Breakfast Fairy Strikes Again

In May I shared a post called The Breakfast Fairy Challenge. The post was inspired by the amazing tales my dad has shared with me of the people, most anonymous, who have bought his and mom's breakfast and lunches "just because." Dad makes a point to take very good care of my mom who is suffering from the later stages of Alzheimer's Disease. One of the ways he keeps her active is to take her out a lot to breakfast, lunch or over to Starbucks for a "little treat" in the afternoons.

People notice them. It's hard not too. My mom doesn't speak, at least not much that is audible these days, but dad feeds her and carries on enough conversation for the both of them. His loving way has struck a cord that is undeniable. I swear the amazing generosity that people have showed him would humble even the harshest of hearts. The regularity from which it happens amazes even me.

Dad isn't just a taker either.....he repeats the favor by picking up the check of random strangers. He enjoys it, I can tell, and the more he does it, the more that he seems to have the favor returned. Talk about a Ripple!

Talking with my dad the other night he retold a story of his latest Breakfast Fairy encounter that I just had to share. Apparently dad and mom were having breakfast at one of their yummy breakfast spots when dad saw an older gentlemen walk in with the aide of a walker (or crutches). Despite the man's apparent difficulty walking he seemed to walk with purpose and somehow Dad always seems to notice things like that.

Anyway, my dad watched him meander back to the back of the restaurant out of sight. He waited a bit and then when the waitress came with his and mom's check he asked her to go find that gentlemen's table and give him his check so he could pay for them both. She did as she was asked and returned shortly with both checks in hand and left them on dad's table. My dad continued to finish up feeding my mom when the waitress reappeared and said she needed both checks back. Dad assumed she had given him the wrong checks and continued on chatting with mom.

A few minutes past and no checks came back to the table. Dad caught the waitress and asked what had happened to the checks. She said "they've both been taken care of?" It seems that a couple who had been watching my mom and dad adoringly overheard dad's plan as he explained The Breakfast Fairy challenge to the waitress and why he wanted that buy that complete stranger's breakfast. They apparently were inspired and anonymously took the challenge to heart and picked up all of the checks.

Dad was so moved by what had happened that he sought out the older man who was, now sitting with three other people, to tell him the story. From there the legend of The Breakfast Fairy continues to grow and prosper and I bet there are at least six or seven more convents to this amazing new movement.

Anyway, I wanted to share the links to our previous posts in hopes that we can inspire some of our newest readers to join our Breakfast Fairy Challenge. The earlier posts can be found by clicking these links:

Original Post
Part Two

Hope you will take The Breakfast Fairy challenge, watch the amazing Ripples you will undoubtedly create and come back her to share your story with all of our readers. The action you take may be just enough inspiration to make someone else want to step up to the challenge and wear some wings (fairy's have wings right..?)!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends.

Ripple On!!!

Ripple On News and Notes

This past weekend we emailed out our latest edition of the Ripple On News and Notes newsletter. For some reason our great template isn't coming entirely across in Outlook 2007 (thank you Mr. Gates!). So if you were one of the unfortunate people who received a weirded out template, my sincere apologies. We are working to solve this issue but in the mean time...being the Ripple guy I always have ways to making things better!

We have created a new newsletter archive page on my website. So if you want to see what Ripple On News and Notes is really supposed to look like, please click here. We also have last month's edition up there too and plan to archive each newsletter on the website from here on out.

And if you have never read the newsletter I encourage you to check it out and sign up to receive it in your email each month by going to www.ripplecentral.com and signing up on the lower right corner. Or just check back each month in the newsletter archive section of the website.

Ripple On!!!

Steve

Obsession

I will admit it I am a sucker for some of the more quirky reality television shows. I don't watch many and generally few keep my attention for more than an episode or two but one show in particular caught my eye recently on Bravo called Welcome to the Parker. This show was pretty darn interesting as it revolves around a high-end resort out in Palm Springs and all the interesting situations that arise from the demands of serving the "well to do jet set" type. I haven't qualified for that elite club yet (likely never will) so my experience of going to one of these resorts is limited to watching it in reality television.

How sad! Surely even the Parker needs the Ripple Man right? Maybe someday!

Anyway, one of the episodes in particular really stuck with me and it was something I just had to share with you. It was an episode on obsession. In this one episode the manger and general manager of the resort are trying to fire up their line managers and get them all thinking along the same lines. The word obsession was used as a management and operational rally cry. And the more I watched the show the more it became quite apparent that the word was not only a rally cry of motivational jargon but their only way of doing business.

The staff, regardless of position, all seem to obsess about the look and feel of the resort. They obsess about how their customers will be served and how the customers perceive that service. They obsess about going the extra mile even when they have screwed up to make a bad situation turn out just the right way. They obsess about creating an environment of perfection that although behind the scenes it might be anything but. Regardless the customer or "guests," never see anything but top-notch service and hard earned value for the high dollars that they are spending.

It was fascinating to me to see, although I am certain fictionalized somewhat for television, the level of commitment this organization was able to drive from the top down. Everyone at the Parker, at least on television, seemed to take this work obsession to heart and the by product was a five star experience that people gladly seem to pay upwards of $5000 a night to have.

If you work for or run a company, how obsessed are you? How obsessed are your teammates? Do you do whatever it takes to be obsessive about making sure your customers are treated like royalty and have the experience of their lifetime when they interact or do business with you?

If not....why?

I know what some of you might be saying....well I am just a secretary or I am not in management so I have no say in how obsessive my organization is or isn't. Not true Mr. Magoo! You and you alone are responsible for your actions. People are creatures of observation and many will take their cues from people they see demonstrating qualities that they most want to replicate in themselves. You can be obsessive answering the phone, scrubbing a floor or washing the dishes. Your obsession is shown not only in your ability to do your job but doing your job very, very well. When that happens, co-workers, supervisors and customers can't help but take notice.

My first great assistant came to work for me because I recognized her passion for her job...cutting hair. I saw her effort extolled every time she lowered my ears just a bit and I wanted some of what she had handling my day to day stuff. Obsession for doing the very best job and taking care of the customer was what she had and it got her noticed.

So no matter what you are doing or what role you play within an organization what can you be doing to let your obsession shine through and set the example? You want to create a Ripple....start with passion!

Ripple On!!!

Steve