Have you ever go to a food court and order some food? did you able to see what’s happening behind the scene? Recently, I was going with my Dad for dinner. He told me that it worth the time. So we went to that shop. it’s just a regular chicken rice stall, nothing fancy. At first I thought we were the third person in queue waiting for ordering, but when I looked to the left of the shop, there are some other people who has ordered and waiting for their food. While we’re waiting on the queue, I got a chance to see what’s happening in the stall. There are only 2 person in the stall, the husband and the wife. They were doing what needs to be done to fulfill all the orders. I was pondering on what can we learn from this? I think everyone should learn leadership and task management from chicken rice vendor (or any vendor) They will be able to give you good and simple things required.

I’m sure what you’re doing is much more complex than what I saw. But the basic are similar. Before you able to deliver a product or service, you’ll need to make some kind of a plan. Which customer will receive it first, what does he/she wants, and estimate on how long it will take to deliver and actually deliver the product or service. Sometimes we forget some of this things because we think we got everything in our hand and we won’t forget. I’m sure sometimes somebody will interrupt your flow that makes you forget what you need to do and that makes you upset. Can you still be polite even when interruption comes or keep calm even when the deadline is approaching?

These are 5 lessons learnt from chicken rice stall
1. The importance of writing things down
I notice that the wife write each customer orders in a sheet of paper. It was just a simple notes, no fancy tools or symbols. Just the customer order. But looking at the notes, it seems it was overwhelming. Each row represents the order of a customer with unique order. And because of this notes, they can deliver each and every order flawlessly.

Sometimes we didn’t make a note because we think we will remember it forever. And beside it’s only a small request, right? We don’t need to create a file or write it in paper because we will remember. I can tell you, that there will be time when you will forget. And when you forget and you don’t have any things to refer too, that will looks bad on you. There is a time when I thought I know the requirements are and I know what to do. I spent the whole week doing that and thinking in my mind that the customer will be satisfied with the result. But at the end, at the last minute, I found out that I’ve been doing the wrong thing. So lesson learnt, make notes, even when it is a simple task it will help to remind you and help you to retain the message longer.

2. Plan on what next
I noticed that after a few orders, she will stop to read her notes. She read it carefully for the next few orders. And then continue working on the orders.

This seems simple things, but have you always do this? Working in a project base company, most of the time I just do whatever pops up in my task list and try to work on it. Sometimes, a task is taking much longer than I thought, so that it took me longer time to fulfill other task that is much simpler. You might think that the time spent will be the same, right? Try it yourself. Try to note how it likes to do a simple task after a hard task, and what if you do a simple task first before doing a hard one. By a short planning, it will save you more time to do more things. You’ll be amazed by how many things you can complete by planning your action item or even your daily activities

3. Make the necessary steps
After the short review, she decides on what’s required and do the things that she needs. She took a glance on what’s missing. There’s a time when I notice that she ran out of rice. It amazed me how she open the “backup” rice in a smaller container while calmly prepare the rice cooker, put the uncooked rice, pour in the water, while in the midst of it, she took out some fried chicken wings, stir the rice and then put the lid on the rice cooker and continue to serve the customer. I thought to myself, will the time be enough for them to cook the rice? Will the backup be enough to serve everyone while waiting for the rice to be cooked?

In a project, there always be a posibilities for something that will cause a delay. I rarely or almost never saw a project that never adjust the timeline. In most scenario, when delay happens, it cause panic either to the employee, to the manager or to the bosses. In this experience, I learn that panic is not helping. The thing that need to do is not blaming, or any other thing. Rather to keep doing the necessary steps. Another thing is to be prepared. I believe the shop owner knew that they will ran out of rice, so they prepared the backup.

4. Delegate task to the other person
As much as everyone expect you to be master in everything, no one has ever achieve mastery in everything. I can see that the husband is very skillful in cutting the chicken, he didn’t try to do something else. The wife was skillful I’m another thing and she did what she needs to do.

Likewise in a project or in any planning, everyone have different skill. Use the skill to the fullest. You don’t have to master everything, but you need to do the best of the things that you can. For other things, delegate it to others. I don’t really like to decide on where to go for dinner celebration or any event like that, so I trust my friend to decide on that. Is there anything that only you who can do it? In that case, do it. But for other things, give it to somebody else. You and your friend or spouse will enjoy more in doing your strength.

5. step in when there is a need.
There was a time also when the wife was interrupted by a customer asking for something. The husband step in to take out the fried chicken from the fryer. He knows that the fried chicken will be burned if it’s fried longer. It seems that even though he’s busy with preparing the chicken, he still notice on when the wife put in the chicken to the fryer and check on when to pick the chicken out.

Most of us will be busy in life and/or with everything else. There seems everything is pulling our hair for some attention. Remember to do the things that you can do best. And remember to check on other things once in a while also. When you’re free, step in to help other people. and in return when other people free, they will step in to help you. When is the last time you take notice on what other people needs? You might not able to do better than how they do, but you still can do something to help them.

In the whole experience, I managed to enjoy the good food and enjoy the lesson that I can see. Remember that you are in this situation for some reason. You might know why, or you might not. When you’re not, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do anything. Do the things that you are good at. By doing that, you’ll get better and better. And once in a while, look out for other opportunities. you might not be the best person to do it, but you’re the best person to help at the moment.

Question: Do you have any other experience learning from a simple way of life?

You don’t need a title to be a leader. –Multiple Attributions

Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.