What does roast beef have to do with PDSs?

Here’s a short story for you.

A young man cuts the roast beef in half, puts half each in two baking dishes, and puts them in the oven. His girlfriend is confused. ‘Why did you do that?’ she asks. ‘Do what?’ he says. ‘Cut the beef in half!’ she asks. ‘Oh, that’s how you cook roast beef.’ ‘lolwut?!’ she says, ‘where did you learn that?’. ‘That’s how my Dad cooks roast beef’ our young man says.

Refusing to believe this is true, she calls his Dad to confirm. ‘Oh yes’ says the Dad, ‘that’s how you cook roast beef.’ ‘Er really?’ our smart young woman insists. ‘Yes!’ says the Dad. ‘That’s how MY dad cooked the Sunday roast.’.

Our young woman is starting to wonder if she’s made a good choice in a boyfriend. Luckily though, the grandfather is still alive so we can go back to the source. And do you know what he says? ‘You lot are hilarious! I had a tiny oven and it was the only way to fit in a full roast – cut it in half and put half on each shelf’.

Now, laugh you might, but it’s worth asking, just how many roast beefs are there in your business? Especially in an area like PDSs where the current process may well have been in place for many years, and ‘passed down’ between people.

I’ve seen some doozies over the years. One of my personal favourites was the company that only processed BPAY on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After much investigation, it turned out that when BPAY was originally set up, the woman who processed it had to leave early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to pick up her child from daycare. I kid you not.

So the next time someone (probably an annoying enthusiastic young whippersnapper*) asks why something is done the way it is, encourage them to investigate further and check that you don’t have a ‘roast beef’ hidden in your process.

*OK, they aren’t really annoying. But sometimes when you’re already tired and had enough, being asked another question is enough to tip you over the edge. Or maybe I’m projecting here, as the mother of a very inquisitive 10 year old!!!