Fresh ideas and approaches are capturing the interest of consumers, and there are terrific opportunities for you as operators to put those ideas into practice at your businesses. For many operators, though, that excitement will be quickly stifled when they present these ideas to the people they must rely on to bring them to life: their Generation Y staff.

There’s a saying in this business that we often use with our clients: “Front-line staff deliver bottom line profits.” Being in the coalface of a restaurant is tough enough without trying to incorporate every whimsical idea that your manager hears about. If a new idea is to succeed, management must first gain trust from their staff. This starts with answering the question: “Why bother?” Your staff loves change—but they hate transition. The fact is that the success of these new initiatives will be driven by your front-line staff. 

“Because I said so!” is rarely the precursor to the launch of a successful idea. I’m not sure that the command-and-control stance worked all that well with Generation X, but I know it is not the recipe for success with Gen Y (approx. age 20 – 30). In fact, I like to call them Generation WHY. This group wants to know why you do everything you do in your business: why it matters to your guests, why it creates a competitive point of difference, and, in particular, why it matters to them, your staff. 

Getting the team on board