Culture – A culture is not the sum of its outrage. This is a heavy one, so before I dig right in, I’d like to establish a few things first. What exactly is outrage? Outrage is not just disagreeing with another person. It’s the feeling we get deep down in our heart when we feel like the social norms we hold close are perceived to be violated. It’s more than anger, it’s a sense of indignation and judgement. We become outraged when someone violates the ethics of our social group. It’s what happens when we feel our morality has been done wrong and these days, it seems all too common. One of the things that makes our business great are the diverse people that make up our teams. We all have different backgrounds, experiences, skills and styles. These traits are what make our work lives what they are. Functioning well as a team requires us to stick to a set of norms and rules, but it also requires us to accommodate individuals. This set of rules and accommodations are what make up our culture. Because of the effects of all of the recent events, our teams have had to adjust to a whole new reality that comes with different expectations and accommodations. We have had to become more understanding and empathic with each other. If we allow our cultures to descend in to one of outrage and confrontation, then we begin to work against the mission, vision and values we’ve worked so hard to uphold. Before outrage, we must show empathy, sympathy, contextual understanding and most importantly a willingness to simply listen to each other. This can be said for our Piesans as well as our customers. We can’t let confrontation become our new customer service, even though this may be our first reaction when someone violates our rules or norms. Our culture depends on patients, swift problem solving and a resolve to be your best even when the situation is hard. I know we can do it, because we do it every day. In fact, we’re the best at it.
Leadership – Respect the Customer. It’s not a secret that without customers we wouldn’t have very much to do. I think it’s easy to forget with all the other elements of business we manage; labor, food cost, scheduling, ect. how much each and every customer means to our business. Anyone can sell pizza, we know that. What sets us apart is the experience and brand that comes with our pizza. When people come to our shops or order online, they don’t just want pizza, they want Late Night Slice. There are plenty of other options out there, much cheaper options too. But, people want us and they’re willing to pay for it because we’re a premium brand. Our customers want to walk in the party not with just some who-gives-a-shit pizza, they want to walk into the party with Late Night Slice. That’s powerful. Selling pizza is what allows us to do all the other things that make our company great. Each dollar that we collect allows us to continue our mission of One Human Family. Without continuous and constant awesome customer experiences every single day, our mission cannot last. I truly believe we’re doing something different than any other pizza place out there. We’re selling it our way and our way means fairness, respect, tolerance, inclusiveness and doing what’s right for our teams and our customers. Our pizza and drinks just happen to be awesome too. But we cannot take this loyalty for granted. A customer’s experience is tied directly to the last interaction they had with us, usually their last visit. That’s why it’s imperative that every visit creates an amazing impression on our customers. Word of mouth is our best friend, it always has been, but bad word of mouth can quickly rob us of everything we’ve strive to be in this would…our idealism.
History – The Doo Dah Parade. This wacky parade is another reason that June is my favorite month of the year. We only participated in the parade for a couple years in the beginning, but we’ve been a vendor since the first year we got our food truck. Doo Dah is a party and it’s a hell of a good one. It’s political, It’s topical, it’s non-sensical, it’s sometimes just plain funny. I’ll miss it a lot this year.
Motivation – “An employee is told that the customer is always right and, in fact, the customer is usually a moron and as asshole” – Larry David
The 5th Thing (something I’m reading, watching or inspired by) – I’m in the middle of my second book by Silicon Valley titan Ben Horowitz and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The first book of his I read was “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” and is probably the most down to earth and tangible books on running a business I’ve ever read. The one I’m reading now, “What You Do Is Who You Are” is all about business culture, how to create it and how to sustain it. If any of these topics ever interest you, I highly recommend Ben.
Baby Update – I’m about half way through another book called Hungry Monkey. Tedd gave me this book after hearing about my worst nightmare of raising a picky eater. It’s about a new dad’s journey trying to make his child a worldly eater. It’s been giving me a lot of freedom to start feeding Will a lot of new foods. I think one of the things that’s pounded into a new parents head is all the food that is horrible or deadly for your kid. Peanut butter, eggs, shellfish, grass clippings…oh and sugar…the most deadly of them all! Just like all of us, somethings he likes, some things he doesn’t. My goal, as a parent that would rather the kid have three arms than be a picky eater, is to make trying new food fun and exciting. Now if I could only get him to wear a mask!
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
5 Things to Consider Archive 