Excerpt from The Mikshake Moment by Steven S. Little

by S. Anthony Iannarino on April 29, 2008

Author and Consultant Steven S. Little offered me this excerpt from his new book The Milkshake Moment. I know this story, and you will too. Give it a read . . .

The
Milkshake Moment

by Steven S. Little

The story I’m about to tell you is true.

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

When I finally got to my room an hour
later the first thing I did was call room service where I was greeted by
Stuart.

“Good evening, Mr. Little, this
is Stuart in room service. How may I help you?” Stuart’s voice
brimmed with enthusiasm.

“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. 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? Or is the system 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.

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 what I asked for? 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. If his
screen doesn’t say “milkshake,” then a milkshake simply does
not exist. 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. 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 brand of traveler 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.

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 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.

Consider your organization. When are
you saying no when it would be much better and just as easy to say yes? Are you
really putting people in the best position to grow? Do your current policies,
procedures, and systems enable you to truly deliver?

So what is a Milkshake Moment?
It’s certainly not a full bowl of ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a
long spoon. Instead, a Milkshake Moment is a brave individual action, be it big
or small, that furthers the cause of growth in an organization. Milkshake
Moments materialize when individuals understand the organization’s true
purpose, honestly believe it is their job to fulfill it, and are given the
tools and the freedom to make it happen. When a would-be growth leader managing
deep within the bowels of a stagnating organization has the guts to stand up
and say, “This idea is contrary to everything we say we believe,”
that’s a Milkshake Moment. When a thinking person is given the freedom to
seize an opportunity afforded by change, that’s a Milkshake Moment. When
a small business owner consciously puts purpose before profit, that’s a
Milkshake Moment. When the executive director of a nonprofit foundation
challenges the status quo views of her tenured board members, that’s a
Milkshake Moment.

Members of twenty-first-century
organizations need to realize they are allowed to do the right thing—to
serve the interests of others in order to grow the organization—instead
of following arcane, arbitrary rules, processes, and procedures that actually
hinder growth. Only when we remove our own self – imposed barriers can we seize
new opportunities in structured settings. A Milkshake Moment can only be
realized when growth leaders clearly communicate an organization’s true
purpose and grant individuals permission to do whatever can be done ethically
to achieve it.

But it takes guts to do this. Growth requires
persevering, creative, even courageous individuals who aren’t afraid to
mix it up. Are you ready?

Author
Steven S. Little is a much sought-after expert on the subject
of growth and the future of opportunity. A former President of three
fast-growth companies, he now advises thousands of leaders of growing
organizations and communities each year. To learn more about Steven, his new
book The Milkshake Moment, and
growth, please visit his Web site at www.stevenslittle.com.