7 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 4 – White Castle
Week 4 of Undercover Boss featured Dave Rife, co-owner and Executive Board Member of America’s oldest hamburger chain: White Castle. White Castle, headquartered in Columbus, OH, this family owned and known for small square burgers – sometimes referred to, and today trademarked as “Slyders” – the company has a number of firsts: the first restaurant to sell a million hamburgers, the first to sell a billion hamburgers, and the first to sell frozen fast food.
Core values: integrity, honesty, job security.
Lesson 1: You may think that providing a lot of managerial oversight for your employee’s is a good for them and the company; it isn’t always so. With the lack of a clear (and communicated) chain of command, your employee’s don’t know who to listen to and leadership doesn’t know who to hold accountable. To bring order to chaos, make the leadership structure, clear and simple. Adding additional layers of management doesn’t always equal clarity or rigor, it can create confusion and lack of accountability.
Fast Fact: White Castle opens 10 to 12 new restaurants per year.
Lesson 2: Just because a job looks easy doesn’t necessarily make it so. In most cases it looks easy because the people doing the job either has a lot of experience and/or loves what he/she does. Regardless, these are the people you want to listen to, learn from and retain. They are the hardest to replace and the individuals who help make your organzation what it is today. Looks can be deceiving.
Lesson 3: It’s ok to make mistakes. Having high quality standards is an essential quality of all successful organizations. Having high quality standards without the understanding of and appreciation for the power of mistakes is an opporunity lost. Strive for and encourage perfection, but appreciate and celebrate mistakes. There is a lot of value in getting it wrong.
Fast Fact: White Castle goes through 50,000 lbs of flour per day making the buns for their burgers.
Lesson 4: People don’t always choose their jobs out of passion, sometimes it’s out of necessity. Acknowledge that fact and create an environment that enables them and allows them to succeed. Provide employees with opportunities for advancement. Look for talent in the younger members of your team. Inspiration is everywhere, especially in the younger members of your team
Fast Fact: Their production facility makes 17k burgers per shift.
Lesson 5: Don’t forget where you came from. Just because you are management doesn’t make you exempt from working. Even if you are only in it for yourself it would benefit you to do right by/for your team. They are your biggest asset and your most experience sherpa in guiding you to the top of our career. Always listen to your employee’s for ways to improve the company. Those who have been with the company a while know what works, what is broken and how to make it better.
Lesson 6: It’s really easy to sit behind a desk and make decisions on numbers…another totally to consider the people behind the numbers. Get out from the environment that you are comfortable with and experience something different, from a different perspective. You – and your organization, department, team – will be the better for it.
Lesson 7: While not an overt part of the show I did notice that the bonuses / awards were low in comparison to the past 3 shows. I think that it’s especially worth noting that the size of the award, scholarship, bonus, etc. isn’t nearly as important as the recognition that it supports. Just shining a spotlight on somebody who never had the attention provides them with a nice boost. Be sincere, be honest and do what you can. The amount really doesn’t matter.
It’s been another good week for Undercover Boss. Dave Rife was a smart, genuine and compassionate leader and the company is an American icon. I have no doubt that the company will prosper under his leadership. I continue to learn, grown and gain plenty of insights from the show. Hopefully through my synthesis, you have to. Share your questions, comments and feedback in the comments.
Posted via web from Dave Sabol
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My name is Dave Sabol and I work at the intersection of technology, online learning and knowledge management. Associated Knowledge is my way of capturing the insight that I gain as I navigate my way through the world of social media and open source technology.
Dave — Thanks for your faithful postings on this new show. My husband and I watched the first two episodes, then bowed out.
Here’s why:
Certainly the employees recognized and given bonuses, vacations, or other surprises during the “big reveal” deserve them.
But what about all the other employees out there in the same company whose stories are just as tragic, heartwarming, and inspiring, who aren’t recognized?
I keep wondering how they feel, watching their co-workers (who just happened to cross paths with their bosses instead of them) get the recognition and rewards that they also deserve.
Other than the tried and true “We’re creating a task force to find out how we can help employees balance their personal and work obligations” (etc), what are these companies really doing to find others within their ranks who deserve a decent vacation, a promotion, a bonus, a raise, or other rewards?
Isn’t it possible these still-invisible yet hard-working and dedicated employees are heading back to work on Monday even more discouraged?
The irony about this show is that it’s about the individuals who make up these companies. Yet it’s only about CERTAIN individuals. What about the rest?
Ellen, you know what? I hadn’t looked at it from that perspective! You are 100% right. It’s definitely worth calling attention to individuals who stand out or go above and beyond without normal recognition. However, for the rest of the employees that didn’t get recognized it could have a negative impact. That’s always a challenge. Perhaps, if the experience inspires more focus on the culture of the organization, the show will have helped create a profound and lasting shift. I guess time will only tell, but it would be great to have a follow-up show to see if anything really changed or if it was just a flash in the pan for the sake of entertainment. I hope it’s the former as opposed to the later, but right now it could go either way!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Dave — Let’s hope so! It would be interesting to hear what companies are doing to uncover and reward the “invisible” employees in their ranks.
Associations seem to be doing this pretty well — awards nominations (including self-nominations), recognition by association leaders (at chapter and national levels)…
But could we be doing it better, too? Are there still members out there who might be going above and beyond, but are getting silently discouraged because no one seems to care about their efforts?
Would love to hear how volunteer-driven organizations are finding and recognizing these contributors.
Thanks again for these posts, Dave!