The twelfth month of the year is on the calendar, the cold is back in the country and Sinterklaas is now back in Spain. Family, friends and colleagues begin to broach the subject and the tucked-away memories of last year come back to me. It's time for Christmas dinner again.
Last year was, to say the least, not such a success. When doing the shopping, the first problems surfaced. I had no idea what exactly everyone would want to drink and at checkout I suddenly had insufficient balance. The preparation left a lot to be desired here. During the evening of the dinner, it turned out that a number of people who had indicated that they would come suddenly did not show up and Davey, who had indicated that he would not be there, was suddenly there again.
I had to put up with that disappointment quickly, the food would make up for everything. My specialty, the turkey, already made the whole house smell wonderful. Upon serving it turned out that some of my friends had become vegetarian. As the icing on the cake, my best friend's boyfriend over the dessert, which was richly filled with pistachios, turned out to have a nut allergy. There was no chocolate to make, everything went to hell and it didn't turn out to be the party I had envisioned.
This year I want to do it completely different. I no longer intend to cook all the dishes myself, but will divide the tasks. Drinking and dietary requirements, groceries, allergies, attendance and, if necessary, wish lists, everything must be clear in advance. This year nothing is left to chance. I decide to first completely outline all the steps needed to organize the Christmas dinner. It strikes me that arranging the menu and sending the invitations are parallel processes with its own tasks, activities and responsibilities. In fact, it is nothing more than a workflow that needs to be brought to a successful conclusion within a company. What would happen if I started approaching that Christmas dinner from that workflow perspective?
