Peanut Butter
Florence Fabricant said that “peanut butter is the pate (pah-tay)Â of childhood”.
I’m not sure I agree with that, but I do believe that when peanut butter is matched with just about anything or even nothing, most kids and even many adults are satisfied.
The combinations are endless, but here are a few:
- peanut butter and jelly
- peanut butter and honey
- peanut butter and marshmallow
- peanut butter and chocolate
- peanut butter on celery
- peanut butter on ritz
- peanut butter on bread
- peanut butter and banana
And these are just the obvious ones!
With pah-tay? I’m not so sure there are that many combinations.
In business, I’ve found the greatest success when I’ve had a metaphorical pantry full of peanut butter – – team members that go well in any environment and create smiles when matched against any other combination.
In my consulting business back in the late 90’s, we had a team full of people equivalent to that peanut butter in the closet. They could deploy to any client environment against a wide range of client problems, and the clients always smiles.
That was nirvana.
In bigger businesses, you also need the “peanut butter”, those people that can work in lots of different departments and blend with very different people to create great outcomes and an organization full of smiles.
That’s the way you minimize cost.
That’s the way you maximize output.
That’s the way you achieve phenomenal results with only the minimum essential things in your pantry!
[PS. I asked my wife what I should blog about tonight, and she scoffed and said “peanut butter”. I had no choice then. It’s almost like a dare!]