“Your pad and pen are as important as your shoes! In fact, I WOULD SOONER SEE YOU RUN THE FLOOR OF MY RESTAURANT BAREFOOT THAN WITHOUT THE PAD AND PEN!!”

This was the scolding I received as a young restaurant manager from my GM after arriving to work without my back pocket pad and pen. The public reprimand stung… but it stuck.

In fact, it changed my life.

My team was trained not only to jot down “To Do’s”, but also to record valuable observations on the fly, all shift long. Typically a 10-hour shift would yield 20-50 bullet points.

Finalizing a shift ALWAYS meant transferring this info to the management log book (today an online version). This info was the basis of our weekly management meeting. Every manager/supervisor contributed.

To each bullet scribbled we applied the “3D Principle”: Do, Delegate or Delete.

PATTERN RECOGNITION allowed us to understand the past and predict the future.

Ask Yourself?

• Does every member of my management team RECORD VALUABLE INTEL EVERY SHIFT?

• Is that INFORMATION CONSOLIDATED AND CENTRALIZED?

• Do we MEET WEEKLY to discuss and ACT on that data?

If the answer to ANY of the above questions is “NO”, your bar/restaurant is underperforming.

Be brilliant at the basics,