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 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, in your process, in 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 there will be some things that get in the way, front line service providers 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 Glazed Salmon. The other dish wasn’t nearly as good. Now my last night there, my fourth night, I invited three of my friends who live in that area of California to visit me at the resort. We were gonna 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 gotta 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 said 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 goes no no, that’s on the room service menu. You can’t get it here in the restaurant. So I said, OK.

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 “OK” 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. 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. 

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