As a Project Professional I have always been a great believer that a key skill is the ability to “set” expectations with our clients, customers, teams etc… and then having set them we must ensure that we also “manage” them throughout the process.
So why do I raise this? I was out last Friday evening and had an experience where one was done without the other and the results were, as you would expect, disappointing!
The background: I am a coeliac [an autoimmune disease, triggered by gluten], not a difficult condition to live with, in fact it is pretty healthy. The key thing is that I am in a position where going out for a meal is not difficult: you study the menu, ask a question if you are not sure and hopefully you don’t end up with “fresh mushrooms” coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried.
So back to Friday. Menus studied, I believed that I had made a safe choice through the courses, good clear menu, shouldn’t be any problems here. Front of house man arrives, takes the orders and then (thinking about it now, that should have been a clue) asks “does anyone have any allergy, or dietary condition which we need to take into account?” Against my better judgement I couldn’t resist so I advised him of my gluten intolerance. Expectations SET, I sat back and relaxed in anticipation of an evening of gluten freeness!
So, along comes the waitress to deposit some freshly home baked bread on the table. Yes, the bread landed, no indication of it gluten state so I assumed that it was regular bread and abstained. OK, easy mistake, maybe she and the front of house man had not had time to explain?
A little while later the waitress approaches the table again, carefully delivering two plates with a little morsel of goodness from the chef whilst our starter was being prepared. She carefully explained what was before us which was nicely topped of with a fine home made crouton! Now I was really beginning to feel a tad irritated. We managed appetisers, first course and then asked for the bill and left.
So expectations set, they had completely failed to manage them! In fact if they had not even asked in the first case, I could have lived with the bread, the little crouton, etc… as it was they raised the stakes and then totally failed to deliver!
http://www.coeliac.co.uk/ - Coeliac UK is the leading charity working for people with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH).
