Anyone who travels for business knows that it is hardly glamorous. After 9/11, however, it became even more frustrating, and it keeps getting worse. I don’t think I’d be overstating it to say that business travel today is horrific: irretrievably lost luggage, annoying security searches, perpetually oversold flights, infuriating rental car policies, frazzled counter staff … I think you get the picture.

Despite all the traumas of travel, I decided a few years ago to always keep a smile on my face. … I keep a smile on my face by keeping my eye on a prize. My prize at the end of every business travel day is a vanilla milkshake … I’m talking a hand-dipped, old-fashioned, malt-shoppy kind of milkshake. I don’t just like’em; I love ‘em. Both my career and my mental well-being literally depend on them. The image of that milkshake is the proverbial dangling carrot that gets me through even the worst travel day.

It had been a particularly difficult day of planes, trains, and automobiles. …

I grabbed my bags and stood in a long taxicab line to take the 20-minute ride to Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor. I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry, but smiling, because I was going to get that vanilla milkshake. … The thought of that milkshake was still working its magic. I could almost taste it. Everyone else in the lobby must have been wondering why I was smiling. …

I returned to room #809 with my … key and this time it worked. Yes! I didn’t even put the bags down. I hurried straight to the phone and immediately hit the button for room service. As soon as I heard the ring on the other end, my mouth began to water. The moment had arrived. It was time to claim my prize.

“Good evening, Mr. Little, this is Stuart in room service. How may I help you?” Stuart’s voice brimmed with enthusiasm. He was so chipper, filled with the idealism of youth. Quite the eager beaver for one o’clock in the morning. Yet he sounded quite polite and well trained. At this point in the transaction, I was relatively encouraged … at this point, anyway.

“Stuart, I’d like a vanilla milkshake, please,” I said. A seemingly simple request, right? Well, not quite.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Little, but we don’t have milkshakes,” Stuart replied regretfully.

I was crushed. In that instant, my smile flickered. Quickly I regrouped.

“All right, Stuart, let me ask you this: Do you have any vanilla ice cream?”

“Yes, of course!” he responded with renewed enthusiasm.

“Okay, Stuart, I’d like a full bowl of vanilla ice cream.”

“Yes sir, right away, sir! Is there anything else I can do to serve you?” Stuart asked.

“Yeah … do you have any milk?”

“Yes, we have milk!” he replied confidently.

“All right, Stuart, here’s what I would like you to do. Please send up a tray with a full bowl of vanilla ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a long spoon. Could you do that for me, please?”

“Certainly, right away, sir,” Stuart responded triumphantly.

I hung up the phone and a few minutes later there was a knock. Sure enough, at my door there was a tray with a full bowl of vanilla ice cream, half a glass of milk, and a long spoon—everything needed to make a vanilla milkshake. But of course they didn’t have vanilla milkshakes.

Now let me ask you an important question. Is Stuart stupid? …

Frankly, Stuart’s IQ is beside the point. For the purposes of this book, let’s assume Stuart is not stupid. It’s the system that’s stupid.

Stuart’s behavior is not unique. Like the vast majority of employees everywhere, Stuart wanted to do a good job. To this day, he probably still thinks he did. …

Why does this keep happening? Why can’t individuals like Stuart deliver Milkshake Moments? I’ve had plenty of time to ponder that question now that I’ve received over 200 do-it-yourself vanilla milkshakes from America’s leading business hotels. …

Consider your organization. When are you saying no when it would be much better and just as easy to say yes? Are you really putting people in the best position to grow? Do your current policies, procedures, and systems enable you to truly deliver?

So what is a Milkshake Moment? It’s certainly not a full bowl of ice cream half a glass of milk, and a long spoon. Instead, a Milkshake Moment is a brave individual action, be it big or small,  that furthers the cause of growth in an organization. Milkshake Moments materialize when individuals understand the organization’s true purpose, honestly believe it is their job to fulfill it, and are given the tools and the freedom to make it happen. When a would-be growth leader managing deep within the bowels of a stagnating organization has the guts to stand up and say, “This idea is contrary to everything we say we believe,” that’s a Milkshake Moment. When a thinking person is given the freedom to seize an opportunity afforded by change, that’s a Milkshake Moment. When a small business owner consciously puts purpose before profit, that’s a Milkshake Moment. When the executive director of a nonprofit foundation challenges the status quo views of her tenured board members, that’s a Milkshake Moment.

This … is about that precise, critical point in time when members of twenty-first-century organizations realize they are allowed to do the right thing—to serve the interests of others in order to grow the organization—instead of following arcane, arbitrary rules, processes, and procedures that actually hinder growth. Only when we remove our own self-imposed barriers can we seize new opportunities in structured settings. A Milkshake Moment can only be realized when growth leaders clearly communicate an organization’s true purpose and grant individuals permission to do whatever can be done ethically to achieve it.

Buy the book.