Your bar back tapped the wrong keg for the second time this week and you had to dump another 15 pints down the drain. For the third time this week you had a server leave without rolling their silver.
When we come across a problem we want or need to fix, we have two initial courses of action.
- Slap on a band aid.
- Take the time to work out a solution that will solve the problem in the long term.
Increasingly, ours is a culture of instant gratification. If the solution will take longer than we feel we have or requires repeated follow up, many people tend to go with a quick fix. This “I’ll get to it later.” attitude can cost you dearly in the long term. What shocks me is how many times I watch people gloss over an issue that keeps coming up often enough and is serious enough to make them feel like they are losing control.
The next time you come across any issue, ask yourself:
- Do I have the time to slap a band-aid on this?
- If I do, how much time will it cost me to resolve it long term?
- Will spending 20 minutes to plan out a solid course correction save hours of my life and dollars on my bottom line in the end?
- If I can’t figure out the solution, is there a Restaurant Coach I can reach out to who can help me?
There are many solutions you can implement that will allow you to fully address and solve any given issue in your business. Best practice tells us to
If you just throw a bandaid on it, how much “blood” will you lose?
