The
mission:
Work with
the food and beverage team at the Kuriftu Bishoftu Resort & Spa to help
improve guest service, advise on and help incorporate internationally-accepted
standards, and poke around in their kitchens to come up with some efficiencies
and new menu items. All of this is to be done respecting and integrating
Ethiopian traditions and customs.
Though
each CESO assignment is unique, there are always patterns and similarities.
Tuckman’s
stages of group development are always on my mind during the first few days.
The first three days are for forming
and storming, and are all about
conversations, finding common ground, and gaining trust. I do this with
management, staff, and sometimes with guests (especially when I find them wondering
who the 6’2” blue-eyed white-guy is, dressed business casual at a hotel/resort).
The idea is to collect as much of a 360° view of the operation as possible, in
the shortest time possible. The most important things at first are the things
that people tell you. The next most important things are the contradictions you
spot between the things people tell you. Later
in the first week (norming), the
staff are figuring me out and realizing that I am simply there to help. The
second week is truly where the performing
happens. The first week’s planning and scheming starts to bear fruit.
Whereas
my other five assignments have been to one-off hotels, this one is to the top
resort in a company of nine resorts that is currently building eight more. As
such, growth is their main challenge and advantage. This resort is the training
ground whereby they staff the other business units. Do well here, and you may
find yourself shipped off with a promotion.
The
good news is that all management here have the minimum of a baccalaureate
degree in hospitality management, but without a lot of practical experience.
Cooks have all been hired out of cooking
school, but cooking school in Ethiopia is only three months. So …. lots of
eager young-folk who are missing hands-on experience, which is not such a bad
thing to work with.
After a couple of days of
conversations and observations, we agreed on the following six objectives:
1. Training
sessions with dining room leaders on maintaining established standards and the
performance management of staff.
2. Observation
of kitchen operations for efficiency, menus, safety/sanitation, cost controls.
Recommendations to follow.
3. Creation
of an employee opinion survey. Currently there is no method of gauging employee
satisfaction with their jobs.
4. Refinement
of guest survey documents to enable the collection of data that is relevant to
the resort’s established service standards.
5. Review
Banquet and Group operations for efficiencies and quality of delivery.
6. Review
and rewrite a la carte menu to reflect current practices in the industry, and
test new items with the kitchen team.
How much can a CESO
Volunteer Assistant really change in just two weeks? As much as possible, but
the hope is that new knowledge and habits will continue after my departure. The
key to this, I believe, is the old “teach a man to fish …” analogy. Changes
have to be workable without me, and systemic rather than detailed.
Time to roll up the
sleeves.
