Perfecting the figure 8, another 6th sense story

As a newbie manager in the 80's, the main issue for my leaders to get into my head was "awareness."

It was the ability to see what was going on where in the restaurant. Being that restaurants had a front as well as a back of the house in addition to numerous dining areas and entrances there was no real way to see it all once.

So we were taught to make a figurative "figure 8."

In other words to move from area to area, room to room and place to place over and over again throughout the shift. Then, from the perspective gained from floating from point to point you were able to gather the goings on of staffs and customers that often exceed 3 or 400 people, places and things to look at-all within minutes.

This was never easy, but this practice allows the unit manager to see, touch and feel the operation while being the manager on duty and providing necessary coaching and directing to create a successful shift. I found that this method was sound and enabled myself as well as other managers to obtain the elusive "sixth sense."

In order to graduate from a unit manager to become a GM, this was demanded of me. I believe most operators today strive for the same.