How Your Restaurant Culture Died

hey restaurant owners and operators I

want to talk to you about how your

restaurant culture died it's dead

it died how did it die and then let's

bring it back to life

[Music]

hey everybody Ryan Braun Fournier author

speaker chef restaurateur founder of the

restaurant boss calm click bacon calm

and scale my restaurant.com the way your

restaurant culture died was the first

time you said to another employee I know

I know I know he or she does it that way

and they're not supposed to I'll talk

about it tomorrow well your restaurant

culture died a little bit the minute

someone showed up late and you didn't

hold them accountable your culture died

the minute someone was caught talking on

their cell phone and you didn't hold

them accountable your culture died the

minute you walked by a laminated

checklist with a grease pan that was

supposed to be marked off from three

weeks ago for something and didn't do

anything about it

the moment you allowed your team to go

home early because it was a busy night

and they didn't clean the restaurant

properly and you said you're gonna do it

tomorrow all of these little things are

killing your culture to the point where

your culture is dead now you might be

saying Ryan you're standing on a soapbox

you're preaching so easy for you to sit

here and say that but I've been in your

shoes I've operated restaurants I've

made all these mistakes I know what it's

like I know how easy it is to do all the

things I've said but I'm here to tell

you that the only way to build the

business of your dreams to to grow and

to scale and build the restaurant that

you deserve that you desire that you

deserve is to enhance to have an amazing

restaurant culture a culture where

employees want to come to work a culture

where you love to come to work a culture

of improvement a culture of high

standards we're going to talk about that

word

more in a second high standards a

culture where your guests love to come

this all happens when we hold people

accountable when you hold yourself

accountable to the rules to the

standards you know the Navy SEALs have

an expression that soldiers don't rise

to the occasion when put under pressure

they either rise or fall to their

average level of training they don't

just all of a sudden make a shot that

they've never been able to make them

practice under pressure

we don't rise the occasion we fall or

rise to our average level of training

this is very similar to the expression

or to the fact that a chain is only as

strong as its weakest link

imagine chain is only as strong as its

weakest link so what does this mean to

your restaurant is very simple it means

that your restaurant is only as good

only as excellent only as strong only as

successful as its weakest standard as

its weakest standard so you may think

that your restaurant is incredible and

you do all this stuff great but if

you're not holding to those standards

you're gonna fall or rise to the median

level of your standards so your

restaurant is only as strong as the

weakest standard or maybe we could even

say it's only as strong as the average

of your standards but you want to

improve your business you want better

customers better guess you want those

great guests that share with the world

how awesome your food is you want them

to come in more often raise your

standards and when you raise your

standards you improve the culture and

all of a sudden the challenges that

you're having with staff not coming in

on time they're gonna come in on time

because it's an amazing place to work

the challenges you're having with your

staff using their cell phones they're

gonna stop using them because it's an

amazing place to work I have this

conversation with clients over and over

again and they tell me all of these

challenges they have with your staff and

when I hear that staff is on the phone

all the time

they're not following recipes we don't

address that head-on we address their

culture and when we fix their culture

those people either work their way out

or step up and improve their training

because the standards are held higher I

shouldn't have even said step up because

that's not really what I meant what I

meant is that the culture around those

people improves and we all float up with

it so again whether it's the Navy SEALs

expression that is people don't rise or

soldiers don't rise to the occasion we

fall to our average level of training a

chain is only as strong as its weakest

link your restaurant is only as strong

as your weakest standard so how do we

improve standards well that's very

simple first identify areas where your

standards are lacking or your standards

are weak or you just don't even have

standards number two set the new

standard set the new standard make the

change write it down document it say

never again are we allowing people to be

on their cell phones never again are we

allowing this to happen set that new

standard then number three hold your

team accountable to it raise the

standard hold your team accountable to

it number four measure and number five

refine are we making the improvements

and if we're not what can we tweak what

can we change in the standard this

system this process this procedure to

make it better at the end of the day I

just want to leave you with the fact

that every time you break a standard

every time you feel that pit in your

stomach when you say I know I should be

doing this I know I should be enforcing

that I know I should be doing a better

job on this but you don't you are

killing your culture and it's like a

cancer to your restaurant it will slowly

eat it to death so let's improve that

let's raise our standards let's improve

our culture let's go out and crush it so

you can have the business and the life

that you have dreamed of that you desire

that you

deserve I hope you enjoyed this week's

training video and I look forward to

bringing you another one just like this

next week

have a wonderful day want to improve

your skills as a manager and make more

money did you get handed the manager job

and weren't given the support you need

are you nervous about applying for a

restaurant manager position managing

restaurants bars and kitchens is not

easy I know I have been there I want to

help the difference between where you

are now and here you want to be there's

a plan and some new tools that is why I

created the Restaurant Manager

Certification it's a boot camp for

aspiring restaurant leaders designed to

simplify your path to the top learn more

at the restaurant Boston forward slash

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