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Sharing the wealth

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The Ott file

Stop, collaborate and listen

The first step in establishing a collaborative management style is to find out what everyone is doing. The most effective way to do that is to simply set up some informal meetings. In fact, many of Ott’s meetings are two-minute conversations with employees in the dining room during a slow period of their shift. The key is to meet with every level of employee, from managers down to the hourly workers.

“You have to understand what’s going on in everybody’s world,” he says.

During these meetings, Ott tries to determine the challenges that face each section of the staff.

“You have to ask probing questions,” he says. “Little things like, ‘How’s your equipment working? What do you see that’s not liked by the guests? What would you like to change in the restaurant?’”

Once he has their answers, the second phase of collaborative management begins. He takes the information he’s collected to his management team to be discussed.

Ott is constantly amazed at how often his initial ideas to improve Claim Jumper will be modified and enhanced by his team.

It’s at this point that many CEOs stumble in their adoption of the collaborative style by resisting changes to the original idea.

“It doesn’t change direction and blossom or grow, and they end up with an idea that ends up breaking because it hasn’t been built strong enough yet,” Ott says.

Massive egos can be massive roadblocks when you’re trying to establish a collaborative management style because it’s not really collaborative if no one can challenge the boss’s idea. Ott escaped the ego trap by focusing on the bigger picture.

“Over time, you may achieve a certain amount of success, and then you realize what really matters isn’t your success — it’s the success of your staff and the success and longevity of the business,” he says. “To me, that far outweighs any individual concerns.”

As an idea grows from a single thread to a thick rope, the management team strengthening that idea undergoes a transformation, as well.

The people involved in the decision-making process develop a synergy between them as each decision they make alters the course of the company. With each successful move, the team becomes more confident.

“Collaboration works on success,” Ott says. “It feeds itself.” However, he says assembling a great management team becomes more difficult as the company grows larger. Getting the right people on that team is very important to the company’s success.

“At this level, you can’t make every decision correctly,” he says. “You have to rely on those around you to make those decisions at times — to make the right decision based on better input, based on being in the trenches more than you are or a better understanding of the decision being made.”

That is why Ott says a collaborative management team must have representatives from each area of the company to be successful.

“If we make a decision regarding an item we’re going to put on our menu and I don’t have buy-in from our service operation team, our kitchen operation team and our regional management team, it’s not going to work right,” Ott says.

No matter how great the idea is, it has a good chance to fail because the key people affected by the decision weren’t asked for their input. If they don’t buy in to the new idea, then the employees they manage won’t buy in to the idea.

If representatives from each affected party support the decision, their support will flow down through the layers of the company, and the idea will have a better chance of being successful.

Of course, sometimes the members of the team disagree about whether an idea is right for the company.

“If someone feels very passionately and strongly about something and they’re convincing, usually the one or two people who have a dissenting viewpoint will acquiesce,” he says. “If it’s wrong, then we talk about why the decision was wrong, and we make sure that, as a group, we don’t get swayed by someone who maybe is preaching the gospel about something that’s passionate to them more than looking at the facts and making sure it’s the right thing to do for the business.”