The spoon
By Mike Ashworth | February 17, 2010
The spoon: A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organisation.
Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, ‘Steve’s Place,’ and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.
It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket…..
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, ‘Why the spoon?’
‘Well, ‘he explained, ‘the restaurant’s owner hired Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) to revamp all of our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.
If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.’
As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare. ‘I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.’ I was impressed.
I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter’s fly.
Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, ‘Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?’
‘Oh, certainly!’ Then he lowered his voice. ‘Not everyone is so observant.. That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we can save time in the restroom..
By tying this string to the tip of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39%.
I asked quietly, ‘After you get it out, how do you put it back?’
‘Well,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon.
Topics: Fun | No Comments »
From “big mick” to “fit mick” let the boxing commence
By Mike Ashworth | February 16, 2010
In my pursuits of my fitness goals and also my future career I have taken up boxing. Yesterday was my first session with Paul “the punch doctor” who is the boxing coach at ZT Fight Skool, based in Hove.
I have to say it was the most enlightening yet humbling experience I’ve had for a while.
I never realised quite how much effort goes into making boxers movement seem so effortless.
It was a fantastic session, I learnt loads about how correct technique is far more important than a “big punch”.
Get the technique correct and the powerful punches will follow.
One thing I hadn’t realised is just how much importance is attached to flexibility in the lower back and hip flexor region. I’ve put together a number of stretches to do every day that will ensure these areas remain flexible as they have a direct impact on the ability to be successful at boxing.
I’m aiming to see him once a week, I’ve got drills to do between sessions, and look forward to seeing the improvements.
If you are wondering what “from big mick to fit mick” is all about then please read this post about my wake up call re my health and also my goals
Topics: Health, Sport | No Comments »
Death of a hero
By Mike Ashworth | February 16, 2010
Last Friday a father lost a son, a country lost a hero and the Olympic torch seemed to shine a little less brightly after the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the sportsman competing in the luge event in Vancouver.
Many news stories, were as you’d imagine, full of the typical finger-pointing and where can we apportion blame.
The reality is that no sport is 100% safe.
Amongst the many news stories, I discovered one which painted a different picture.
Nodar voiced his concerns about the speed of the track through one particular corner to his father, David, also an experienced luger.
His father, as you might imagine, told him that if it worried him then he should use his feet to slow down.
Nodar’s response was “Dad, I want to be in the top 10. I want to do my best.” He was angry.
He said: “Why are you telling me to slow down? I have come such a long way and now you are telling me to put my legs on the track?”
He was, as any athlete will do, pushing himself to the limits of what is possible to see if it can be achieved.
He paid with his life. Yet he died doing something he loved, a passion that consumed him. We must not forget that.
He was only 21, yet he had probably done far more in those small number of years as a man than many do in an entire lifetime.
His dad’s response to his death is something we can all learn from. He said “I am not going to blame or sue anyone. My son proved that he is a strong sportsman. And he proved it to the whole world. God will decide who is to blame.”
Topics: Sport | No Comments »
From “big mick” to “fit mick” hungry between meals?
By Mike Ashworth | February 9, 2010
One of the things I discovered was that the mind is unable to differentiate between the signals it receives from your body about whether it is hungry or dehydrated. We tend to think it’s the former and grab a snack or similar.
What I learnt to do was to have a large glass of water when those feelings of hunger came along as this can curb the desire for food that your head is telling you about.
If you are wondering what “from big mick to fit mick” is all about then please read this post about my wake up call re my health and also my goals
Topics: Health | No Comments »
Making changes
By Mike Ashworth | February 8, 2010
Leonardo Da Vinci wrote that “When a bird lands in a tree, the whole world changes.”
That is because everything effects everything else, our actions change our reality, and that reality is the world around us.
Someone once said “everybody wants to change the world, yet nobody wants to change himself”.
It’s true, think about how often you have got involved in a world changing cause, something much bigger than your self, whether that be a donation, a march, even joining a group on facebook, yet how long do you spend in front of the mirror taking a deep look at yourself and making changes.
We fear change, we wonder what might happen to the people and things that surround us as we continue our journey, however if we are not moving, we are going backwards.
Life isn’t easy, it’s not supposed to be, it is full of pain and discomfort.
Rumi wrote a poem about a chickpea being boiled in the pot and it’s trying to climb out and the chef is pushing him back in with the ladle and the chef says to him “you think I’m punishing you but I’m not”. He says, “I’m just trying to make you sweet so you can sit with the rice and the herbs”. And when the chick pea realizes that he’s not being punished he says, “push me in twice because I want to be sweet”.
We need to marinate in that discomfort, work with it, and through this, amazing changes will occur.
Topics: Health, Society | No Comments »
From “big mick” to “fit mick” extra calories cause weight gain
By Mike Ashworth | February 7, 2010
I guess the title is a bit bleeding obvious really.
However, when you look into just how few extra calories you have to consume, to put on weight, it is quite staggering.
A daily 60-kcal cookie would be expected to produce 0.2 kg (0.5 lb) weight gain in a month and therefore 2.7 kg (6 lb) in a year etc.
This is based on the assumption (frequently used in textbooks and scientific articles) that a pound (454 g) of fat tissue has about 3500 kilocalories (kcal).
If you are wondering what “from big mick to fit mick” is all about then please read this post about my wake up call re my health and also my goals
Topics: Health | No Comments »
Ninja
By Mike Ashworth | February 7, 2010
My friend Chrissy returned from a business trip to Japan recently and brought back this lovely little pressie for me.
Topics: Fun | No Comments »
Forgiveness
By Mike Ashworth | February 6, 2010
What follows is a true story. From the book ‘Watch my Back’ by Geoff Thompson
Four weeks ago I found myself sitting in McDonald’s having an early morning coffee. I love McDonald’s: most mornings I’m there at 7.30 a.m. waiting for the first pot to brew. This morning was no exception. I sat with my coffee, paper and a couple of hours to invest ahead of me. Bliss, It doesn’t get much better than this, I can tell you.
I was set for a great couple of hours or R&R when my past suddenly walked through the door. A large figure passed me and sat at the table opposite, clearly unaware of me. Twenty-eight years after crushing my youth, my aikido instructor was back in my world, looking older and pretty sad, but he was back. Providence had not only brought the man to face me, it had actually orchestrated it so that he was sat right opposite me, the only other customer in the restaurant.
I froze in my chair, my coffee cup suspended between the table and my mouth. For a second I felt the terror of my eleven-year old self return. I felt desperately sad and alone, frightened. Even though I was now the veteran of hundreds of fights against some absolute monsters, I still sat in terror of this man. It took me a few seconds to realise that I was not, in fact, eleven any more and that this man was no longer a threat. If I chose it he was already history. To be honest, for a couple of seconds, I thought about leaving, walking away, and letting it go. No one would ever know. Except me, of course, I’d know.
I was patently aware of what I had to do, what I’d needed to do for the whole of my adult life, but now that the opportunity had been offered me on a plate I was not sure that I could go ahead with this. I put the cup down and made my way over to his table. I stared down at this little man. He stared back up and smiled. When I returned a black look he must have realised that it wasn’t a social visit. As I sat down, he tried to stand, to object.
‘Sit down!’ I said it quietly with some authority. I think he knew I meant business because he quickly complied. There was emotion in my voice, a shake that ran through every word. I had waited a long time for this and now that it was here I didn’t quite know if I could follow it through. I thought it would be easier.
‘You don’t remember me,’ I said.
He went to speak and I gestured that he should not. Again he complied. I was in charge, this was my job.
‘I was one of your students when I was eleven. You sexually abused me.’
At the words ’sexually abused’ his mouth opened in denial but no words came out of his mouth. It was as though he had lost his voice. I continued.
‘You need to know two things. The first is that you sexually abused me and it has affected me all my life. When I was eleven what you did crucified me.’
His eyes dropped to the table. I could tell he was expecting a dig or a verbal bashing at the least. I remained absolutely expressionless, though my voice was now full of emotion.
‘The second thing you need to know is that I forgive you.’
I stood up and looked down at him. I had said it. There was a rush of relief. When I looked at him I felt no anger whatsoever, only sadness. He looked as crushed as I had been as a boy.
‘I forgive you.’ I said it again, for him and for me.
He looked up as I turned to walk away. Again his mouth opened but no words came out. He lifted his hand in a gesture of friendship. It hung embarrassingly in the air, his fingers trembled. I hadn’t expected this. I looked at it for for a very long second, then I looked at him. I know about forgiveness, it had been my sparring partner for some time now, it had been the secret to my catharsis, why I was now so light. I also knew that you couldn’t half-forgive someone: either you forgave them completely or you didn’t forgive them at all.
I shook his hand and made my way back to my coffee, and my brilliant, brilliant, happy life. And, do you know what, I have never been eleven years old since.
I was free.
Whenever I read this passage I am deeply moved.
If Geoff can forgive this man for abusing him when he was a child then I can find it in myself to also forgive people and not hold onto those feelings of anguish, anger etc that so many of us carry around.
In this short clip, Geoff talks about forgiveness at one of his masterclass sessions and also the film Romans 12:20 that has been born from this event.
The trailer for Romans 12:20. A short film by the Shammasian Brothers. Worthy of an Oscar when the feature drops…
Topics: Society | 1 Comment »
