Larry Weidel recalls learning from a restaurant owner named Gino in the 1960s how a good system for bussing tables saved time and made training others easier. Systems, he argues, are what separate efficient work from chaos.
Lets talk real quick about the importance of having a system. And here's how I learned about systems. In 1914 or sometime in the 60s I was up say, let's just say probably about 1960s, 65, 6. I was in the Hamptons and I was a busboy during the night and during the day I worked at the greasy spoon pizza hero thing on the side of the road. And Memorial Day it was like bam. All the city people came up out of New York City. It was like a traffic jam up there. We were on the side of the road, we were like the first Hampton you ran into. And the two lane highway went right by our place. So we were the first place you could get those things. So that 500 degree oven is where I spent my days shoving pizzas in and out in the hero sandwiches. And then also at night I was doing the busboy thing. Now at night there was a guy named Gino. Gino was the owner and he was there. Now Gino was your classical sun tanned, slimy but hard working restaurant owner, Italian guy with the black greasy hair and the chain and the shirt unbuttoned down to his waist and quite the classic swinger looking guy. But a very good restaurant owner and hard working guy, very profitable. But Gino and I were in the restaurant one night at like 2am so here we are, it's 2am and Gino says to me, and it's funny how truth. You know people, you never know when someone's going to tell you something you're going to use the rest of your life or may change the rest of your life. But. But at that moment something happened. I don't ever remember Gino and I ever talking about anything else. If we did, I forgot it. But I do remember this. Gino said to me, now here's what we're doing, here's the stage. Stage is, is the place of restaurants empty. We're cleaning up and it was like, you know, like you work for cater or something like that. A lot of dirty dishes, dirty dishes. Customers left and the idea was how can we get cleaned up and get out of there as quick as possible, as fast as possible. Let's clean those tables. Get that stuff to the back now. So Gino said, larry, come over here. He said, look at that moron over there on the other side of the restaurant. He said, watch how he buses the table. Now up to that point I'd never heard of bussing the table. Is that Boos's bus? Yeah, bus the table. I'd never heard of the concept. I knew when I was cleaning stuff off the table, I didn't realize I was busing. I guess that's why I'm a bus boy. But bussing the table, he said, larry, come over here. Look at that moron over there. Now I was glad he wasn't talking to that moron and having him look over at me because I was doing exactly the same thing Before I became an insider, Gino made me an insider. So he said, larry, look at that moron. He said, he goes over there and every table is different. And we watched him for a while and it was, you know, one table, he'd pick up a couple of the forks and then he'd get a plate and then he'd get a couple glasses. I mean, it took him forever to clean that table. And obviously this was not good. He had no system. That's what. See, obviously Gino had spent a lifetime in the restaurants and he got, he was successful. So he got things done, had done enough of it to develop systems for everything. But he said, this guy has no system. So as a result, he takes forever. He said, this guy is never going to get any better at bussing table. He's never going to move up because he's always going to be inky dinky doing around. But he said now. He said, you don't want to be that guy. He said, let me show you. Thank goodness he didn't put me on the spot and say, now, Larry, show me how to do it. He said, let me show you now how to do it. And so what he did, he went around and showed me the Gino system. Now, the reason Gino had a system was since he had a restaurant, probably there's many nights he didn't have a busboy show up and he had to do it late at night. And, and Gino being the energetic gung ho guy who probably had ladies waiting for him later in the evening. That's why I'm saying he was one of those kind of Italian restaurant owners. He was eager to get this project over with. And Gino had a system for everything. And especially doing something as time wasting as busing tables. So here's what Gino did. He went around in one swoop. He grabbed all. First of all, he grabbed the silverware. Now see, what did he do? He started with the big things first. He went around like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. One hand he swept around the table. It was like seeing an artist at work. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. He knocked stuff off the plates and in one swoop, he grabbed up four plates, put them on the. The little carrying thing. Then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He went around and he got the saucers. The next swipe, the next swipe he grabbed up in each finger. He grabbed up the wine glasses and the water glasses. Boom. So in like three sweeps, Gino had plates, saucers, glasses on there. And then he went in one massive swipe and got all of the silverware, got out a rag, wiped the table down. Bam. It was just like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Whereas the other guy was still picking up, you know, his second or third glass. And Gino looked at me and he said, larry, you got to have a system. Because if you don't have a system, you never gonna go anywhere. And whatever you do, you gotta have a system or you're just going to be doing it and never going anywhere. The great thing I learned later about a system, as soon as you get a system, you not only you save time yourself, get more done, but it makes it easier to train other people. Now, where Gino was, the dumbbell was he never took the five seconds it would take. With me, well, I was the only one. He did, but with the other guy, he could have taken a minute and shown that guy his system, and the guy would probably have been a whole lot more efficient even if he didn't do it perfect. And I found out later that once you develop a system, not only can you get more done, but you can duplicate yourself a whole lot quicker. Now you can train somebody else to be efficient much quicker. So, folks, that's some insight into the importance of a system. No matter whatever you're going to do, if you're going to do a lot of it, you better get a system.
