observation
April 29, 2007 by Mary Wynne-Wynter
If you’re serious about change facilitation and small business transformation, and believe in the power of observation, check out Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC. I’ve been watching it for years and learn something with every episode. Its nothing like the U.S. version, called Hell’s Kitchen, which I’m told is mostly a vulgar shock-fest with none of the business learning or human interest of the British series.
The show is about turning around businesses on the brink of disaster and although its the restaurant/hospitality industry, the lessons are applicable to any business, and include:
- leadership
- purpose
- management
- teamwork
- communication
- facilitation, mentoring and coaching
- process, organization and efficiency
- customer experience and service
- brand promise
- feedback
- simplification, focus and clarity
- marketing
- employee performance and problems
The program reinforces my belief that, in order to best help a small business team turn around its service problems, a solo professional service firm (psf) must be allowed the opportunity to observe, and to some extent partake in, the team activities.
Be prepared for resistance from clients when you propose this because its a lot more comfortable for them to just “tell you what they know” and thus avoid the risk of rocking the boat or making things worse by bringing in an outsider. I’ve learned that addressing one small problem at a time while building trust is the best course of action and gradually overcomes resistance.
Of course in the real world, you can’t you can’t go around yelling and swearing at your clients Gordon Ramsay style. But on the other hand, providing them only with theoretical advice and recommendations, and non-contextual training, will do little to help move teams, owners and managers from where they are, to where they want to be.
Here’s a show episode:
Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares
Technorati Tags:
generalist, solo professional service firm, customer experience, ramsays kitchen nightmares
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