Hey, restaurant owners, managers, and operators.
Today we're going to dig a little deeper
into how to manage a restaurant. We're going to dig into systems,
processes, and procedures right now coming up.
Hey, everybody. Ryan gromfin here, author, speaker, chef, restaurateur,
founder of therestaurantboss.com, clickbacon.com,
scalemyrestaurant.com, and author of Make It Happen.
Now last week or in the last video, I think it was last week,
we covered restaurant manager basics,
how to manage a restaurant the basics. If you haven't watched that video yet,
please go and look for it. It'll be here or here or here or here.
It'll be somewhere, somewhere on the screen, somewhere on this page
will be a link for you to go and watch last video.
It's going to give you an introduction to what we're going to talk about today.
Today is going to build on that in that video.
I introduced you to
my theory, manage systems, develop people.
Manage systems, develop people. It's not even a theory, it's been proven for
10 years that I've been teaching this how successful this
idea, this shift in how you manage a restaurant can work.
You can't manage people and we talked about it in that video.
I'm just gonna bring it up here again. People can't be managed,
systems can be managed, and then people can be developed.
Manage systems, develop people.
In the next video, we're going to talk about developing people but today
we're going to talk about systems. So quickly,
I want to address the definition of a system.
It's important to note that anything can be turned into a system.
Anything can be documented systematized
and created into a process that others can follow.
Here is my general rule of thumb,
if you do something more than once,
not once in a while, more than once,
it needs to be a system.
You need to come up with a way that we do it,
a standard for which we do it,
how it is done, and then document that, and train your team,
and then store that document somewhere.
So that it can be referred to over and over and over again, whether that be
a checklist or a prep sheet or a recipe or an order guide
or a maintenance log or just a set of procedures of
how you do something like, change the filter in an air conditioning unit,
change the fan belt, right.
In instruction manual, is a system for how you do something,
so nearly anything can be turned into a system.
But today, I want to address what I call my core four.
Every restaurant in the world, no matter what type of service you offer,
needs to have these four systems in their restaurant.
The first is a checklist.
Checklists are designed to help your team
remember
what they need on their station for a successful service.
We check the items for
quantity and quality,
anything and everything required for a successful shift,
we check for quantity and quality.
So, a checklist is simply a list of
items that people need on their station whether it be a server,
a cashier, a cook, it doesn't matter.
If you need a whisk on your station for a successful service
then the whisk needs to be on the opening checklist.
If you need to turn off the lights and set the alarm before you walk out the door
then that needs to be on someone's closing checklist.
Again we're not going to get into great detail on exactly what each of these are
but you need checklists for every station in your restaurant.
The second is a prep list. In the front of the house,
we call this side work. In the back of the house,
we call them prep lists. They're pretty much the same thing.
The way that you determine what goes on a prep list
is based on the checklist.
If something on a checklist takes more than 30 seconds
to make, it needs to be on the checklist
because they need it for the service,
but it also needs to be on someone's prep list.
I use cheese as an example.
Let's say you buy grated parmesan cheese
and it comes in a bag.
And if you need it on your station, all you do is go to the walk and get the bag,
dump it in your little container.
Well, then it doesn't need to go on a prep list. There's nothing to prep.
If I'm setting up my station and I'm low on parmesan cheese, I just go to the walk-in and get more.
But if you grate your own parmesan cheese that takes more than 30 seconds,
so somebody needs to prep it.
Somebody needs to cut the rind off the parmesan,
run it through the grater, and put it in a container in the fridge.
So, when your cooks need it, it's in the fridge ready to go.
Same thing in front of the house, the stuff that they have to do like
napkin roll-ups or polished silver or polished glasses or
whatever has to be on a prep list or
side work as we call it in the front of the house.
The third system that every restaurant needs are recipes.
You absolutely need recipes. You can't get away without recipes.
Now my number one tip on recipes is if your recipes are greasy pieces
of paper written and scratched
out with things and notes all over them, throw them out and start over.
Your checklist, your systems, your processes need to look as great
as the quality of the food that you want your guests to receive.
If your recipes look terrible, the food will be terrible.
If your checklist look terrible,
your kitchen, your restaurant will not be set up properly. So, with recipes,
they need to look good.
If there's chicken scratch all over them, start over, clean them up.
And then the last thing are what are called build sheets.
Now build sheets are basically
we're putting up examples here as I talk but basically
a picture of the food a description of the food,
some quick kitchen directions, allergies, etc.
These are used to train your
front of the house staff as well as to help your back of the house staff.
I'm going to give you a very over simplified example of why
you need these four items, but imagine this scenario for a second.
Imagine you hired me as a cook in your restaurant and on day one,
I know how to cook.
I've cooked my whole life. I know how to cook almost anything,
but I don't know how to cook in your restaurant.
So, let's say your restaurant is a burger restaurant. I know how to cook a burger
but I know how to cook my burger not your burger.
But if you hire me on day one and you say Ryan,
here is your station checklist, here is your prep sheet,
here is the recipe book, and here are your build sheets.
I don't even need training.
Now I know this is a stretch but listen to me for a second here,
if I follow the checklist then I know what I need on my station
to get set up down to do I need olive oil in a squirt bottle,
do I need melted butter, do I need a brush in the butter or a spoon,
do I need a spatula with holes in it or spatula that's straight.
What do I need on my station
to make sure that I'm set for service? Then once I have all the
stuff on the checklist on my station,
I've got an hour until service starts. Well, what should I prep?
Let me go to my prep list and I'll go in the walk-in and see oh,
we're low on special sauce.
I'll go to the recipe book and get the recipe
for special sauce and then I'll put more
special sauce in the walk-in, and now I did my prep.
And then the first order for a cheeseburger comes in, and now in my head,
I'm like well do they toast the bun, do they griddle the bun, do they butter the bun, do they oil the bun.
Do they salt and pepper the hamburger on both sides or just on one side,
do they melt the cheese on the flat top or melt the cheese under the salamander.
All of that is on the build sheet.
Is the lettuce and tomato below the burger or above the burger,
do you put mayonnaise on the bottom bun or the top bun,does it even have mayonnaise
or does it have special sauce. I don't know.
But if I have a build sheet then I know.
You could literally not need to train your team if you have the right
systems in place. This is what I have been talking about the whole time. When I say
manage systems and then develop people,
again we're going to talk about developing people in the next video.
So the last thing I want to address here as I introduce you to
the next video which is going to be developing people,
is going to be what to do when your people aren't
following the systems.
I'm going to tell you an example from a client that, it's been an absolute privilege
to work with them, they're
probably one of the fastest growing concepts in the country right now.
I've worked with them for about four, four and a half years. And for six months,
we tried to fix
a couple of their restaurants that weren't doing very well. And
the owners made a very brave decision to sell one and close the other
and kind of start over. With everything, I was teaching them
while we were trying to fix their existing restaurants,
they decided that they would be better off
just starting over. So together, we developed a new concept and that concept
in the last three to three and a half years has opened up over 10 locations
and is probably one of the fastest growing concepts in the country.
And they've been amazing to work with.
It's been an absolute amazing journey working with them and seeing the growth
and the success that them and their team have had.
But I want to tell you a story early on when we created this new concept and got them open.
The owner would come in in the morning
and check in on one particular person.
And this person was the opening server and one of the items on their checklist
was to sweep the floor in the entryway of the restaurant
and the entryway outside the restaurant.
And when the owner came in he noticed multiple days that it wasn't swept properly
but it was checked off on the checklist.
So, the owner was constantly saying hey, I noticed you didn't
sweep the floor but it's checked off.
And this created kind of a conflict of course because
nobody likes to be managed and here's someone managing the person
calling them out. So, then the person said no, I swept the floor.
Of course, they're gonna say that. People say that to you all the time, no, they swept the floor.
What I taught him instead of engaging that way,
engage like this because it doesn't matter who's right or wrong all that matters is
the floor is swept properly.
So, we talked about this on the phone. And then the next day,
when he noticed the floor wasn't swept properly, instead of saying you didn't sweep the floor,
this owner said to the team member
hey, buddy, whatever his name was,
I noticed this morning the floor has not swept to our standard.
Well, now that team member can't argue that.
They can't say well, I swept it,
which is I think exactly what he said. Well, I swept it. He says, okay,
it's great, I saw that it's checked off, so I know you swept it
but it's not swept to our standard.
So, would you mind sweeping it again and making sure that it's
clean and to our standards? Sure. Sure, no problem.
Then after he does it, again he says to the team member,
great, tomorrow morning,
I expect the floor to be swept to this standard.
Well, the next morning it wasn't so instead of engaging with that person,
saying, hey, you didn't do it or hey, you didn't do it right, he just said
obviously I must have failed you, and I have not
taught you what our company standard is on how to properly sweep the floor.
So, tomorrow morning, I'm gonna come in early and
sweep the floor with you to make sure you understand our standard.
And that person said, no, no, that won't be necessary, I'll take care of it.
And then from then on, the floor was swept properly because
we changed it up.
It's not about the person, it's about the system,
it's about the standard, it's about the level that this is done.
It's about is the floor swept to my standard
not was the floor swept.
When you are saying that your systems,
your checklist don't work, it's because you're still managing
the person, you're not managing the checklist.
When something is not done and is not done right,
make it about it not being done right not about it not being done.
Make it about the system, the standard, the level that we expect,
the process not about the person.
Try this with your team
and I know you will be amazed at the results you're gonna get.
This is a great introduction to the next video about leadership,
about managing systems, and developing your people,
where we're going to cover a little bit more in depth about what
to do when your people are not following the systems
on a regular basis to the level that you need.
I thoroughly hope you enjoyed this week's video. And I love
bringing you more trainings, just like this.
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but until next week, remember systems create freedom,
freedom creates value, and value creates scale.
Have an amazing day. I love every single one of you crazy restaurant people. Bye-bye.
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Remember systems create freedom,
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Manage systems, develop people, and be awesome!