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The model consists of cooks (back of the house) and waiters (front of the house). Presently, members of the subgroups do not assist each other. Occasionally, mild mutual sabotage occurs. This pattern has persisted for decades, and has remained in place through numerous managers.
The goal for the restaurant group is increased effectiveness, perhaps leading to improved profits
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Ahh…good old change management…it’s an art not a science that’s for sure.
What you’re looking at here is creating culture change with-in an organization. It’s always difficult to give some ideas without full understanding of the situation but here are some thoughts.
You have two options with culture change management
1) Fire all but the good ones and start again…I’ve had to do that once before…it was fun to see the looks on their faces.
2) The slow method of attrition, a counter insurgence if you will. THEY have taken over and you need to slowly win back hearts and minds.
Option 1 is expensive but quick, Option 2 is slower but cheaper, Always comes down to organizational goals. I’m pretty sure you’re buddy would prefer option 2 here.
Here’s one way I’ve done it in the past.
1 – Realize it’s a slow process at first; he’ll need to achieve momentum.
2 – Hand pick your most positive, teachable, humble staff and roster them all on the same shift. Probably going to be your junior staff unfortunately.
3 – Use strategies to create change in that shift only. Should be easier, cos their naturally motivated.
4 – All new staff members are scheduled into that shift, therefore picking up the best cultural habits. If need be he should run that shift, and from a profitability PoV it should be the most profitable shift changed first.
5 – Slowly take over one shift at a time, as bad staff leave (natural attrition) you are replacing them with well cultured staff. Kinda like starting a cultural beachhead, build up forces, then break out. D-Day kinda thing.
6 – He’d probably only need to effect this change in the 6 weekend shifts and Thur Fri dinner shifts and natural momentum will carry it the rest of the way. 8 shifts over 6-12 months at my guess. Natural attrition is probably around 50% per annum at a guess. You’ll have some hard liners who stick around and don’t want to change, those you fire when it’s the right time and their experience is no longer indispensable.
7 – Don’t let any staff know what you’re doing; most won’t appreciate the feeling of being “managed” You may be able to bring only your most trusted and senior staff into your confidences.
This kinda thing needs to very carefully planned and managed, will tend to cost some money due to change becoming the focus not profitability, you need management buy-in, but there is a return on investment.
Don’t miss the opportunity to install other changes in the pilot shift as well, system changes, etc.
Ultimately you want to develop a customer focused culture…
Instill internal customer understanding.
Help cooks understand that the waiter IS the customer, difficult due to common arrogance in line cooks.
Help the waiters to understand operational constraints so that they LEAD the cooks better.
Instill remuneration structure accordingly. The Waiters ARE the cooks bosses, but teach the waiters good people and leadership skills. I know it’s common to have the waiters tip the bus boys and barman, how about the cooks?
Do a customer centric hierarchy diagram. Customer at the top, then the waiter, along down the line to management at the bottom. The manager serves the cooks who serve the waiter who serve the customer kinda thing.
Again can be very situation dependant, but hope that generated some ideas
S