shanky makes it, your team scores three points and walks away with the championship trophy. If he misses it, your season comes to a sudden and heartbreaking end. Come on, Shanky! Shan-ky! Shan-ky!

Be he hero or goat, the headlines the following day will pin the victory or defeat on the narrow shoulders of Shanky Wydewright (“Wydewright Delivers Delight” or “Fans Cranky Over Bungling Shanky”).

Like Stuart, our kicker Shanky is just the visible manifestation of a much larger organizational undertaking. Any coach will tell you that winning or losing a game is about much more than a single kick. An infinite number of variables leads a team to this moment.

How well did they draft offensive l...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Section 1 - The Milkshake Moment
• Section 2 - Foster “Grow” versus Status Quo
• Section 3 - Put Purpose Before Profit
• Section 4 - Insource Crucial Judgment
• Section 5 - Address the “People Problem” Problem
• Section 6 - Care for Customers
• Index