Hospitality, Communication and avoiding problems and the blame game

Communication is one of the most vital aspects of business, and really for that matter, life. I personally have a little mantra that I hold close to me “there are never really problems with communication, because most problems exist because an issue is swept under the carpet or ignored.”

While in my early years I labelled it as bad luck and being mistreated, the wise version of me is now thankful that I worked in many places where communication was at a premium, and rarely would I hear directly from my direct seniors, and often run into problems simply because I didn’t know.

I am sure we have all encountered them.

A common one in restaurants is running out of a menu item, but the kitchen neglects/forgets to tell front of house, until an actual order comes in. This problem can then be amplified by the first server who finds this out not actually passing the information around to the team.

The flow on from this is that it creates customer dissatisfaction (a cardinal sin), makes the business less efficient (because you then have to go and explain and correct the orders), frustrates the team, and is a time waster.

While it may happen in a lot of industries, it is more prevalent in hospitality, simply because of the multitude of divisions (or departments if in hotels), the varying levels of seniority (I once worked in a 150 seat restaurant that had a General Manager, F&B Manager, Restaurant Manager, Floor Manager and Services Manager), and the varying levels of “care factor”.

It is also because no other industry has so many consistent exchanges of communications, not so much from the team, but from customers to staff.

All of this can be a modern minefield simply because there can be games of one-up-man-ship between team, misread communications from the customers, and even worse, a hi-jacking of perceived responsibility, which again must not happen.

Again, I am sure we have all encountered them.

I remember working in a hotel where we had a new menu ready to go, awaiting approval by the General Manager. Once this approval was signed off, then we would have a 72 window for release – of which the checklist was at the bottom of the menu approval form. This period (an ideal frame) gives time for the kitchen to make all the changes, the menus to be swapped over, the POS to be updated, team to be briefed, and so on.

I had a day off, and came in the next morning to a storm of chaos. The General Manager had gone to the kitchen and told them to start the new menu the previous night’s service – without acknowledging or implementing the attached checklists. What had then happened was that the front of house didn’t know about the switch until they came in with old menu orders (to a kitchen that was only prepared with the new menu items), the POS had the old items on, the room service menus had the old items on, and mass confusion had ensured.

We received roughly 20 formal complaints that night; the till was out by hundreds of dollars, but worse of all, it made me and the restaurant look like idiots to the financial controller, front office manager (who received complaints from checkout of guests) and the whole hotel.

I made a judgement call, and took the blame.

I had a significant reputation, and had achieved much in the department, so knew I could absorb the heat for a few days. While this is another topic, I weighed this all up, as the last thing I wanted was for the General Manager to look bad (despite her incorrect call), and start a blame game.

The reason I bring this up, is that this is the final and worst aspect of bad communication. If things are communicated properly, things inevitably go wrong. And when things go wrong, more often than not, it is human nature to want to appropriate blame.

Too often in professional environments people go looking for culprits, fall guys, and someone to accuse of being guilty.

Ironically, psychologically people who make a point to shift the responsibility onto other people are often themselves the individuals in the wrong.

CRITICAL POINT NUMBER ONE:

If you yourself do something wrong, especially by virtue of poor initial communication, make sure you do take responsibility for it. You will ultimately gain more respect, but most importantly, you will learn a lesson.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. The only time you make a mistake, is when you ignore the lesson or deny responsibility.

CRITICAL POINT NUMBER TWO:

Playing blame is even worse because often, there is so much focus on doing this that people actually forget about fixing the problem in the first place. A great example here is if an order is misplaced and the guest is waiting for the food. THE INITIAL PROBLEM IS THE FACT THAT THE GUEST NEEDS A MEAL.

Don’t instantly think about the blame; think about the problem and how it can be fixed.

CRITICAL POINT NUMBER THREE:

Sometimes, you can elegantly “blame” someone if you need to, but do it in a constructive and controlled environment. For me, one on one debriefs were the magic here. Don’t say anything in front of other people (they will get embarrassed), but as a manger or supervisor, it is your duty to point out mistakes – but don’t think of them as that, but more as corrections for the greater good!

For all of us, communication is a fine art, and it is something that we all must constantly strive to improve as even the best communicators can forget to do it at times.

In life, we see evidence of it in society time and time again. Without going off topic, why do you think there are so many divorces in the world, people breaking up with people that they once loved more than anyone else in the world?

More often than not, the initial cause is a fundamental breakdown of communication.

But remember, it is arguably a business’s (and life's) most powerful tool, and if it is done frequently, is the greatest problem avoider of all.