As I start this first experiment writing about a weighty, risky decision that Peter and I made, I realize there are multiple ways I could go. So many thoughts and topics to reflect on. But today, I'm choosing to journal about the past month of training. Friday wrapped up the first segment of a five-month program that will take me through all the functions within the Field. This first installation took me into the restaurant. An attempt to get me fully comfortable with the true business of our business.
That meant putting on an apron, visor, no slip shoes and a crew shirt, learning how to prep, cook, assemble, and serve our food and beverages to customers, learning how to use the register, take orders, and cash out as quickly as possible, and learning how to move the drive thru faster, run food out to guests with complicated orders, deal with an angry customer who was waiting too long, and then not let said customer ruin the rest of your day. Eventually, I learned how to lead - how to run an area of the restaurant, then a shift, and then how to lead the restaurant at large. I graduated on Friday by no means an expert, but very competent in how things work. Which I'm proud of.
The training program was guided by a regimented schedule, accompanied by online workshops, and supported through many of the Crew and Managers at the restaurant. I learned a ton. And each week, I wrote a recap to our senior leadership team, so they could understand what I was learning and what I was taking away. If I put all those recaps together, there would be a 20 page exhibit to read through. So instead, I'll recap the recaps. That is, deliver the key highlights. And after that, share some themes that I will carry forward as I lead.
1. My arrival.
On my first day, I arrived ready to go mentally, but physically speaking, things went awry. I had pulled out my no slip shoes from when I worked at Eleven Contemporary Kitchen, years ago. More specifically, 18 years ago. I wore a white tee since I hadn't received my uniform shirt yet, and a pair of black pants. And I walked into the restaurant to find my guide for this leg of the operations journey. He was in the lobby, sitting at a high top table, so I moseyed over and sat at a stool across from him. We introduced ourselves, went through the plan, had a couple laughs, and then the GM and Supervisor came over to orient me with the restaurant. No, they didn't have a uniform shirt for me, but I would get one tomorrow. Just as they said, okay, you ready to come behind the counter, I stood up and realized there was dirt all around where I was sitting. Dirt, in the middle of a perfectly clean lobby. At closer examination, and feeling a little wobbly on my feet, I noticed that it wasn't dirt, but the material from the bottom of my shoes. They had disintegrated while I was sitting there, resting my feet on the bars of the stool. I was mortified. The GM called Ruben the maintenance man to come over and sweep up. I wanted to dive over and get the broom before him and clean up my own mess, but he insisted. I went home and changed, ordered some new no slip shoes from Amazon, and prayed that this first impression wouldn't impact the rest of this experience. Highlight number one. I didn't feel any judgment.
2. In the kitchen.
After my unfortunate first morning, I got to work in the kitchen, largely trained by a tenured Crew person named Herman. He taught me how to assemble sandwiches at breakfast and at lunch. He taught me how to grill eggs, bacon, breakfast steak and sausage in the morning, then burgers in the afternoon. He taught me how to drop fried products. How to toast buns. And how to do everything as fast as possible. He was patient with me, kind to me, and ever filled with care for the customer he was making the food for. He rode his bike 8 miles a day to get to and from the restaurant, seven days a week. He's worked there for 30 years and has passed up leadership positions, because he likes his hours, and the work he does. It's simple and enjoyable. And that's what he wants. Highlight number two. Understanding the hard and humble work of the kitchen Crew. But also the joy they find in it.
3. Order assembly and service.
At the end of the prep line, on the other side of the kitchen, stands the service staff who together, make the beverages, assemble the individual components into the meal, scoop the fries, take the orders, deliver them to the customers, and then talk to them about everything from how they are enjoying their meal to how they are celebrating Star Wars day. One might think there was a separate person for each of these tasks given the amount of customers we serve, and the speed at which we do things. But the majority of the time, people are doing two or three of these jobs at once. For example, the person making beverages is also always taking orders in the drive thru. Or the person assembling for the drive thru, is also moving fries from fryer to heated bin, salting them, and them scooping them to complete the meal and hand it over to the presenter in the drive-thru window. Or, as Rosa in the cashier window does so flawlessly, takes cash at the same time that she takes orders, all under 15 seconds. The crew doing these jobs are sophisticatedly fast, they can predict each others movements, they immediately fill in where they see a gap, and they compensated time and time again for my errors, voiding mistakes before the customer could get too upset. Highlight number 3: the impressive and nearly error-proof multi-tasking that enables the speed of our business.
4. Customer care.
In the service industry, the customer is always right. And if you were dealing with a business model where you only see 50 to 100 customers a day, I would have no problem sucking it up, and moving on. I worked in a restaurant where we served 120 customers per hour in the drive thru alone. And statistically speaking, it's almost impossible to get every order perfectly right. So, I saw a fair share of customers complaining. And right or wrong, there complaints could be brutal. A woman threw down a bowl of salad on the counter, and begrudgingly asking if I would eat it? (There was one piece of lettuce with a brown edge, and yes, I would have eaten it.) A man yelled at me for not ringing up his order the right way, telling the GM that 'I told her it was a meal!' People were incredibly frustrated that I couldn't punch in their order at the speed they were telling it to me. And people came up to me, and complained about other members of the Crew. Highlight number 4: Customer care, in an environment where the customers don't always seem to care can be incredibly challenging.
5. Language barriers.
I worked in a bilingual restaurant, which is probably an overstatement. It was in reality a Spanish speaking restaurant, with me and two others as the dominant English speakers. I don't speak Spanish, and there were times, when it was tough to communicate, to learn, and to avoid hiccups in our processes. There was a time when I got so frustrated, I signed 'more' as I would to the twins. It was out of habit, but I found myself relying on gestures and masked facial expressions to convey what needed to be done and when. I can see how challenging this would be for a significant portion of our restaurants, where this is the reality. And realized we have to find ways to better bridge the language gap. Beyond language, it was a cultural education. Highlight number 5: I left the restaurant with some new phrases in my Spanish vocabulary, with an appreciation for Mexican music which I listened to every day in the kitchen, for the familial nature of the people I worked with, and with utmost appreciation for their desire to welcome me into their community.
I could go on, but these were the highlights in my learning journey. These experiences bubbled up into themes, that I think are important to acknowledge, recognize, and reward in the future. They are things that I will take into the next steps of my journey, and particularly, when I take the reigns as a leader.
- First, the job is hard. The people working at the restaurant, from the entry level employee up through the general manager, work their butts off every single day. It's humble work, and sometimes humiliating work, and they do it with a smile on their face. The people that work in service are heroes. And we ought to thank them more often for all they do.
- With that in mind, customers - before you don frustration and fury at your local crew, reflect on the job they are doing. Grilling for 8 hours a day in a hot kitchen, making sandwiches at lightening speed, reading through ten orders at a time at the front counter to build yours to specification, making the fries fresh, putting the whipped cream on your mocha, all while thinking through what their future might hold - how they could earn a college degree, if they will have a chance for a job in management, if there is an easier way for the next generation.
- And finally, as a company person, who was in and out of kitchens for eight years, and who just this past month, truly understood what it feels like to be in the restaurant, I have a word of caution. We have to get closer to the restaurants. On a continued basis. Yes, we were hired as MBAs, PHDs, MSAs and JDs, but in order for us to build the right strategies and make the right decisions, as smart as we all think we are, we need to understand the true business of our business.
Tomorrow, I start the next part of my journey which is an understanding of how to visit, coach, and support the restaurants and our franchisees. This next month, should be equally eye-opening and rewarding.
Lo.
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