Reflections on Improvisation

I’m always game to try something new.  Just the other day I was at The Purple Pig in Chicago for the first time.  It’s a restaurant that combines many of my favorite things: Cheese, Wine and Swine. They do their own improvisation in charcuterie (sausages and cured meats).

Really. How could they go wrong?

This followed an article in the Chicago Tribune about curing your own bacon.  And after eating the incredible handmade charcuterie at The Purple Pig, I decided I needed to try and make my own. And I’m starting with bacon ‘cause everything’s better with bacon.

I’m in the middle of the process now so I haven’t yet tasted whether Nueske’s has anything to worry about.

Perhaps the most difficult part so far in this culinary journey was finding the pork belly.  You’d think you could find that in your standard meat market, right?  Especially in Chicago where they trade millions of pork bellies on the Board of Trade every day.

Apparently it’s not that simple.

But, five meat markets and grocery stores later I casually asked at my favorite grocery store in the Chicago area – Caputo’s – if they happened to have any pork belly. To my surprise he responded with “oh sure, how much do you want?”  Disappearing into the back room, he re-appeared holding a slab wondering how much I wanted.

Selecting about 6 pounds of it, I did a little happy dance in the aisle and finished my grocery shopping.  Heading home, I mixed my spices together for the cure. A little fennel, some anise, kosher and curing salt and a few other things.  I must say, the rub smells pretty good.  I didn’t exactly follow a recipe on this one but with the nitrates involved probably should have.

I was reminded of some of the principles of improvisation and what makes it work and what leads to disaster.  Just the other night one of the chef’s on Masterchef was sent home because he let the techniques overpower the actual food.

Isn’t that what we sometimes do in our own work? We let the techniques, the tactics drive what we do and we follow them blindly.  For those of us in a service business we forget that what we do isn’t just a series of tactics to execute.  It’s about engaging customers . . . it’s about identifying problems or opportunities and creating solutions.

Sometimes we get so excited about using a particular tactic or approach that we don’t ask ourselves if this is even appropriate for the situation.  I think in today’s world, Social Media could fall into that category.

Lots of people are jumping into it without really having an understanding or a goal in mind. Somebody just said that they needed to be active in social media so they are broadcasting their message to anyone who might possibly listen.

The problem is that all too often it’s nothing more than noise pollution along the information superhighway.

It’s more than a tactic, it can . . . and should . . . be part of your overall engagement strategy.  Virgin America recently used this to promote its airline.  And they did it without saying a word.

Whoever is running their social media program improvised.

Here’s the scenario – a potential customer asks about the quality of the airline in trying to choose between carriers for his flight to New York.  Instead of just answering the question, the social media manager re-tweeted the request to Virgin Atlantic’s followers.

Instead of Virgin Atlantic answering this individual’s question, they let others respond.  And respond they did, they provided a ton of feedback so that the only answer the potential traveler could come to “where do I book my flight?”

Dave Brubeck’s improvisation the other night of Braham’s Lullaby was genius. My improvisation of chopsticks . . . not so much.  In another few days we’ll see if my improvisation on bacon is genius or if it’s a failed experiment.

I’ll let you know.

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