How hard can it be to perform simple tasks?

I am frustrated today with the level of knowledge a few of my current students have exhibited.  Now in week four and having completed approximately 150 hours of Starkey education, they have not taken on the conscientiousness or service savvy one would hope for.  While they are indeed serious students, how hard can it be to just bring in my daily lunch without someone holding their hand?  Sound familiar?  “How hard can it be to perform simple tasks?”

In the world of education we all want to be shown exactly how things are done in order to be successful.  However, in private service, each Principal may give these students unique directions on how to accomplish a specific task.  Now, this is week four, as I stated, and I have held the hand of the first three students who have carried out this somewhat simplified task.  They each request that they be individually instructed, as opposed to learning from each other.  On the other side of the coin, these are not beginners to service we are educating; these are bright Household Management students expecting to take over the overall management of sophisticated homes.  Are we ever in trouble!  In reading other industry newsletters over the years, one reads about how to polish silver, wash a fine piece of china, and of course iron a shirt.  On the NBC Today Show, Ms. Martha Stewart said a white shirt could be ironed in 10 minutes but Matt Lauer was still stumbling after 20 minutes.

But we are speaking of just bringing in lunch here, not a highly technical, product proven skill!  So I began to consider the number of factors associated with bringing in lunch.  They have to include:  intrusion into someone’s space, privacy of the activities being performed within the space, is the person hungry, what is the lunch, how do you interrupt to ask if I am interested in eating, knowing what the culinary offering of the Chef is, how the food was prepared, what is in the recipe, what beverage would go with the food, where to position the tray, how to put the tray in front of me without disturbing me as I am on the phone, taking just the plate off the tray, and placing it before me as to accommodate a small amount of available desk space, where to stand when doing so, and if one should speak to me or not — to just name a few of the factors.  This is a great exercise in service delivery.

In the end, Service Management is 60% psychologically understanding who you are serving and their specific expectations.  The balance is technical and you really have to know your Principal.