6 productivity lessons from The Bear

If you haven’t seen The Bear either on the small screen (TV), or the even smaller screen (your phone – in any of the many memes featuring Jeremy Allen White as Carmy, or ‘Chef’) then it’s time to dig your way out from under a rock.

What’s that? “Yes, Chef”? Better.

When Carmy returns home to Chicago, he takes the reins of the family restaurant, which had been run by his brother. Carmy is adjusting to his brother’s death, being back in a familiar but rough kitchen, and his proximity to his family-slash-disaster-zone.

When Sydney walks into the restaurant, keen to do just about anything to work with Carmy, it’s clear that Carmy is well beyond the kitchen of ‘The Original Beef of Chicagoland’ – he’s spent the years away from Chicago and his family in Michelin-star kitchens.

In those kitchens Carmy’s learnt a thing or two about operational excellence and productivity – and seeing him try to implement the lessons of his experience with, mostly, a ragtag bunch of amateurs is instructional.

Here are six productivity lessons from an old Chicago sandwich place, its loyal but unqualified crew, the chefs at the helm, and two seasons of watching them struggle to stay afloat, not kill each other, and turn a profit before they run out of money.

Lesson one: Every second counts

The iconic ‘Every second counts’ sign emphasises the passing of time. But it’s more than a reminder to hustle, to hurry up. It’s also a reminder to take care of every moment, to make every moment add up to something worthwhile.

The lesson: Do your timesheets, but don’t make every decision based on what your timesheet will look like at the end of the week.

Lesson 2: Augment passion with training and qualifications

Long-term team members Marcus and Tina have an abundance of passion – Marcus for creative desserts and Tina for the restaurant and team itself.

This passion isn’t always productively channelled, particularly early on, but in season two we watch Tina turn from resentful of change to appreciative of opportunity and proud of her new skills.

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Sydney and Carmy’s treatment of Tina, in building her up, harnessing her passion and arming her with external training and tools, was most likely the product of sentimentality. They invested similarly in Marcus, too – sending him to Copenhagen to train with a leading dessert chef.

Both investments had a great business payoff – two passionate team members became loyal and highly skilled. And we know from Sugar’s many interviews to recruit a new team that those three qualities are as rare as hen’s teeth.

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The lesson: Recruit passion and aptitude, and train skills.

Lesson 3: Value discipline

We asked around the office here – if you got cranky when the show started working to make Ritchie likeable in season two, you are definitely not alone.

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Ritchie – a wannabe member of Carmy’s family, estranged from his wife, not a great dad, a terrible colleague, misogynistic, can’t get out of his own way or others’.

But when he spends a week at Chef Terry’s restaurant, he learns about discipline. He polishes forks, endlessly. He sees the impact of truly delighting customers and the contribution even the smallest act makes to getting that done. He learns to polish cutlery and to run the floor, and he returns to Carmy’s restaurant transformed.

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The lesson: Ensure your team members understand how their contributions add up, and allow them to see the end results of their achievements. When they are truly ready for the next step, propel them.

Lesson 4: Enable the best; prepare for the worst

Carmy’s and Sydney’s new kitchen at The Bear is tightly engineered for success, designed and tested to meet Carmy’s stringent standards, including a timed transition of dishes from pans to pass.

However, after all the work that went into enabling excellence in the kitchen, the results are less than perfect with a few cut corners – opening night comes close to falling apart when Carmy is trapped in the walk-in.

The team though is ready to step up to the plate – each team member lifts their game and each other.

The lesson: Create an environment of excellence for your team, providing the tools and systems they need to do the best job possible. But have plans in place to manage when those tools and systems fail – so that your people don’t.

Lesson 5: ‘Yes Chef’

Tina’s early resistance to the change Carmy and Sydney brought was signalled ever so clearly by her refusal to call either ‘Chef’. And when she switched from ‘Yes Jeff’ to ‘Yes Chef’, we just knew she was sticking around and making a red hot go of growing with the team.

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Throughout season two, as we see our main characters head out into other kitchens and restaurants, the power of ‘Chef’ echoes through each scene. Ritchie’s interactions in particular show him the value of respecting colleagues, and of demonstrating that respect in every interaction.

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The lesson: Knowing who the leaders are, building authority and showing respect increase team cohesion and efficiency.

Lesson 6: Know where your money is

Even with excellent chefs, The Beef was untenable. Why? Its cash was squirrelled away in tomato cans. And while the money Carmy’s brother had hidden in cans wasn’t ever really the restaurant’s, knowing where it was would have made running the business far easier.

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We see the impact of understanding the cashflow and capital in season two. As the new restaurant is built, with Sugar and Carmy managing the project finances together, they know exactly when they need to open, exactly what they can spend on upskilling the team and on equipment, and exactly what will happen if they get it wrong.

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The lesson: Manage your cashflow and understand where your capital is.

Bonus: Productivity isn’t everything

In the greatest cameo of the show to date, Oscar winner Olivia Colman as Chef Terry delivers a gut-punch counterpoint to hustle culture. Ritchie finds the world-renowned Chef Terry quietly peeling mushrooms in her kitchen.

“It’s just a nice little fun detail, so when the diners see it, they know that someone spent a little time on their dish,” she tells him.

The lesson: Sometimes productivity is not as important as showing a client that you care.