Leading Buffet Restaurants Through a Pandemic with Scott Post | 061

What do you do when you lose 80 percent of your business overnight? What about if you have a 30 percent-plus staffing shortage? Yeah, let’s talk adversity.

Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want a spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem-solving- AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie Jamie V. Parker.

Welcome to the Lean Leadership for Ops Managers Executive Series. Today’s guests had a front row view to a tough experience during the pandemic. The restaurant industry and not just the restaurant industry but leading a buffet restaurant enterprise through a pandemic. You’re going to hear about the initial challenges of losing business overnight and some steps that were really successful, as well as his thoughts on current staffing challenges. And our guest shares a secret and a confession. Tune in for that.

Today, we’re talking with Scott Post, who is a Lean Leadership Coach who loves helping leaders pursue excellence and desired results through process improvement. Scott’s passion for process improvement blossomed while working at Pella Corporation and continues in his volunteer services as a board member for the Siouxland Lean Consortium. And today, Scott serves as COO at Pizza Ranch, one of the largest pizza chains in the Midwest, with more than 200 locations offering a unique Buffet Your Way experience for its guests. Now, as COO, Scott leads and coaches the team on a journey towards excellence with primary responsibilities for operations, training, safety, and process improvement.

Jamie: [00:02:03] Scott, welcome to the show today.

 Scott: [00:02:05] Good morning, Jamie.

 Jamie: [00:02:07] All right, well, I’m super excited to talk with you today. I know the restaurant industry has been crazy these last 18 months or so. So it’ll be a fun conversation. But let’s start off with a value, a mantra principle quote, something that embodies your beliefs about leadership. What do you believe about leadership?

 Scott: [00:02:29] Yeah. For me, I love the quote, “Good people, bad process.” And it’s one of those things that I think are easy to say, but when the going gets tough, that respect for people is so important, and remembering that and focusing our energies on the process.  

I like servant leadership. Some have said, why do we call it servant leadership? There’s there is no other leader in it. That is leadership. But think of that, you know, how do we serve and take care of people? You know, it’s love and respect and empathizing with the people at the same time, you know, being tough on the process. Not tough on the people.

 Jamie: [00:03:13] Yes, we’re going to dig into what it was like leading a restaurant organization during the pandemic. But first, I want to talk a little bit about your background. So you’re the COO at Pizza Ranch now, but your background is actually in continuous improvement, right?

Scott: [00:03:30] Yeah, so I’ve always been a process improvement guy kind of wired that way. My degree is in Industrial Engineering, which is a great fit for how I’m wired. Spent about 10 years with Bella Corporation, and they were at that time, 20 years into a CI journey. In my opinion, they do a very, very good job with respect for people and continuous improvement.  

Most of that time, I held a continuous improvement engineering role. So in my particular plant, you know, doing the value stream maps, helping with the strategy, doing Kaizen events, getting blocks, employee suggestion process, all of that stuff. So had a great environment to learn and grow and develop in continuous improvement.  

And then about seven years ago, I came over to Pizza Ranch because they were on the beginning of a culture of excellence journey. They had done some benchmarking where we’re looking into the Baldrige program and we’re looking for a Continuous Improvement Director to lead them on the way. So that’s how I landed here at Pizza Ranch.  

We are a buffet restaurant franchise chain in the Upper Midwest. Two hundred and thirteen units in 14 states now about a 40-year-old company. Pizza Ranch implies we have pizza. That’s the obvious. The secret is in the fried chicken and you’ll see a pizza buffet bar, a salad bar, a dessert bar, and then a what we call the chicken bar. But it’s chicken, potatoes, green beans, all those kinds of fixings.  

I call myself a Lean Process guy. That’s, I think, who I am at the core. Living in an operations role right now. 

Jamie: [00:05:20] Ok. So as you shifted, then from this core over to operations leadership, like what did you expect or what did you learn making that shift? 

Scott: [00:05:32] I’ll go a little bit with a confession, right? And this is maybe for those that are in process improvement roles, maybe that’s a quality or an engineering support role. And I had, you know, a little bit of angst towards the ops guys, right? You sit on the sideline in that support role and you think, man, if they would just stop working in their business and instead work on their business, tomorrow would be better than today, right?   

Now, so I prayed like, man, just give me the reins sometimes, right, and I’ll do it differently. That struggle is real, that tyranny of the urgent, that the guests and the customers, you know, are always demanding products and services and that business has to work. So taking that time out to improve and be better in the future is not an easy thing to do. And as leaders, I think it’s the most important thing we need to do. But we can’t just stop the business to do that. 

Jamie: [00:06:39] So it is a real challenge, not one that we’re just making up. 

Scott: [00:06:43] That’s right. And they’ll say, you know, to the Ops Managers that there are resources a lot of time sitting there, you’re probably not using them to the full capacity. If you want to get better, I mean, that relationship is so important because when we work together, man, we can move mountains. We’ve done that. And that’s what’s fun and exciting and joyful on both sides of that equation. 

Jamie: [00:07:09] So well, I know what I’m on the edge of my seat wanting to talk to you about, so let’s jump in.  

That’s right. I want to talk about leading a restaurant organization during the pandemic, and we all feel like we know a little bit about this because we’re kind of all consumers and we were on the outskirts watching it, but you were living it. So I just want to hear about kind of your experience and the challenges that your leadership team faced through this pandemic. 

Scott: [00:07:40] Well, let’s not do it again. I’ll start with that. I think that everyone can agree with that. You know, for us, in a matter of a couple of days, we lost 80 percent of our business. So probably the biggest fear, the most anxiety is, are we even going to survive this? Is it last month? Is it going to last a year and a half? You know, on the front end, we didn’t know any of that.  

So just like soaking that in and grieving that mourning that and getting your feet back underneath you. Where do we go from here? That was definitely the best part. And you know, as a buffet restaurant, we were uniquely I want to use the word targeted.  

Now we know now that, you know, the COVID is not transmitted so much by touch. We had to uniquely battle through that and fight for our franchisees. And when you don’t know, right, you’re the information you have is limited, but grab and what you do know and being confident with it and then moving forward. You know, we created a task force like a lot of companies did. We met, you know, every day, a lot of good stuff there.  

On the operations side, we created a COVID playbook. I mean that that first week already we were we had a whole team of people felt to me like a Kaizen event, very specific, objective, pull the resources in we need. And, you know, just writing, what does operational procedures look like in our restaurants now that COVID is here? 

Jamie: [00:09:18] Yeah. So you have this task force, operational playbook, which I imagine was pretty impactful for enabling your restaurants to continue. 

Scott: [00:09:28] Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we started communications daily communication sometimes multiple times a day on the operations thing, and we actually did a great job. We had multiple other restaurant companies, even health departments, adapt the policies and procedures that we put in place because people recognize like we went to the extent that we need to do to protect our guests and protect ourselves. And so that was pretty cool to see on the back end. 

And the communication piece. Can’t underestimate that communication with your customers, with your partners. You know, in our case, it’s our franchisee partners, it’s their business, it’s their livelihoods on the line and in their locations. But supporting them, you know, and serving them is what we were called to do, and those playbooks were a big part of that.

 Jamie: [00:10:23] So, those are some things that went well. What would you say are maybe some gaps that, you know, are still kind of happening, especially because they probably changed, right? So at first, it was, oh my goodness, we’re being shut down. Now those gaps might, might look a little different.

 Scott: [00:10:37] Yeah. You know, if you go back a couple of years, there were conversations here that were a buffet restaurant. Now, most of our restaurants sell some out the door. You can do carry out or some do delivery, but primarily we were a buffet restaurant. Well, when the pandemic hit and our doors had to be closed, that pivot is the word of the year. The out the door business probably was the biggest challenge. 

Those that did it already had good systems and processes, procedures in place. They did extremely well during the pandemic with the out-the-door business. Those that didn’t have it and had to scramble to create it, you know, that was the real struggle.  

Where we’re at now is buffets are coming back. Not fully back yet, but most of that out-the-door business that we gained. We’ve held on to. So if we get our buffets back and we hang on to that, that’s going to be a massive blessing on the back end of the pan. So, you know, capitalizing on those learnings and then not just switching back to the way we always did it right, it’s the new day. We’re going to do it differently now and it’s changed who we are.

 Jamie: [00:11:52] Yeah, I feel like that’s so common in this year. Like, Gosh, you know, we’re it’s just changed who we are.

 Scott: [00:11:58] That like business wise. And I think for leaders and for myself, it’s like when we were during the pandemic, it was all reaction mode, right? Like, you’re in the battle. The battle is over now, there’s maybe a skirmish here or there, right, but it’s what it’s been fascinating to me is as we pick up old projects, as we reengage with good systems and processes that we had in place that went on the shelf during the pandemic.  

There’s just been a lot of those, say, the last couple months where like we, we opened a couple of restaurants yet last year, but yesterday we did a postmortem on our restaurant opening process for one of these restaurants where we haven’t done that for a long time. So it just feels really good.  

And I think it’s a good reminder as leaders to, you know, it’s that don’t get stuck in the day to day, right? You’ve got to focus and work on those systems and not just stay in reaction mode.

 Jamie: [00:13:01] Love it. All right. So for the here and now, so we kind of went through some of this roller coaster, of course, they’re still there. But now we’re looking at supply chain challenges, employment market challenges, all of this variability, you know, so you’ve got some new out-the-door work plus some buffet work, right? So you’ve got new systems, all of this.  

So thinking about where we go from here. So how do we, our Ops Leaders, really need to evolve to be able to manage through all of this? This, I guess, challenge, right? These operational challenges to be able to navigate through those and still build organizations, you know that where people thrive and we’re able to fulfill mission and vision, all of that, you know, what do you see as to how operations leaders need to evolve in the way that they’re leading their groups?

 Scott: [00:13:53] Yeah, great question. You know, for us, the main challenge is staffing. Typically, our restaurants will staff on average 20-30 team members. We are down eight team members on average per restaurant. So if you’re out there as a consumer going to restaurants and seeing, you know, half dining rooms closed, you know, there’s no staffing. So that’s the big challenge. Meanwhile, there’s still restaurants out there that are fully staffed and running 100 percent right now. So all those things have changed. 

 There’s some fundamental things that haven’t changed, right? If you have a great culture and you treat your people well and you have good systems and processes where work is not a struggle, right, then you don’t have an employment problem. So although we need to pivot and change and adjust, and we are looking for different ways to define people to attract the right talent, et cetera, some of those fundamentals, those core fundamentals, they haven’t changed and they are true.  

We did a project. We called it Legendary People. It’s one of our key business drivers, our people right? And along with that, we did the orientation process and just some of those fundamental people processes. Five years ago or so, and we would just kind of dusted some of that off, and the restaurants that we have that are struggling, they’re not following those processes as well as they should. So it’s like just follow the process, right?

 Jamie: [00:15:28] Yeah, I love this. This, you know, reminder of, Hey, it’s fundamentals, people, right? What do people want in their work, engagement in their work environment? And this idea of how do we remove some of that struggle? And so I know that’s what we’re facing now is that do you think that’s what’s going to continue to be the challenge or you see other challenges that you’re really worried about? Is that your big, big one thing right now?

 Scott: [00:15:51] I would say that is by far and away the thing we hear the most about from our franchise owners. We are also struggling with some supply chain things because other plants are not able. And what we’re told is it’s staffing there as well. So there are some challenges there and being nimble, that word pivot again, right? Just making those necessary adjustments.  

Yeah, is a concern as well, something that we’re watching very closely and it reminds you of fundamental processes like just have an, you know, a backup supplier to a main ingredient, right? Just some of those core principles of of of running a good business.

 Jamie: [00:16:31] Mm-hmm. All right. As we wrap up what words of encouragement or advice would you leave our listeners with?

 Scott: [00:16:40] Yeah, I love this question and be honest, I thought I should have something come right to the top of my head now to think about a little bit like knowing your audience of Ops Managers on this podcast, I’m going to go back to Edward Deming and his quote, “You know, a bad system will beat a good person every time.” And, you know, as a process systems guy, too often, I think we tried to work harder in muscle or be the superstar and just muscle our way through an existing process, only to realize maybe later that the process was flawed and we work too hard. It’s too painful when it doesn’t have to be. So just that fixes the process. We need to lead people and manage processes, not manage people.

 Jamie: [00:17:31] All right. Love it. Well, Scott, thank you so much for joining us today. Looking forward to seeing what happens in your organization over the next six and 12 months, and glad for you to be here today.

 Scott: [00:17:42] Thank you, Jamie.

 Jamie: [00:17:46] I want to share a few of my takeaways from this conversation, but first, I have to tell you the secret is in the chicken. I first met Scott maybe three years ago through the Iowa Lean Consortium, and I like Pizza Ranch, what’s that? Well, a year later, I was back in Iowa facilitating workshops, and I had to drive several hours across the state. So as I was driving, I saw a sign for a Pizza Ranch. 

I’m like, Oh, I got to stop there for lunch. And I went for the chicken bar. I sure did. It is really good fried chicken.  

All right. Enough of food. Let’s go back to the experience Pizza Ranch team members and leaders went through. You know, can you imagine the emotions are definitely high right now, and I can also sense that pride and energizing aspect of solving immediate problems and creating a playbook that even health departments pulled from to create their standards.  

Now, Scott said, something that really struck me when he was talking about staffing. And first, I want to say I get that the employment market is tough right now. It is a real challenge. And I do not want to minimize or dismiss the challenge that we’re facing. But, you know, kind of thinking about what Scott said is let’s also recognize the fundamentals, right? Scott talked about fundamentals and how they can enable you to make your organization a place where people want to work, where they tell other people how great it is, where they recommend it as a place to work, and where they don’t just stay, but they show up highly engaged and committed. 

And I talked about that exact topic back in episodes 49 and 50 of the podcast. Now, of course, there are some gates we have to meet with compensation and benefits. That is not a place to skimp, but once you meet those gates, the rest of it really comes down to leadership.  

And of course, don’t forget the beginning of this conversation, we heard Scott’s experience as a CI guy, Continuous improvement practitioner, and his thoughts about operations like Give me a chance, I would do it differently.  

And then now kind of learning, maybe he didn’t have a full understanding of the challenge when he was on the outside looking in. So CI folks tuning in, take that to heart.  

But Scott also challenged operations leaders. Are you partnering with support people and using the resources that are available? You know, Javan Lapp talked a little bit about kind of being a strategic partner and cross-functional collaboration back in episode 58 earlier in this Executive Series and how operations leaders sometimes know about “corporate support partners.”  

So it’s really kind of great to hear this challenge to ops managers coming back to you from Scott and for you, it is time to take action now.  

Reflect on what you heard in this episode. What is a key takeaway for you? Head over to LinkedIn and share it.  

Be sure to tag me at Jamie V. Parker and tag Scott Post. If you need links to our profiles, you can grab those that are shownotes at ProcessPlusResults.com/podcast.  

Now this wraps up the September 2021 installment of a Lean leadership for Ops Managers Executives series. I hope you have enjoyed these five episodes now.  

If you want help developing your leadership team, or if you want to explore what it might look like to work together, then schedule a call with me.  

You can book directly at the schedule call button on my website processplusresults.com, or you can call or email me. My contact info is right there on my website.  

Now, my specialty is the intersection between people leadership, development, operations management, and Lean banking, and it would be my honor to serve you and your leadership team, and we will be back in Q4 with another round.  

So if you know an operations executive who would be a great guest for our Executive Series Lean, please send me a note and nominate them. In the meantime, check out my upcoming podcast episodes where I share updates on my Kata Girl Geek Learning Group progress and share more insights, stories, and tips for leading excellence. Until next time.