“There’re multiple kinds of growth. There’s growth in dollars, growth in volume, growth in square footage, and equipment/assets. Another way to look at growth is in a sense of worth, personally, sense of purpose, sense of environmental impact or something that makes us better human beings, living in a better world.”

A big part of a growth culture is the right team. Inbound recruiting is the difference between hiring someone to fill a slot and recruiting capable, like-minded team members. Like all things Miick it begins with grounding your business in purpose and values. 

Applicants that are simply looking for a paycheck are easy to find, and just as easy to lose. Great teams have low turn over rates. Turnover is inefficient, it costs time and money. 

The first step of inbound recruiting is to tell the story of your business. Who are you? How do you fit into your community? Other than making a great product or delivering great service, what do you bring to the world?  What sets you apart as a work place? If you can paint the picture of your vision, it will attract people who want to make a difference in the same way you do.

Rudy explains the difference between hiring and recruiting as, 

“Your sign says ‘Now hiring cook.’ That’s what I’m going to get – at best – is a cook. At worst I’m going to get a cook that’s got a cocaine or meth habit and they call themselves a cook. 

“Versus I could recruit, and even though I’m a restaurant, not even a fancy restaurant, just a local one, I can put my story in the paper – meaning Indeed, Monster, Craig’s List, wherever it posts. Maybe even in my window. But instead of saying ‘Help wanted, cook’ I’m going to tell the story of our culture and how we build a community through our food and our service. How we are a place of restoral, so if you want to be treated with dignity and respect, if you want to create and learn, not only are we hiring and paying top wages, we’re doing open books and profit sharing.

“At the same time we say ‘Here’s our purpose, here’s our values’ we take it seriously. Before you even fill out the application, make sure this sounds like the place for you. Just that kind of a statement in the recruiting does filter about 10 to 25 percent of the applicants. And we know that for a fact from research we’ve done with our own work. 

“So the recruiting piece is first we’re filtering for attitude and action. Second, we’re interviewing. Part of the interview then is also looking for the fit. ‘You say you are interested in our values, let’s now see how you articulate those values in action. And if we bring you onboard, the likelihood is you will stay.’ In the restaurant business, typical turnover is 200% per year. Ours is 20%. We still have turn over, but it’s healthy, were people move on to a better opportunity, a new adventure.”

The post Recruiting With Intention to Support Growth Culture appeared first on The Miick Companies.

What’s coming in ’23? Likely, more of the same. No doubt, more AI and robotics, ever tighter client budgets, headaches with hiring and retention, more demand for tech solutions with faster, more consistent production. The list goes on. Chaos or not, this is what we signed up for as professional foodservice consultants. At the same time, with the pandemic, recession, war, supply chain disruption and more, I find myself asking a different question for 2023.  

What can we do to maximize our effectiveness, our work, our growth, and our teams?

The post TWO SIMPLE STEPS: RUDY MIICK FCSI ON EASY WAYS TO DEAL WITH THE CHALLENGES OF THE YEAR appeared first on The Miick Companies.

If not before, the last couple of years have taught us, that change is ongoing.  So, the first thing is to build the expectation of change into your business model.

When staffing your business, be sure that the expectation is that this company is always looking to improve. Miick founder, Rudy Miick, puts it like this, “If we know we are a company that’s going to keep evolving, and that evolution is normal, evolution at speed, then part of our brand messaging to applicants, not even staff, but applicants – is to be clear, ‘We’re interviewing people who love change or who are at least comfortable with it.’ Before someone gets an interview, we had better send really clear messaging that that is what we’re about.”

With a basic expectation of evolving at every level of the team, it is easier to plan and implement changes.

With that as a base, Rudy talks about choosing what changes are right for you. “This theme is the construct of change. What do I want to be different? Anything I can conceive. And the more specific I can be, the better as opposed to saying ‘let’s just do a better job.’ How do you figure out what that means? There are four basic questions to consider. What am I happy with? What do I want to keep?

What do I want to change or evolve? Evolve is the pivotal word here.

And last, what do I want to get rid of, what do I want to stop?”

The answers to these questions will lead to strategies. Those strategies will depend on where you decide you need change. Some examples might be: Does the bookkeeping need to be more granular? Does the process of getting from order to production need updating? Are there products or services you want to shift away from? How can we provide better training for new employees or update training for existing staff?

One of the things to realize is that not all change is equally easy to adopt. Even a company culture that embraces change can run into resistance. Rudy says, “Culturally stopping old habits and starting new ones is really hard. Not unlike weight loss or stopping drinking. Because culture has its own addiction, has its own pull. I have the existing culture and I have the potential strategy to change or keep or evolve whatever it is I want, and therein is the world of strategic planning.

“But 85 percent of strategic planning fails because there is a third component that most companies don’t look at. The first two are culture and strategy and the third component is structure. What needs to change structurally to support the new strategy? Even if we’re going to keep something, how do we keep it during COVID? How do we keep it in the great resignation? How do we keep it when shifting from hand drawn materials to computers? So it is a three-pronged approach, strategy, structure, and culture. Suddenly, change management integrates into business development. That is something that Miick does really, really well. Up to and including the way that we use values as verbs, the way we work on purpose, and more so the way we talk to each other. So the change becomes not just strategic, but structural change. So the question then becomes what needs to change in the structure to support the strategy? One strategy might be for sales, one strategy for manufacturing, and one for bookkeeping. For example, at unit one, it’s just kind of automatic. Unit two I’m juggling, but I realize I could be more efficient if I hired a bookkeeper and got a bookkeeping system. So, the strategy is, get a bookkeeping system. The structure is, bring somebody in from the outside. So this strategy, structure culture thing is not static, it is a spiral. It keeps evolving.”

Fundamentally, in the culture of your company you expect and embrace change. You strategize ways to implement those changes. But how does the existing structure prevent that? Does the hierarchy of the team support the strategy? Do you need to create a new kind of position within the employee structure to make the changes effective? Do you need to eliminate a position? Is the physical layout of your production facility still going to work if you add new products or change the materials you use? How does complying with a new mandate or update to your mission require changes in the structures that are currently your foundation?

Effective change is the product of self-questioning. It works best when all of the affected teams and team members have input in the implementation of strategy and at the level of structural adjustments to support those strategies. Next Up: One thing that warrants change – A hostile work culture

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Social norms are shifting. Technology advances at an ever-increasing pace. Some changes we can easily anticipate (the change of the seasons, the turnover of administrations in the U.S.), others can blindside us (pandemics, natural disasters, equipment failure). Change is inevitable. Being prepared for it is not. 

So how does a company fortify itself to withstand the myriad of changes that the world throws at it? It starts with the fundamental Miick tools of purpose, values, and mission. One of the primary values to be enacted is to operate on profit, and not simply cash flow.

Rudy puts it like this, ”Number one: If I live on cash flow instead of profit I can live a really great lifestyle as long as things are good. The second there’s a downturn I’m in trouble. When something downturns as radically as the pandemic did we’re out of business, literally the whole business model changes.

“Number Two: If I’m lacking sense of purpose, that is to say, if my purpose is only to make money, if I’m lacking sense of purpose, then my board or my investors or my team or me personally is simply performing on opinion, not the purpose. Consequently, we end up screaming and yelling at each other in the boardroom, and while we’re wasting time having drama trying to figure out what to do, we’re going broke at speed. Or my team is getting sick and we are not adaptable.

“Here’s what suddenly happens: those companies with a war chest they have money because fiscal well-being is a value that they’ve honored. So even in negative cash flow they have a war chest. They also have a definitive sense of purpose. So the thinking becomes: ‘If I cannot deliver my product in the typical way I figure out, at speed, how to achieve our vision based on our purpose, guided by our values. This translates into I can do delivery. I can do pick up and carry out. Now, the way I package, the way I meet you at the door, the way my product carries back to your home is as good as the finest restaurant in the world. Suddenly, instead of being one down, I’m one up. We take pandemic and turn it into opportunity.”

Another key component to being able to execute those quick changes in the face of disaster are the communication tools that Miick provides. Rudy explains, “We have this saying, Communication is the primary how. No matter what we’re doing, communication is the pivot piece, it is the actualization tool that shifts the idea to actualization.

The way we speak to each other, acknowledgment of our differences, acknowledgment of naming the elephant in the room, what we call the moose in the room,  by opening the door to communication that allows me to say ‘I’m not feeling good’ or ‘I need to stay home and take care of my kid’ or ‘How do we do production with half the team?’ suddenly that’s doable – even though we’re in the middle of the radical challenge.

“Three kinds of companies have survived and thrived: 

1st: Single units, those that are hierarchical and there’s one person who makes good decisions and says ‘GO’. 

2nd: Those with what might be considered having “unlimited” capital.

3rd: Third is our kind of organizational structure where nimbleness shows up, quickness complexity shows up, at speed, where there’s efficiency even though everything around us is traumatic.”   Clear culture and values-driven decisions stoke the decision-making fire here! 

While the examples above have focused on the response to  Covid-19, the same ideas apply to any kind of curveball that can come at a business. 

Next Up: Embracing Change at a Fundamental Level.

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Once upon a time, there were three businesses. Each one had a recently hired staff member named Chris.   At each company, Chris’ boss gave Chris a list to purchase.  The list read: Juice, Milk, Water. 

At company number one Chris, eager to make a good impression, raced to the store and was back with the items in less than 20 minutes. When Chris returned, the boss surveyed the bag and let out a disappointed sigh. “You idiot! Why did you buy grape juice?” As the boss pulled items from the bag, they banged their fist on the table. “And a gallon of whole milk? I only need a quart of 2 percent. Distilled water? What were you thinking? Can’t you people even do a simple job?” This was not the first time that Chris had heard complaints about employee performance in an angry or dismissive tone.

At company number two, Chris was also eager to please. The list seemed a tad vague, but the boss looked busy and Chris wasn’t sure it would be okay to interrupt. Chris decided to wing it and raced to the store. Upon Chris’s return the boss surveyed the bag. “I’m so sorry. My list wasn’t very clear. I should have told you. Fresh squeezed orange juice, a quart of 2 percent milk and regular water. In the future, that’s what I’ll want. Or I’ll give you a list that is more detailed.” Chris was embarrassed, at the mistake, but was glad to be appreciated for the effort. Chris felt that next time would go a lot better.

At company number three, Chris managed to catch the boss before leaving. “I was looking at this list and I have a few questions. What kind of juice? How much milk? Do you need drinking water, seltzer or distilled?” The boss replied, “Thank you so much for asking,” and outlined what they wanted in detail. 

Company number one has a hostile culture. The boss assumed that Chris would know what the list meant. Then the boss was angry when Chris got Chris’s favorite items, not what the boss actually wanted. In a culture like this, Chris would have met the same kind of negative feedback, anger, and belittling when asking a question to clarify the list. The boss is not taking responsibility to make their expectations understood, and then blaming the “bad help” for screwing it up. 

There is a pattern of anger, abusive or belittling comments and lack of respect for the staff. It is the repletion, the pattern of negative behavior, the micro-aggression that build up to make this a hostile culture.

The boss at company number two fell into the trap of thinking that the employee could read their mind, but realized that had they written a clear list, outlining what they actually needed, Chris would have done a good job. They took responsibility for being unclear and let Chris know what would be expected in the future. Not ideal, but certainly not hostile.

Company number three has an atmosphere where Chris felt asking for clarification was going to be okay. This willingness to provide clarity and direction is at the foundation of a functional work place culture. It is still possible for hostile elements to creep in, but it is much less likely.

One of the first steps to avoiding a hostile a culture is to define expectations by communicating clearly and encouraging staff to ask for clarification. 

Worse than the unclear directive, is the boss knows what they don’t want, and often spends a lot of energy focusing on that, which is what ends up being foremost on the minds of employees. Instead of what the company really needs staff to do, they are focusing on what they should not be doing. There is no reward or acknowledgement for doing the right things. Employees are working out of fear of reprisal. Anytime fear is the foundation of behavior, the culture is likely to be hostile and can be toxic. 

Miick founder, Rudy Miick says, “If we don’t establish what is expected, watch out.  When you call me names, or belittle me, that’s hostile. Call me a name once, even if not hostile, trust or respect is lost.  But if you consistently keep giving me what we’ll call “ambiguous lists” and expect me to guess what you mean, or translate them, and then get angry at me when I bring the wrong stuff, that’s hostile. Period, end of subject. 

Harassment and “Hostile” is as simple as this little list.  “Micro aggressions” add up.  Do you have a hostile work environment by accident?  Where you’re headed with harassment or a hostile work environment is a minimum quarter million-dollar lawsuit, likely closer to half a million.  You’re done. If you don’t have a war chest, you’re done. You’re out of business.”   Pay attention here.

Next Up: Diversity is an important foundation to a successful workplace culture.

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Cash flow is the combination and “flow of” money coming in through revenue-generating mechanisms and the money flowing out to pay bills, staff and your own salary.

Rudy Miick, as a business growth coach points out, “The great majority of small businesses, certainly in the restaurant industry, live on cash flow, not profit. Sad but true. Here comes the pandemic and hard lessons are learned fast, you find cash flow cut by two thirds or more, over-night.  Maybe there’s enough cash reserve to last two weeks, maybe a month. There is no war chest, there’s no additional bank account. And for many if not most, there is little to no profit. For most small and mid-sized businesses, the habit is only cash flow.  In crisis, cash flow is not enough.  

Here are three tips about cash flow strategy: 

Overview:

There’s got to be profit.  Sad but true, the restaurant industry, as a model, alludes to sales and unit growth as the leading indicator of success, as a “hot trend.” This is a great story until it’s not, and it’s certainly not great modeling for start-ups. 

To build a war chest requires being able to set aside money. This can only be done from profit and cash management strategy of cash flow. 

Tips/Action steps:

One-

The first key to profit is discipline.  As Rudy puts it, “Have and use a cash flow analysis.  That is, you and I need to know more than how much money we have in the bank today.  Know how much we need on any given day over the next 90 days.  This is first.  Discipline is key to manage cash. So many independent operators pull money out of the till every day and run to the bank or just throw it under a proverbial mattress.  There is an alternative.  We can actually help actually support leaders to track and to manage their cash flow and get to profit.

Two-

The system you can have in place lets you know what you have and what you need going forward. This includes money in the bank, expected revenues based on data, the “right” inventory, any major payment, insurance, equipment, taxes and licenses, payroll, consultants, repairs and replacement.  I can improve the business’s cash management and profitability by tracking when and where cash is low and where it’s high. When we know this aspect of “flow” then we can work on skills to improve the cash flow where it is low and even more when and where it’s high. Helping a company understand these metrics is one of the things that sets Miick apart as a cash flow and profitability consultant.

Systems and Discipline are key to use cash for what you need it for, not spend it in the moment.” Leadership behavior drives culture and culture drives your brand.  Discipline, or the lack there-of is an example of Culture.  Miick’s experience, as a business growth coach, is this: The more clearly your business is grounded in purpose and values, one value being “fiscal health,” likely the better cash management you’ll have. Understanding what your business brings to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, keeps focus on long-term rewards and maintains the discipline to get to step three.

Three-

Rudy explains, “Third is the set aside of cash (out of profits) so there’s money to put into a war chest for later – the proverbial rainy day. A war chest or working capital allows for replacement, for repair and maintenance to make sure that the company or the car or camera or the computer keeps working, because that’s where I make my money. This also allows each of us to grow without overextending.”

The keys to cash management strategy, that is, effective cash management and celebrating profit are straightforward. 1) Understand and track the real metrics of your business; do this daily, accrued to the week and period. 2) Exercise the discipline to use the money on what is necessary. 3) Use steps 1 and 2 to enjoy profit that allows you a set aside for unexpected downturn, future growth and tangible next steps.

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Rudy Miick, founder of the Miick Company, explains the problem like this: “Managers, leaders, owners, C-suite, point a finger at the employees and say, ‘God, I can’t find any good help.’ When in fact they need to be looking in a mirror and saying ‘Wait, we need to actually define what excellence is, then we can train it.’”

Excellence is achieved by hundreds of actions every day. Even the simplest things can make a big difference. Rudy continues, “For instance, even the concept of ‘clean’ is open to wide interpretation.  What does clean mean? The manager says, Clean the station. Clean the tables. Clean the office.’ Unless I am taught how to sanitize, how to scrub, I don’t know to sanitize or scrub. Because, it goes back to my own life experience – if I come from a single-parent home, or I raised myself from the time I was 12, or on the flip side, I’ve had a maid all my life, that does not prepare me to clean to a specific standard of excellence. Whatever my background is, I don’t know what ‘clean’ is in the context of this restaurant, this office, this store.” Rudy continues, “What is happening is we are relying on each person’s definition of clean, and not sharing what clean actually means for this job at this time. In the 21^st century we need to clearly define those elements of performance, because there is no ‘common sense.’ Everybody, every age group is coming at something from a new perspective and even more so an inconsistent perspective.

So we’ve got to slow down to speed up. We’ve got to define what excellence means – whether it’s cleaning, or any other task.”

In some businesses there are industry standards that help measure a job well done, i.e., meat cooked to a specific internal temperature, so many stitches per inch, so many pages printed per minute, or a percentage of sales per a given number of cold calls. Industry standards can be very rough baselines, but it is clearly defined, demonstrable actions that determine customer perception of your brand.

Training should be from the top down with clear definitions and clear goals to meet. Everyone needs to have the resources to meet those goals. With those elements in place, it is possible to achieve excellence from day one and to improve performance on a regular basis. Rudy continues, “Even with a small start-up, even if it’s an online business, that small start-up needs to define excellence the same way that someone bigger, more mature does. The cool part of starting something new, which is where I started my business, is we open from day one, with excellence. It’s really exciting.

            “We put in the investment and front load the definitions and front load training into the budget, both in time and finances. And open as if we’ve been in business six months or a year. Which blows people away with the quality and the care. Right there is what has made our work successful for over 40 years. We open day one, as if we’ve already been running the company for six months or a year. The systems are in place and people are blown out by it.”

The quest for excellence is ongoing. Rudy explains, “Think of a ratchet wrench. Can I ratchet up or down? So we got this element tight. Over time it loosens. Whatever the ‘it’ is, it loosens a little bit, so retighten it. Or tighten it further, refine it with new technology, new ideas.”

It is not possible to train effectively if you don’t know what excellent performance looks like. Defining excellence begins with a clear understanding of what the desired outcome looks like and what steps will get you there.

When Miick is consulted for management training they are able to help you define excellence and build a training program that will effectively train every level of staff in implementing it.

Next Up: Training Essentials

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Infrastructure is not just the physical build out of your workspace.  Infrastructure, structure, is also the way people speak with each other and get treated by leaders.  It is the way we’re provided feedback, the way we mentor, measure, track, and celebrate or not.  Infrastructure is the essence of what we do to support the strategies imagined that will guide a company, build a team or even a family culture to mold an imagined vision.   At Karate America two key elements of infrastructure are the way people and systems are managed.

Defined Purpose, and behavior-based Values are the foundation of any company.   Purpose and Values are the ““who we are” and “how we behave”” as a business!   Infrastructure, read, decision making based on Purpose and Values guides how we act, how we communicate and how fiscal systems function behind the scenes.  “These actions allow our business to prosper regardless of the speed of change or innovation needed at any time,” says Jeff Quirk, one co-founder of Miick Systems.  

If we want to guarantee the solid foundation of performance, we need to define what solid performance means.  Rudy Miick reminds us to not count on common sense.   Miick offers, “The owner, leader, or their designated team must define what excellence means.  Next is to understand what delivery of excellence looks like for his company.  Once this foundation is laid staff training can evolve to be thinkers and innovators for the company rather than just “a set of hands.”

Ongoing training and support based on Purpose and Values, with clear communication is the infrastructure that invests in our staff, providing tangible return on that investment.   Imagine the real possibility that we can build an inspired bridge of engaged workers and work reflects such outcome.  We find an active part of structure are line items for both hiring and training.  These line items are budgeted and used as such.  Whether we use technology or personal interview time the hiring process and training investment is another example of Infrastructure.  Payroll that’s clearly defined into departments is certainly part of that infrastructure.

The goal of Miick Systems’ work is to provide you tangible opportunities to take the team performance and your company as a whole, further.  

Stay tuned!  The Miick Systems’ team will share more tools that support your infrastructure in the weeks and months to come.   You can expect tangible tips focused on effective delegation, hiring and interviewing skills as well as using positive feedback as an actual system.  Tune in to the Miick Systems’ live stream to be part of the conversation.

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