Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

What is a roadblock? It’s that thing that gets in the way. It’s something that stops you from going where it is you actually want to go. And what I’m talking about here is that your team members experience some roadblocks in your technology, in your procedures, in your policy, in your method and your process, and your requirements, that have been there a long time and they slow everything down, they get in the way. Now, I’m not saying that all of them should be removed because they may be legal. It may be a requirement. But what I’m saying is that there will be some things that get in the way of frontline service providers giving excellence and service. And it’s your job to remove that. Your job to find it and remove it. I’ll give you an example.

So I was in California once at a resort and on the room service menu, they had a miso glazed salmon and I ordered it my first night for dinner. It was fantastic. So the second night for room service again, it’s on the room service menu. I ordered the miso glazed salmon. It was fantastic again! The third night, I thought, “Well, I shouldn’t eat the same thing every night.” So I ordered something else. I was sorry that I had not ordered the miso glaze salmon. The other dish wasn’t nearly as good. Now, my last night there, on my fourth night, I invited three of my friends who live in that area of California to visit me at the resort. We were going to have dinner. So I met them in the bar at the lobby, and we were laughing and talking. And one of the things I said is, you know, there’s this amazing dish you guys got to try. What was the name of it? Miso glazed salmon. So we went into the restaurant, we sat down, we looked at the menu, and on the menu they did not have the miso glazed salmon So I said to the waiter, “You know, we’d all like to get this miso glazed salmon. It’s not on the menu.” He goes, “No, no, no. That’s on the room service menu.” I said, “Well, can we get it here?” And he said, “No, it’s not on our menu, so I can’t get it for you.”

Now, in a resort. It could be spread out so far that the kitchen for the restaurant is over here and the kitchen for room service is over there. And if that was the case, I would understand. So I asked the waiter, I said, “By the way, how many kitchens are there in this resort?” He said, “Oh, it’s all one.” And I said, “You mean the room service is also prepared in the same kitchen?” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, can we order the Miso glazed salmon?” He said, “No. That’s on the room service menu. You can’t get it here in the restaurant.” So I said, “Okay.” And I looked at my four friends, three friends, four of us together, and I said, “Let’s order the starters, Let’s get the appetizers.” And we ordered some nice appetizers. And the waiter went away. I then went into the lobby, and in the lobby I picked up the house phone and I called room service. I said, ”Hi. I want four of your miso glazed salmon, but I don’t want you to send it to my room. I want you to bring it to the lobby outside the restaurant. I’m waiting for you there.” And they said, “Okay.” And about 20 minutes later, I went back out and there was room service with four miso glazed salmon. And I carried them into the restaurant. And we sat down and we had a great meal.

But to the waiter, there was a roadblock. And the waiter cannot remove something like that. Only the leader, only the manager of the restaurant, food and beverage.