June 2026

It’s Egotistical Ignorance.
by admin|26 June 2026|From The Playbook, Newsletter-Substack
After 44 years in this business, I still ask questions to anyone with a pulse in the operation.Not because I lack confidence in my own judgment. Because I understand something that took me longer than I'd like to admit to...
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The Advantage You Already Have and Aren’t Using
by admin|25 June 2026|From The Playbook, Newsletter-Substack, Perspective
The large hospitality companies are in crisis. Turnover is catastrophic. Burnout is systemic. Guest experience is declining. The diagnosis from inside those organizations is familiar — better scheduling software, smarter labor algorithms, more efficient procedures. That diagnosis is wrong. It...
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Speed Is Not The Problem You Think It Is
by admin|24 June 2026|From The Playbook, Newsletter-Substack, Performance
There is a version of QSR management that treats speed as the primary metric — the holy grail that, if hit, fixes everything else. Faster ticket times. Shorter line times. More cars per hour. The logic sounds right until you...
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The Wrong Kind of Tough
by admin|24 June 2026|From The Playbook
There are two kinds of rigidity in a restaurant operation. One keeps you alive. One kills you slowly while you convince yourself it's commitment. The operator who holds the line on Guest experience standards when the cast is tired, when...
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When You Let AI Speak For You, You’ve Already Left The Stage
by admin|24 June 2026|From The Playbook
AI doesn't eliminate judgment. It relocates it. That's the shift most operators miss. When you use AI to write your job posting, respond to a negative review, describe your menu, or draft your marketing copy, you're not saving time. You're...
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The Cheapest Consultant You’ll Ever Have
by admin|24 June 2026|From The Playbook
An unhappy Guest is the most honest feedback the marketplace will ever hand you. It costs nothing to receive and most operators waste it anyway. Not because they don't care. Because they're managing their own discomfort instead of the Guest's...
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When Everyone Asks the Same Question
by admin|23 June 2026|From The Playbook
A paper published earlier this year compared more than 350 AI models and looked at the questions they get wrong. When models fail, they tend to fail together, agreeing on the same wrong answer about 60% of the time. Random...
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The Five-Minute Speech You Have Never Given
by admin|23 June 2026|From The Playbook, People, Performance, Perspective
Jack Welch spent twenty years giving the same five-minute speech. The specifics changed as GE changed, but the structure never did: Here is why the current situation cannot continue. Here is where we are going. Here is how we are...
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Why Your Leadership Training Is Not Working
by admin|23 June 2026|From The Playbook, People
Plato argued he needed fifty years to develop a good leader. Most restaurant operations give it three days — a seminar, a workshop, maybe an online course — and then wonder why nothing changed. The research is consistent: most leadership...
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Eight Of Your Ten Cast Members Are Not Giving You Their Best
by admin|23 June 2026|From The Playbook, People, Perspective
Twenty percent. That is the share of employees who report giving their very best to their jobs when surveyed across industries and organizations. And that number gets lower, not higher, the longer people have been at the company. Read that...
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