United We Stand
Yeah we've all seen the videos, heard the jokes, shared the memes, and wondered publicly what impact United's mishandling of the Dr. David Dao situation will transpire. And I'd like to offer United's CEO a relatively inexpensive solution to make sure this doesn't happen again. Not that I'm an airline expert, far from it. I'm just a cook that's worked in one too many poorly designed kitchens.
Years ago I was the first Executive Chef at a brand new CCRC. The goal for this retirement community was 400 residents in three years and I had about six weeks to get the kitchen up and running prior to our first guest arriving. The gentleman that gave me my first look at the kitchen was its architect. And within five minutes it was obvious the kitchen had been designed by an architect, and not a cook. I could go on about all the reasons why I knew, but that'd get tedious. The biggest gaff, though, was an extra 12 inches between the cooking line and the presentation side. Have a look at this photo of the kitchen at New Orleans' R'evolution (photo by Sara Bradley) and you'll see what I mean.
There's three feet from the stoves to the pick up side. And that means the cooks can turn on their pivot foot and have everything on either side of them within an arm's reach. Doesn't matter if it's a plate, salt, a hot pan, a stove's control knob, a piece of fish, oil, water, butter, etc. One small pivot and it's all right there.
And my brand new kitchen had four feet between these two critical hemispheres, and that meant an extra step. Big deal, you say?
Yes it was. Over the course of a busy lunch or dinner shift, that extra step, performed by three or four cooks, over the course of three or four hours was going to mean not seconds, but minutes. Longer cook times, longer service times, longer waiting times. So before one person had been served, I was already unnecessarily hamstrung. And of course moving everything would've been wildly expensive, so I was stuck with it.
If only that architect had spent a few hours in a real kitchen, or had consulted with a professional cook, someone that worked in that type of space, this wouldn't have happened.
Which brings me back to United and its CEO, Oscar Munoz. Yeah he's got a nightmare on his hands. And when stuff like this goes wrong, nine times out of ten, big companies respond in a familiar fashion. They'll hire another big company who in turn will first have to learn and understand the business. Many edicts, mission statements, speeches, power points, and press releases later, an enormous sum of money will change hands. Then front line staff will receive in-services and cross-training and role-playing and all the while they'll be asking the same question.
How come no one asked us?
So if you're trying to decide if four feet is better than three feet, why not just ask the people that will work in that space day after day? #mytwocents