ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 20, 2000

MAKING IT EASY
I received this note recently from René Greff of Arbor Brewing Company in Michigan. I love the insight that she shares.

It's been over a year now since we became Bill Marvin groupies and things are going fantastically well. [Your book], There's GOT to Be an Easier Way to Run a Business is now our official management bible.

I also wanted to share another "aha" moment that came from studying and following your principles and quieting our minds. I realized that an ongoing dissatisfaction with a good number of my staff is their constant and single-minded preoccupation with money -- constantly evaluating the worth of any given shift or event solely on the basis of how much cash they walked out the door with. Then it dawned on me that THAT is who I was targeting with my help wanted ads and my interviews -- with the questions I asked and the benefits I highlighted.

Since then I changed my ads and interviews to focus on our great work environment, commitment to environmental protection and community service, and devotion to "right livelihood" and all that entails. Servers will always be interested in and motivated by money, but we are now attracting servers who are looking for more from their employment experience and who recognize and appreciate the subtler quality of life benefits associated with working here.

It's really amazing -- once you realize that all aspects of your restaurant are in some way your own creation, the question becomes "what changes can I make?" rather than "how can I make my staff/customers/vendors change?" and then no problem seems insurmountable. Thanks again.

A note from the Doc:
The first corollary to my Principle of Creative Laziness says, "Never waste time solving a problem you can eliminate." What problems are you wrestling with? What behavior of yours might be contributing to the problem? How might you change your approach to eliminate the problem?

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