Patrick Adams  00:04

You are looking for the types of clients that are willing to change, that are interested in changing, curious to change. I’m

 

Vince Lanni  00:12

going to continue to find solutions and learn with you. That’s the value. Is that you’re not in this alone. I’m going to help you get there like we’re gonna figure this out. This is where Curiosity plays such a valuable part in the

 

Catherine McDonald  00:26

arrangement. The best way to develop ourselves is to develop our mindset and our skills to enable us to move further up that continuum from judgment towards curiosity.

 

Vince Lanni  00:35

We’re all in this together, and we’re finding solutions together. We feel like more of a team when there’s that kind of common goal, Curiosity is a great tool to have that that you can really keep states stay engaged with your team, and your team can stay engaged with the goals of the company.

 

Patrick Adams  01:02

You Hello and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast led by your host, Catherine McDonald from Ireland and myself. Patrick Adams, how’s it

 

Vince Lanni  01:10

going? Catherine, I’m great. Patrick, great. How are you? I’m doing

 

Patrick Adams  01:15

amazing. I’m not sure when this episode will air, but literally, last week from the point of this recording, last week, Wednesday, my daughter had her first baby, which means my first grandchild. So I couldn’t be, I couldn’t be better than I am right now.

 

Catherine McDonald  01:33

Big smile on your face. Congratulations. Thank you all appreciate it. All doing well, I hope, yeah,

 

Patrick Adams  01:40

all doing well, yes, all doing well, healthy baby boy. His name’s Edmund. Edmund oak T boss. They’re gonna call him Eddie. So yeah, we’re excited. It was pretty amazing to hold hold my grandchild in my arms for the very first time. Pretty awesome. So hi, for the next while I’d say, yes, yeah. And they’ve they’ve actually lived since the time they were married. They’ve lived outside of the state. They’ve lived in Montana for about two years, and so they moved home about a year ago, and which I’m obviously thankful for. Now they’re living here locally, so it’s nice,

 

Speaker 1  02:19

amazing. You’ll see the baby grow up. Lovely.

 

Patrick Adams  02:22

Yes, yeah. He’s a curious little guy, and I say that for two reasons. One, because His eyes are everywhere, just always wanting to know what’s going on, right? But I say it for a second reason, because of our topic for the day. So good lead in here to our topic, the power of curiosity. We’re going to be talking with our guest, Vince, Lonnie from Nashville, and it’s funny, Vince and I met each other a while back. We’ll talk a little bit about that once. We bring him to the onto the stage here, but it’s an interesting story about how we met, but I’m interested to hear from him about how he’s applying continuous improvement in the restaurant industry. So, yeah. So again, with that, with without further ado, do you mind introducing Vince and we can bring to the stage? I will

 

Catherine McDonald  03:14

indeed and I am, yeah, I’m excited to hear what Vince has to say. I used to work in the hospitality sector for a good many years. So I’m really interested to see how Vince has approached this. So let me introduce Vince. So Vince helps bars and restaurants make more money faster, guaranteed, after a successful career opening and improving some of the most prominent bars on Broadway in Nashville, he launched his consulting business to help even more people in the restaurant industry implement strategies that boost productivity and profit. Welcome to the show. Vince,

 

Vince Lanni  03:46

thanks for having me. It’s great to be here. Good to see you. Patrick, yeah, good

 

Patrick Adams  03:49

to see you, too. Vince, it’s been a little while, but I’m excited to to get back on with you here. And you and I were together. For those of those of you that are listening in that don’t know this yet, because it hasn’t been made public, but Vince and I were actually on a reality TV show together, so I’m just gonna, I’m gonna leave it at that. Let your your curiosity. You know that is that you think

 

Vince Lanni  04:15

topic of the day curiosity, right? So

 

Patrick Adams  04:17

that’s right. So more to come on, that you will hear more on the reality TV show that Vince and I were on together a few months back, and it’ll be coming out. Well, we don’t know, sometime this summer, maybe in the fall, so more to come on that, but Vince and I had some some really great conversations while we were together around the topic of continuous improvement, because that’s all I think about and talk about. So Vince probably got overwhelmed with my conversations. But in those conversations, the funny thing is, is for, you know, for many people, they they they are using continuous improvement principles in tech. Uniques in the work that they do, but many times they don’t even know it, or they don’t call it that, or they’ve never, you know, made that connection. And for Vince, you know, Vince is at the time when him and I met, was not familiar with the Toyota Production System or lean manufacturing or process improvement being applied, but as we continue to have conversations about the work that he’s doing in the restaurant industry in Nashville. I was like, Vince, everything that you’re doing aligns exactly with the work that we’re doing with our clients. And so obviously, we hit it off and and had some really, really great conversations about continuous improvement, you know, in the restaurant industry. So I’m excited to have you on the show. Vince, it’s great to see you again.

 

Vince Lanni  05:47

Thanks. Yeah, good to see you. I’m excited to be here. And I do think a lot of it, you know, relates we were talking on the show and getting to know each other, and it was really like, Yeah, we were there for self improvement anyway, right? Really, at the end of the not to give too much away, but, uh, entrepreneurs, you know, self improvement stuff, and that’s something that I’ve always been trying to do. You know, whether personal life or business is always trying to improve, there’s always room to improve. So how can we do that? That’s

 

Patrick Adams  06:16

right. That’s exactly, yeah, that’s right. Go ahead, Catherine, you

 

Catherine McDonald  06:20

guys competing. So obviously you didn’t fall out because, you know, you’re here today. Vince, we competing? Are we on the same team or not? To

 

Vince Lanni  06:26

not to give you, I’m really we’re competing not, but it’s a very supportive competition. You know, it’s not like I think I’m a show to compare it to, but not nothing, nothing crazy. We’re not backstabbing each other or anything like that.

 

Patrick Adams  06:40

Yeah. No, no backstabbing. It was more all, all the individuals that were there were competing for, you know, top three or whatever, top five, top 10, whatever. But it was a self development show as well. So you’re entrepreneurs, business owners are going on to the show, and they’re learning how they can take these different techniques and apply them to their business to be able to improve their business. So, you know, again, Vince and I were kind of competing against each other, but at the same time also helping each other and lifting each other up and supporting each other through the entire process, along with many other amazing entrepreneurs that we met while we were there. So, yeah, sounds

 

Catherine McDonald  07:23

amazing. Definitely, definitely keep us updated. I really want to see this now. So Vince, you know that our topic today is curiosity, and it is a great topic. It’s not something we’ve brought up too many times. I think even though it pops into our conversations every now and then, it hasn’t been our main focus. And I think it’s great that it is today, because it’s just so important. As we were talking earlier, I mentioned that I really think it’s just a cornerstone of a good way to improve, an effective way to continuously improve, and without it, I’m not sure we can. So maybe you can give us your thoughts. Vince on the power of curiosity and where it all fits into what you do in your work with bars and the hospitality sector. Yeah,

 

Vince Lanni  08:08

for me, it’s really I think of when I’m curious about something, right, like I’m engaged in it, I want to know the answer. I’m determined to find the answer. I’m motivated to find the answer, and I feel like I’m contributing to something if I’m curious, and we’re learning something together as a team, or we’re trying to solve a problem, or, you know, fix up, find a solution for something. I think, you know, Curiosity is a great tool to have that that you can really keep, stay, stay engaged with your team, and your team can stay engaged with, you know, the goals of the company,

 

Patrick Adams  08:46

Vince, when, when, when you go into work with a restaurant in the Nashville area. How does curiosity come into play when you’re talking? I just think, personally, I think about some of the companies that we go into where, you know, I’ll just give you the other side of it, where I have leaders who think they know it all, and they’re, they’re they don’t have any form of curiosity whatsoever. They just like, they think that they have the right path. They know what they want. They’re heading down that path. And I think there can be some benefits to that right to have a strong leader that knows where they’re going. But there’s also, I think, a downside to that, because without some level of curiosity, are you 100% right all the time? I mean, how many leaders can say that, right? So there has to be some level of curiosity where it’s like, Okay, we have certain problems that I don’t know how to solve, and I need to be curious about how to get to the the the solution, how, you know, what’s the right approach to this, and how, in what about my team members and their level of curiosity and being able to, you know, drive innovation from within, whatever the things are that are within their control. So I. I guess. Yeah. So, back to the question, how do you how does curiosity play a role when you go into a new restaurant or a bar or somewhere that that needs help with improvement? How do you engage the leaders or the team members in any some level of curiosity?

 

Vince Lanni  10:17

Well, a couple things with that. They have to be already, kind of like, I’m not going to convince a leader that’s set in their ways to to change right. Some people aren’t for me yet, or I’m not for them yet. They’re not there in that that they want to improve, or that they see that the way they’re doing it could be better. Like some people do, think that they’re right 100% of the time. You know, some people still are like that. I’m looking for and finding being attracted to whatever you want to, you know, call it people that are looking for that self improvement already and just don’t know exactly what to do next, or don’t know exactly where to find it. This is where I can come in and help bridge the gap on all the trial and error. And you know, is the strategy that they’re going with going to work might, might not. Might need a tweet. You know, who knows? And for me, as a consultant for restaurants, I love this topic. I think this is a great overview, kind of of what I do, because I’m not just going to share what I know. I’m going to I am curious about their business. I’m curious about their problems. I’m curious about solving them. I am genuinely interested in solving the problems and helping them find solutions that I think that part kind of separates me from other restaurant consultants who will just kind of give them a course, give them homework to do, and like, share what they know. I’m what I say is I don’t know it all. I’m going to continue to find solutions and learn with you. But that’s the value, is that you’re not in this alone. I’m, I’m gonna help you get there, like we’re gonna figure this out. This is, yeah, where Curiosity plays such a valuable, you know, part in the arrangement.

 

Patrick Adams  11:55

I love, love that two things that I heard there that I think are important to repeat, one is you, you don’t, necessarily you’re not. You are looking for the types of clients that are willing to change, that are interested in changing, curious to change, where you know those those restaurant owners that are set in their ways and don’t think they need to improve, or don’t think they have problems. That’s probably not not the right client for you, right? I mean, I think Catherine. I think that’s the same for us too. I mean, it’s unfortunately, you know, there’s been times where I’ve landed at companies where that happens and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. But to your point, Vince, I would rather not work with companies where that’s the, you know, the the feeling of leadership. You know, they’re just not ready for change.

 

Vince Lanni  12:51

Now, do they have, like, a lot to benefit from being ready to that and open to that? Yeah, sure, but if they’re not there yet, I mean, you really can’t, like, beat them down with all the information on why that’s a better way to do it, they kind of have to get there themselves. Like people don’t change until it’s kind of staying the same as a little more damaging than the change is,

 

Catherine McDonald  13:14

yeah, yeah, it’s a good it is a good point. And I see, and I suppose I would be the same. It’s very hard to work with somebody who’s on a totally different mindset to you, and often what I’ve seen when it comes to curiosity, there are a few people who talk about this, the curiosity occurs sort of on a continuum where on the far left you’ve got judgment, on the far right, you’ve got curiosity. And I’ve heard people speak about the fact that we’re human, and we all have a little bit of judgment in us, but we will. I guess, the best way to develop ourselves is to develop our mindset and our skills to enable us to move further up that continuum from judgment towards curiosity, and sometimes, when we go into an organization, what I found, and I don’t know if you found this Vince, is that there’s an awful lot of blame going on. There’s a real lack of curiosity. There’s just quick judgments going on, and that’s leading to, obviously, a lot of conflict and team issues, and oftentimes those are the organizations that need a consultant most. They need an external person to come in to help them see and understand what’s happening and to help them understand their own mindset and maybe skill gaps, and work on them with them. But as you say, they have to be open to all of that and open to understanding that they need to develop. So I totally get what you’re saying there, and I don’t know, have you ever been in that situation where you you go in to help an organization and you see this kind of practice is going on, and you can step in and help them with that.

 

Vince Lanni  14:44

Um, well, one thing you touched on is, like the blame game kind of thing. And I think that that’s super important, because when we’re trying to solve problems together, that kind of brings us all together, like in a community. So like, this is where that curiosity really. Plays a value in the culture of not playing the blame game and like we’re all in this together and we’re finding solutions together, we feel like more of a team when there’s that kind of common goal. But to answer your question, I typically don’t get that far. So if the owner is interested in they’re going to make the decision right to hire me or not if the owner is interested in the self improvement stuff, and maybe he’s got a couple leaders on the team that are stuck in their ways, they don’t think they need to improve, like whatever. I haven’t gotten that yet, but I don’t think that that’s outside of the realm of possibility by any means. I can totally see that happening. Typically. I’ll get that from the owner right off the bat and, like, it’ll kind of end the the moving forward and working together kind of thing before I even get to the team, because the owner is just set in the ways, and they don’t see, you know, the value, and they’re like, I make a ton of money. Like, I’m good. I’m like, You are Yeah, you make millions of dollars with this bar restaurant, right? You could make an extra half million a year, probably, if you did, you know, is that of interest to you? Like some people don’t really see the value in a lot of this, and some people do, and they they’re open to this kind of self improvement, curiosity

 

Patrick Adams  16:15

type thing. So, so, so let’s back up a little bit based on what you just said, because I’d be, I’m sure there are people that would be interested to hear your approach when you go into a new restaurant or bar I’m sure, I’m sure it’s different depending on the size or the, you know, again, whether it’s bar restaurant. But you know, when I think about the kind of work that you do, I think about the TV show, is it called Bar Rescue? Yeah. Is that kind of similar? I mean, that’s probably elevated for TV, you know, but, you know, I guess I’m asking you, what is your approach like? What does it look like when, when you have a restaurant owner that says, Vince, we’d love to have you come in and work with us. Where do you start? What do you do? Well,

 

Vince Lanni  16:59

first off that show, I always hated that comparison, and because the guy is such an asshole on the show, yes, and I’m just like, Oh, I’m not like that. I’m a nice guy, like, I’m here to help. And I’m also not going to invest like, a ton of money into the renovations like they do on the show, because they got all the money and the sponsors. But then I kind of, I kind of retrained my mind on that self improvement and thought, well, that’s at least, that’s something people know about and can relate to kind of what I do. So let’s go from there. So to answer your question, I do that a bit, but my first step is to find not only the money that it costs to hire me, but a lot more than that. So we’re going to look through their order guides. We’re going to do an inventory audit, look through, you know, their vendor pricing, and find the best pricing for them. A client I work with recently, they’re on track to save over $100,000 in 2025 based on this like we just went through, looked at everything. Took a couple months to negotiate some pricing. I have a network of resources and vendors here in Nashville that I have connections with, so kind of setting them up with different options for POS systems or lending services, stuff like that. And the food is the big one. You know, food prices are always fluctuating. When you’re trying to shop around for prices, you don’t get the best prices. So we have some strategies that that make sure that we’re finding you the best prices available for your restaurant. And the savings are, like, incredible. And then they think, wow, I’ve just been ordering this from this company for so long. And like, yeah, now what are you going to do with that 100,000 you know, this is where Step Two comes in. Now step two is, what do we do with it? Do you want to do like marketing spend? You need to hire another manager, focus on leadership development, get some more support in there on your leadership team, so you can do more work on the business and not be so into the day to day as an owner. Or maybe there’s some incentive programs that you’ve wanted to do for your leadership team that just haven’t been in the budget? Well, you don’t even have to dig it out of the current budget. We’re going to find you that money. So that’s like the big step one, and then steps two and three are, you know, just kind of trying to find ways to improve staff retention and guest retention. So staff training, morale, leadership development, all kinds of self improvement practices. And we’re gonna talk more on curiosity and all that stuff coming up, on how it applies. And then, yeah, some other, you know, guest retention practices that I’ve done through my time to help other restaurants. Okay,

 

Patrick Adams  19:41

so that all makes a ton of sense, and I’m sure I have to imagine that maybe it’s not the case, but restaurants and bars probably have a high turnover rate when it comes to their employees, I would guess so some of the work that you’re talking about, that you do, maybe would help increase some of that retention and. And help keep people around longer, which obviously, is a huge expense for owners, you know, to have to retrain. And we’ll go find and then retrain people. What about systems like, do you work? Do you do a lot of work on the this, the like the back end system side of things like the processes that they follow in order to, you know, order the supplies that they need, or to, you know, the the process of, you know, inputting orders into the system, or whatever it might be. You do some work on that. Yeah,

 

Vince Lanni  20:30

a little bit we can do, you know, some, some people don’t have a great inventory tracking system. We can help there sales forecasting and budgeting for orders weekly. So you’re ordering based on what your expected sales are, instead of just bringing it up to par, you know, order what you need, like, let’s, let’s keep it lean, you know, yeah. So we have some tools, and we’ll help them with that as well. And then also, just as far as systems, systems in the non, like, tech way or something, might be the workflow of the servers and the bartenders and the bar backs and, like, making that more efficient process. Gotcha. Okay, good. Really varies from different place, but yeah, right, I

 

Patrick Adams  21:15

figured that. So thank you for that. I just wanted to, I wanted to take a couple steps back, just because there’s a lot of people that are listening right now who probably you know, maybe have never, never, never watched any process improvement or continuous improvement tools being applied to restaurants or to bars. So it’s just kind of nice to know your high level approach. Yeah,

 

Catherine McDonald  21:38

and it’s, it seems to me that really the key is to ask questions. It’s really as simple as that. You know, we’re talking about going into organizations and understanding what’s happening. And the only way to understand is, well, two things. Go to, as we call it, the gemba in Lean events. That’s what the word that I suppose, lean practitioners would use. Go to GEMBA, see what’s happening. But that’s essentially what you were talking about. Go in, see what’s happening, observe the work and ask questions. It really does come down to doing that really, really well, right?

 

Vince Lanni  22:08

Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, some of the best ideas come from the the frontline people too. So keeping them curious and letting them know that like you’re open to their suggestions,

 

Patrick Adams  22:20

absolutely. I loved the other thing I said earlier, I said I had two points, and I don’t, I don’t want to miss that second point, because the other thing that you said earlier was you said that not only are you looking for ways to help generate curiosity within the companies that you’re working with, but you said you approach them with curiosity, and that you don’t have to have all the the answers. And I think, again, that’s the, probably the most important thing that helped me be more confident. You know, when I’m going into all these different companies that are maybe in different industries, maybe different parts of the world, they don’t even speak English potentially, but I can be confident knowing I don’t have to know everything about their process. I don’t have to know everything about what they do. I just have to be curious and to to Catherine, to your point, ask the right questions, because they’re the experts. They know their process. They know the work that they’re doing. Now, yes, there could be some inefficient processes. There could be some some wasteful activities that are happening, but asking the right crust questions will help bring some of that to the surface. Would you agree? Vince,

 

Vince Lanni  23:31

yeah, absolutely, I definitely, I definitely get the key to confidence, really, is not that you know it all, but that you can solve you’ll figure it out. You know that’s really confidence at the end of the day, is knowing that, because I’m not arrogant, I’m not going to sit there and say like I know everything and that I can solve any problem, like, that’s crazy. No one knows everything, but I’m confident that whatever the problem is, I’ll figure it out. I’ve probably seen something similar, or I’ve seen enough that I know that I’m building that confidence. By this happened, I didn’t know how to handle it, but I solved it. The next thing happens, you don’t know how to handle it, but you solve it. And this is just growth and self improvement, and as you continue to do that through your life and career, you develop that confidence that no matter what happens, I’ll figure it out.

 

Patrick Adams  24:20

And that leads me into my my next question, specifically around problem solving and continuous improvement. So for you personally, do you have any stories, or you know, maybe your approach to, you know, to how or why curiosity is so critical when being applied to problem solving or to continuous improvement, any specific stories, or just, you know, how you’ve, how you use that, that curiosity piece, to really, you know, create some good problem solving solutions.

 

Vince Lanni  24:57

Yeah, it’s really, I like puzzles and. It’s really like a game or a puzzle when there’s when there’s something going on. And I had an employee that I worked with who, every bar that I would go into, I’m the problem solver. And I don’t know it’s probably just because of this, you know, take on curiosity and confidence and problem solving. But I came into this place and he was, he was the guy, he was the problem solver. And like, things would break. I don’t know how to fix this, but like here, the POS systems are shut down at midnight, and we got 100,000 people in there, and we’re kind of competing against each other in a fun way to try and solve the problem first. And I mean, that made us more, a little more efficient in doing it. The staff would get a kick out of it, because they’d be like, Oh, who’s gonna win Vince or Curtis, like, who’s gonna win this time kind of thing. And and then that also, this is the other important thing too. When you when you make it like a game, or like a, you know, a puzzle, and you don’t treat it so seriously, you’re not so frantic about it, the staff feels that they’re way more confident. They’re way more comfortable. They know that it’s going to get taken care of. They’re not going to freak out. The guests are still going to have a good experience, because the team’s not freaking out, because you’re not freaking out, that’s what I think really plays a big role in it.

 

Catherine McDonald  26:14

And what about Vince? So you go in, you’re a great problem solver, you’re an external person coming in to help this organization, they’re delighted to have your help. You have excellent problem solving skills, but how do you help them to become better problem solvers so they don’t become reliant on you?

 

Vince Lanni  26:28

Yeah, that’s the big thing, right? Teaching them how to do it. So ask them questions like, if they have a solution or a potential solution, say, Okay, does this solution solve the problem the way you want it to, and then make them answer that, like, does it? Like, does this going to have the result that you’re looking for? Or you’re just throwing stuff at the wall and, like, it’s okay if you are, but let’s kind of dive in and figure it out. And if they really do think that it’s going to work, then they can try it, and if it doesn’t work, or if it does work, or, you know, maybe there’s a hiccup along the way. Like, we’re gonna go through more of the why on why that happened and how they think that could be more efficient in the future. Yeah, really getting them to think ahead on, like, Okay, does this actually solve the problem, or is this just something that I feel like I need to do now? You know,

 

Catherine McDonald  27:21

yeah, that that’s really good, because obviously, if we know that critical thinking skills are on a decline in a lot of organizations, and a lot of reasons why that could be, but we know that engaging frontline staff and workers in this kind of problem solving and innovation, and giving them ownership of issues and involving them every sector we know that works. So it’s great to hear that that that’s your approach. And I suppose I had another question, because having worked in bars and restaurants, I know how busy they can be, and I think this applies not just to bars and restaurants, but to lots of other service sector organizations where the actually the frontline staff are so busy they don’t really have a lot of time to stop and think. They’re all go, go, go, do, do, do, and we but we know that as a consultants in this kind of trade where we go in to try and help organizations that we they do need to take a step back in order to think and to see how to improve and to take that ownership. So how do you do that? Vince, how do you go into these really busy places and convince management, first of all, to let you go in and spend the time with people, and then, I suppose, secondly, make the most of that time because they have to get back to work. That’s

 

Patrick Adams  28:35

a good question. It is

 

Vince Lanni  28:37

a good question. And the main thing that I want to do is to kind of define who works for who right like, in my opinion, and what I’ve had the most success in is that the leadership team, the managers, they work for the team. So if they’re too busy running around, like, why don’t they have time to think and come up with a solution? Like, why are they so busy? Like, you need to go in and help them. You know, I think that’s the first step, is to really define your role as a leader, and that’s you work for your team. They don’t work for you.

 

Patrick Adams  29:10

Yeah, yeah, that’s an important point. Mostly, you’d be surprised how many leaders don’t understand the power of, you know, just being the person that’s in the back, not not in the forefront, but in the back that’s helping to remove those roadblocks and set their team up for success. I mean, those are the leaders that find the most success hands down. You know, they think the value Go ahead. Think

 

Vince Lanni  29:34

of it this way. I mean, we’re in the service industry. We call it the bar and restaurant like we’re in service of the guests. The frontline workers are in service of the guests, but as a leader, who are you in service of you’re in service of your team? Right? Right?

 

Patrick Adams  29:47

So true. Now I want to go back to the question, though. I want to dig a little bit deeper on this, because I think not just in the in the hospitality industry, but in many of you know, many. Fracturing in healthcare, we find ourselves so busy that sometimes we feel like we don’t have time for self development, or we don’t have time to challenge existing processes, or, you know, we don’t have time to improve this or that. How do you get around that? Vince, what do you? What do you do? Do you? Do you? You recommend that they block time for improvements. Do you pull them off their work? Do you do it outside of regular business hours? I mean, what? How do you do it? Yeah,

 

Vince Lanni  30:30

and that’s a great question, Patrick, I think you have kids, you’ll understand this. If you can’t, if you don’t have time to have a catch with your kid. Did you not have time, or did you not make time? And when you think of it like that, you’re like that would make you feel pretty bad, yeah, if I didn’t make time for that, like I didn’t prioritize this. So take that to managing a bar or restaurant. Do you not prioritize the well being of your team. Do you not prioritize increasing sales and, you know, your bonuses and all that stuff? Everyone’s gonna be like, No, I do. I do well, then why aren’t so yes to time blocking. I love time blocking,

 

Catherine McDonald  31:14

and it doesn’t have to be complex either, right? I mean, we 30 minutes before a shift, or at the end of a shift, can be, you know, added and taken back by people. I think what we have to ask for here is flexibility from people, from management, but also from everybody, from the entire staff team. If we want to do this, it’s going to take flexibility. And would you agree? Flexibility

 

Vince Lanni  31:35

is it’s a bonus in the industry like that, you have flexibility. That’s a great pro of the industry, and use that valuable tool like use that as a resource, because you don’t have to go in and kind of do the same thing all day. You have those ups and downs in business, right? Like, you get the lunch pop, then you kind of die down a little bit before dinner, and you get busy at dinner. Kind of depends on the restaurant you’re in, but typically there’s these ups and downs and busy times in the restaurant where you might have some time to sneak away, or some time to huddle up the team and be like, cool, we got our asses kicked there. Like, what do you think we could have done? And I’ve done this as a new manager or a consultant coming in, like, what could I have done in that scenario that would help you get through that shift easier. And finding that little time, making time for that stuff, is so important. So I use some tools, I guess you could call them templates, that are to keep topics, you know, on top of mind, of like, how am I going to help my team today, and how am I going to increase sales? And keeping those two questions, like, always at the forefront. Ask myself, before the shift, write it down, check in midway through the shift. Have I done that yet? If not, like, let me make that a priority moving forward through the rest of the shift, and then a recap at the end. And that sounds like it’s a lot of extra stuff, but it’s really not. I mean, if you think about like, how long it takes you to answer two little questions a minute. Then you review it halfway through the shift. It takes another minute or two, and then you do at the end of the shift. I mean, we’re talking five minutes here to make such a big impact. So it’s not that they don’t have time, it’s that they’re not making the time, and they’re not using their time efficiently,

 

Patrick Adams  33:16

right? Yeah, for us in the Lean world, we would we use a tool called Leader Standard Work. And it really is. It’s really a lot of what you’re talking about where you know prioritizing is important, because you know busyness is going to come if when you show up to work in a restaurant, in a bar, or for any listeners, whatever work that you’re in, you show up, you don’t have to have a plan for the day if you don’t want to, and you’re you’ll be busy, and by the end of the day you’ll feel like you did a lot, but, but then if you, if you stop and think about, Okay, what did I actually accomplish today? What are the what are the one or two things that I got done today? It a lot of times, if you don’t have a plan, if you don’t prioritize, you get to the end of the day and you’re like, I mean, I feel like I was busy all day, but what did I actually get done? You know, versus, I’m going to do one on ones with, you know, my frontline team leaders today, I’m going to get two of those done. I’m going to walk the we would say, GEMBA, but I’m going to walk the floor, and I’m going to look for opportunities for improvement. I’m going to find at least one opportunity for improvement today. And I’m going to, you know, dive into the financials maybe, and I’m going to look for one opportunity to make an improvement today. So I’m going to do those four things today. I’m prioritizing those. Those are part of my standard work for the day. So now at the end of the day, you’re still going to be busy all day, but at the end of the day now you can look back and go, check, check, check, check, right? I was able to complete those four things,

 

Vince Lanni  34:49

right? And it’s a difference, are you busy or are you productive? I mean, it was such a difference, right? Exactly. So I always think that busy is a feeling. It’s it’s. It’s how you feel, you feel busy, right? But like, you’re not necessarily any amount of productive. Just because you feel busy. You have a lot to do, or you’re, you’re, like, doing a lot, but like, like you said, are you actually doing a lot, or is it just kind of running in circles?

 

Catherine McDonald  35:17

I actually think that sometimes these service sectors, they are without knowing it so lean without even trying a lot of the time. Okay, sometimes they’re not and there’s issues, but they have to be so lean. They have no choice but to be lean, because their customer, facing the customer, sees everything. So they have to the voice of the customer comes first. They get the voice of the customer so quickly and easily compared to sectors that are not customer facing. And so I’ve worked in the hotel sector, and I’ve worked in nonprofits, and it’s there’s a similarity there, really. And I know you don’t technically use the word lean Vince, but I suppose, what have you seen in terms of bars and restaurants, to maybe prove that point. Like, what are they doing that is actually really efficient, and what can they teach other sectors? Do you think?

 

Vince Lanni  36:08

Yeah, it is. There’s a lot of, like, there’s intangible metrics in a bar and restaurant, right? So we’re talking a ticket time. Like, you can’t track some things. You look at the sales, that’s like a clear metric, you look at time of day, and all that stuff that’s like on paper in the computer, you have that. But how, how many times is your server running back to the kitchen to grab a side of ranch that they forgot with the order? How much time does that take? Right? Like, how much time are people waiting to be seated or waiting for a drink at the bar? These are things that you can’t get by running a report, you know, on your business, these are things that you need to watch, track in your head. Make notes if you need to, if you need to write them down through the shift, like, go ahead. But these are all the little things and so much more that you have to be on top of. And these are the things that really matter and that to your point, you get that information, like right then and there, and you can make changes and improvements. It doesn’t even have to be at the end of the shift. You can do it like on the fly. You can jump in and be in service to your team and help out to improve any of those metrics that are kind of failing. And then you can take it to, you know, do refresh topics, or a little more training, or a little more follow up with some people to improve those over the next week, but it’s definitely a quicker information gathering process and being able to improve it a lot faster. I love that.

 

Patrick Adams  37:32

I didn’t really think about that until you said it Catherine, that that’s so true. I mean, you know, for many organizations, the customers. They never meet the customer, or most people don’t, and they they play the customer places an order, and you’re fulfilling that order through this long you know, value stream. But for for you guys, Vince, I mean the customer standing right there, and they’re like, I need a drink. How long does it take?

 

Vince Lanni  38:03

The body language, all of it,

 

Patrick Adams  38:05

right? That’s really interesting. We maybe we should bring a group down and do do our own little GEMBA waste activity. That’d be pretty cool. Some work with you. Yeah. So we’ve talked about a lot of things in a short amount of time, but if you could sum up maybe some practical strategies for anyone that’s listening for integrating curiosity into their daily practices, or integrating their curiosity into how they make decisions, or how they, you know, improve processes. What would be a couple things that you would say, you know, these are just a couple practical strategies that that you should follow.

 

Vince Lanni  38:53

I mean, I think first, number one is, lose the ego, you don’t know it all, and be open, be curious. Number two is, I, if I, if I’m, like, bringing up the idea on something, like, something I want to change or not, you know, an idea for improvement. Of course, I think it’s a great idea. It’s my idea. But I want the team and practice. This is the practical part, right? Tell the team to poke holes in it for you, whether that’s your other leadership team, or your Front of House Team, whatever it is, have them poke holes in it, because that’s going to give you some feedback, the feedback that you need to really make it a great plan or a great improvement moving forward. And you don’t have to double back and kind of fix things as you go, because it didn’t work the way you thought it was going to like there’s so much value in the team, and their opinions make them feel like their opinions matter, and that you they can always come to you with cool ideas or any any type of improvement options, like your door is always open. Kind of have that practice, that culture of we’re always looking to improve. I’m not going to always have the best ideas. Like y’all might have the best ideas. And if they are great, give them credit. If they’re not great, you take the credit and you try to help them make them better. You know, people will come to me and say, whatever it is, and I’m like, here’s why I don’t think it’ll work. And then sometimes it just won’t work, or sometimes they’ll come back to me a week later and a bartender will come back and be like, Okay, you said it wouldn’t work because of this, but what if we did this that solves that problem? I’m like, okay, cool. Let’s try it, right?

 

Catherine McDonald  40:33

Yeah. So what you’re saying is, what you’re saying is organizational improvement really does start with individual self improvement and developing those like humility and the skills of curiosity. That’s kind of what I’m getting from you. Vince,

 

Vince Lanni  40:47

yeah, absolutely. And, and from top to bottom of the organization, that it’s okay to question what you’ve been doing forever there, and it’s okay to question new ideas, no matter who they come from, whether they come from the owner, or like, it’s okay to question them.

 

Patrick Adams  41:03

Vince, one last question from me, and then, I don’t know if Catherine has one more, but just if you were to think about all the different bars, restaurants owners that you’ve worked with, you don’t have to say names here, but who would be, or what would the organization be that maybe you would say was the best, the best customer, or the, I guess, the best improvement activities that happened with them would be like your highlight, maybe just a little story about them, and then the opposite side of that, your biggest challenge, and what did that look like?

 

Vince Lanni  41:45

Yeah, the biggest, biggest challenge first is, I can’t do it all. I’m just kind of giving them. I’m helping them, but at the end of the day, they have to execute. And sometimes I put a lot of faith into that they can execute what we’ve talked about doing, and they don’t always do that. And that’s kind of the risk you take as a consultant on, like, who are they? They’re gonna blame me now because it didn’t work, but, like, they didn’t actually do it right kind of thing. So I have worked with a client like that before, and then, you know, a success story is a place called greenery CO that I work with, and they are really open to it. I mean, they knew what they needed. They knew their weaknesses, I guess, and they were very clear and very open about that. They very much wanted to improve. And they’re so willing to try new things, and that’s really like their curiosity and their willingness to improve, is why they’ve saved over 100 grand for this year, and they’re on track to increase sales by 10 to 15% for 2025

 

Patrick Adams  43:01

that’s amazing, yeah, the story, the initial, the challenge, too, as far as that one, that one goes, I mean, that’s a tough one. And I think even for many who are listening in, you know, being a being a coach internally, I think they can resonate, you know, even if they, if they’re not a consultant or, you know, running their own business, just even as an internal coach, a lot of these concepts that we’re talking about, you know, they they definitely matter, for sure. So Catherine, last, last question for you,

 

Catherine McDonald  43:34

yeah, I just, I had something in my mind there about curiosity, so I think it’s a skill we lose over time. We start out really, really curious, Patrick, you said about your, you know, new little, little grandchild, and how curious children are. And as we grow up and get older, we definitely, definitely lose those skills. And I’m just wondering, Vince, because obviously, you see the value in curiosity. It’s it’s you role model it with every organization you go into, and it’s something you try to develop in your team. How do you think Vince, we can, I suppose, promote the power of curiosity in people? How can we get the people we work with to to work on that skill and to be more curious. What do you think?

 

Vince Lanni  44:23

I think it’s more of like the human vulnerability of it’s okay to not know it all, and especially from an owner standpoint, or a leader that is looked to for answers and feels like they should know it all, and they need to have this kind of tough exterior, like it doesn’t need to be like that. You know, I think leadership years ago was always about strength, and a lot of that still carries over. And like you said, as we get older, like that’s definitely, you know, something we’d pride ourselves on. But leadership really is, it’s kind of changed with the tech era to turn into brain. A little bit more, and then now I feel like, as we’re talking about self improvement and curiosity, heart is the big thing in leadership. So I think being willing to open yourself up to the new experiences and to being vulnerable and admitting that you don’t know it all, but having that same strength and confidence and brain power to know that you can figure it

 

Catherine McDonald  45:23

out. Yeah, yeah. And I guess role modeling that every day it rubs off,

 

Vince Lanni  45:30

yeah. And if they’re okay to ask questions, then their team’s going to feel comfortable to ask questions too. That’s what we want. If they don’t know something, we want to make sure that they have this information so they can do a better job, and also they might have a question that, like, prompts a really innovative change that helps the company too.

 

Patrick Adams  45:52

Yeah, so true. Vince, the last thing I’m going to ask as we close here with everyone listening in the next time that Catherine and I are in Nashville, will you bring us to your favorite pub?

 

Vince Lanni  46:05

Absolutely.

 

Patrick Adams  46:09

All right, good. I’m glad I’m looking forward to that. We definitely want to get down there and see and yeah, we were excited to have you on and appreciate all your insight. You know, I know our listeners definitely will take value from this, this episode, and just appreciate you coming on

 

Vince Lanni  46:26

Absolutely. Yeah, I hope there was some value there for everyone listening, and I appreciate your time, and it’s great to see you again.