Want Your Employees to Be Problem Solvers? Learn from Nick’s Pizza & Pub

We recently took a tour of Nick’s Pizza & Pub to learn more about their enviable culture. There, founder and CEO (and of course fellow Small Giant) Nick Sarillo gave us the tour.

Here were some of the highlights I came away with when it comes to intentionally designing your culture to grow leaders who care:

Think of the entire customer experience you’re offering. 

When you head into Nick’s, it’s one of the most unique experiences you’ll ever have inside a restaurant. And that’s by design, not by chance.

Just as Nick confirmed, you can tell how much intention and thought went into the layout and the atmosphere of the restaurant. Wherever you go within the restaurant, you’re greeted (or at least eye contact is made!) with a Nick employee.

The feeling is high-energy throughout the restaurant, and that environment directly aligns with their purpose: “Our dedicated family provides this community an unforgettable place; to connect with your family and friends, to have fun and feel at home!”

A question worth considering: what are all the touch points your customers have with your company? How can you “wow” them every step of the way (like at Nick’s), and at all those touch points?

Make sure you carry out your purpose in every aspect—including operations. 

In addition the first lesson, it’s not just enough to talk about purpose or to talk about the experience you want customers to have with your company. Nick’s consciously builds in the “Nick’s experience” into their operations—which serves as “discipline” (or structure) that helps guide the company towards the experience they know they want to deliver to customers.

For example, when you walk around the restaurant you will see operations cards. These cards break down tasks and act as a simplified checklist so that anyone can see the status of jobs to be done in that section of the restaurant.At the same time, it’s a effective tool to make sure little things don’t fall through the cracks.When it comes to operational excellence, that’s a big deal.

Second, their feedback process is built so that leaders can coach in the moment. If a mistake is made, it’s seen as a genuine opportunity. Team members can see, immediately, if a behavior was not aligned with the purpose of Nick’s—and that’s a powerful thing. Another example is the tool they have—something that is visually shown to the team. It’s the approach of:

“Issue—Purpose & Values—Solution”

The idea: when an issue inevitably occurs, there is lens it can be examined through. That “lens” is the purpose and values of the company.

From there, a solution can be devised. This approach helps people to see issues through the prism of the company values.