12 Components of Effective Pre-Shift Meetings

Pre-shift meetings are a manager’s most-effective training tool. It’s your daily opportunity to energize and focus the crew, share common goals and pump them up. But most operators don’t make these meetings mandatory, which is just leaving opportunity go to waste. If you don’t clearly communicate common goals and a common focus, every team member will have their own idea about what the shift should be. Can you afford that? Read on to find out how.........

Pre-shift meetings are a manager’s most-effective training tool. It’s your daily opportunity to energize and focus the crew, share common goals and pump them up. But most operators don’t make these meetings mandatory, which is just leaving opportunity go to waste. If you don’t clearly communicate common goals and a common focus, every team member will have their own idea about what the shift should be. Can you afford that?

• Bring energy, don’t take it away
• Set and share specific goals for each shift
• Reinforce standards of cleanliness (facilities, personal, uniforms)
• Involve every department (kitchen, greeters, drive-through, servers, bar, etc)
• Show the team how you’ll attain goals together
• One shift, one topic: service, selling or waste-watching. Don’t try to cover everything.
• Recognize performers from the last shift
• Role play and practice with each other, not on the customer
• Don’t focus on the negative
• Keep it short and sweet (KISS); 5 minutes maximum
• Make the discussion interactive (dialogues) not one-way (monologues)
• Inform and educate every crew member that comes in later at staggered times on the shift goals and focus

Source: JUMPSTART! The Art of Effective Pre-Shift Meetings DVD available at www.sullivision.com

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