Kitchen Nightmares: Exercises

I realize that some people may not believe that you can teach your managers anything about leadership from a reality television show. I wasn’t convinced either at first. So to prove FOX reality shows can (accidentally) educate leaders, I’ve included the link to two videos. Each one is a 43 minute episode. After watching the video, I created the questions that I thought highlighted the most relevant management points. I then facilitated the discussion with my team. The entire meeting lasted 90 minutes. We had a great time! We had a lot of laughs but the lessons about not having too large a menu and how people lead under pressure were not lost on my team. I hope you find them useful also.

Chef Gordon Ramsay heads to Fair Lawn, NJ, to visit Campania, an Italian restaurant that’s losing more money than it’s making.

Video: Campanias

1. Was Campanias meeting their customer’s expectations in terms of food portions? How does this compare to IT and what are the implications?
2. What was Campanias known for with its customers? What were Joe’s views on this?
3. Was there a turning point when Joe’s team finally took their jobs seriously?
4. Discuss how Ramsay handled “the old bag”. If the customer is always right, why did he insult her?
5. How would you describe the working relationship between Joe and the team? Are there similarities within your company?
   

   
   

Chef Gordon Ramsay visits Secret Garden in Moorpark, CA, to help French chef and owner Michel try to put his restaurant back on the map.

Video: Secret Garden

1. Describe the relationship between the Chef Michel and his employees. Is it based on trust? Do they feel empowered?
2. How does Chef Michel respond to feedback and criticism?
3. How does Chef Michel and the team respond under pressure? What actions does he take and what are the effects on the team?
4. How did Chef Michel deal with the remodeling and new menu in his restaurant?
5. What is the Information technology equivalent of their “menu”? What can we learn from it?
6. What did Chef Michel do when things went wrong with the new menu? Are there examples in business or IT where you have seen a similar response to the introduction of a new process or technology?
7. What was the “cardinal rule” that Chef Michel learned and how does it relate to IT?

Leadership Lessons from Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

“Restaurants close easily. Especially when the owner isn’t committed 110%” said Gordon Ramsay on a recent episode of BBC’s reality show “Kitchen Nightmares“. My buddy Geoff who is a CIO in the area mentioned this show when we had lunch this week. He told me that this show was a great management training class for IT managers. I was familiar with Gordon Ramsay and his liberal dropping of F-Bombs on other shows but I never really took him seriously as a businessman. After watching two episodes of Kitchen Nightmares, I have changed my opinion of him. He definitely understands how to run a business, which in this case, happens to be restaurants.

For those not familiar with the show, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay selects a restaurant owner that is about to go out of business and helps them analyze what is causing the failure and helps turn their restaurant around. At least he tries to turn them around. Ultimately, his show is an examination of the leader who runs the business and their failings as a manager. In both episodes I watched this week, the owners had individuals in the kitchen that were disruptive and not taking their jobs seriously. That’s a problem in a restaurant or in an IT department. In both episodes, the manager-employee relationship was skewed. Managers either hired friends or weren’t sure how to manage their staff. Employees didn’t respect their boss and this manifested by tardiness and lack of attention to their job duties. The real losers were the customers.

In the first episode (Ruby Tates), the owner of the business learned from Ramsay how to manage his employees and turned his restaurant around. Sadly, in the second episode (Piccolo Teatro), the other owner didn’t address their own inability to manage the restaurant and the restaurant went out of business. Kitchen Nightmares will not make you cancel your subscription to Harvard Business Review, but it is still a good management tool for watching the effects poor leadership has on a organization. And it’s a lot more entertaining than reading those HBR case studies!

For more information, go to http://www.bbcamerica.com.