Who is Responsible for Innovation?
Years ago, we had a team member named Jaime. He worked in our warehouse loading and unloading trucks and washing dishes. He was a hard worker, always had a positive attitude and spoke just enough English to get by. At the time, our system for clearing and cleaning up tastings was clunky at best. Coordinators and culinary team members would clear plates throughout the process and look for spots to land with dirty dishes, usually leaving them strewn across prep tables in the kitchen. Then they would make multiple trips getting all of the dishes to the dish room in the warehouse at the end of the evening. After observing the clunky process, Jaime came up with a solution. He took a cart on wheels, outfitted it with a glass rack on top, a basket for silverware and a container for plates, and then attached a trash can to it with a tie down strap. He instructed our team to put all the dishes on it and wheel it to the dish room at the end of the night.
This seemingly simple innovation made a huge difference. The team was incredibly appreciative because it saved time and made us more efficient. Although it’s been “mibed” since then, we still use a version of Jaime’s tasting cart today! I share this story because it’s a great example that innovation can happen at all levels within an organization and it’s one of my favorite parts about coming to work. I love seeing the awesome things our team is doing every day. They are always looking for ways to “MIBE” all areas of our company and the ideas come from our young servers to our senior level leaders. This week I want to share a few examples from the past two weeks of innovation in action at Footers. These examples were submitted to our Jimmy Buck recognition program by their peers.
Caila always takes the time when they're on hdvs to read through menu presentation for which platter to use for which hors d'oeuvre--which okay, we should all be doing, RIGHT?!? But where this gets special is that they then use masking tape and a sharpie to label each platter on the underside and to label each table section with dietary restrictions so that both BOH and FOH teams know exactly what they have and who they can serve it to, plus where to return it when it's empty. Thank you for MIBE-ing this integral part of events!
I had 430 goat cheese coins to cut and let me tell you it wasn't going great. But not too far in to the project Red shows up with a bobbin of thread and says "hey try this". And it literally cut my time in half. Thank you for coming in with such a great innovation and helping my sanity.
I recently had the opportunity to sit with Ryan and Jason to review the diagrams for the month of October events at SoCap. We noticed that Paige had made a few mibes to the diagrams that were useful to not only coordinators and producers, but helpful for Ryan and the flip teams. Paige had color coded tables and created a legend off to the side identifying which items needed to be removed amongst other pertinent details. Paige is like a little buzz light year...TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!
When brainstorming ideas on how to keep the team motivated in September, Pound had the cool idea of making a bingo board with lovable characteristics of each of the culinary team. Dylan took the idea and ran with it! The free middle space being "list the Footers Core Values" helped tie in our company's values to this fun and engaging game. Great teamwork and innovation!!
Companies who value the contributions of their team members create an environment where they are empowered to find solutions and improvements to everyday systems, processes, procedures, and services. They encourage all ideas, knowing that not all of them might work and they reward the process instead of just the result. They create a culture where everyone is responsible for innovation, not just the people in charge. Where do great ideas come from in your organization? Are your team members eagerly bringing new ideas to the table? Or are they an untapped resource?
MIBE Awards are open! In addition to Heart Leaders of the Year, Best Employee Recognition Program, and Best Activation of Mission or Core Values - we also have Best Internal Company Event. We want to hear about the awesome events you are putting on for your team, so make sure to gather those photos and submit, you might just be up on stage receiving an award at our annual MIBE Summit in January!
