Why McDonald's is Successful.

It's not hamburgers. It's not the commercials. It's not massive corporate contracts with Disney and Coke. It's systems.

McDonald's has some phenomenal systems in place, developed and proven by the input of Billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours worth of research. The systems they offer are effective, or they would not be in place - and when the systems and procedures that are not effective are proven ineffective, they're changed.

Any unsuccessful McDonald's - whether unsuccessful from the customer's point of view (poor quality, slow service, dirty restaurant) or unsuccessful from the employees' point of view (drama, bickering, lack of teamwork) or from the O/O's point of view (unprofitable) - can be grown into being a successful McDonald's restaurant by implementing and vigilantly following up on the systems and processes and procedures that the McDonald's system offers.

The most important thing that leads to McDonald's success is managers willing to do what it takes to follow procedures and implement policies that ensure employees follow procedures, not to mention riding crew and other managers' asses in regards to training those procedures and following up with them on the procedures, all the time!

It's a heavy responsibility for a manager who wants to do the best they can everyday, because it's pretty likely most of the people around you do not wake up and set out to excel every day. The majority of crew and managers in any McDonald's are just people showing up collecting a paycheck, looking to finish their shift and get away as fast as possible! So if you are "that manager" who wants the best for your store, your crew and your own career, you'll have many obstacles in the way - but the obstacles are only people.

It's nearly always possible to motivate any person, no matter how difficult the personality is. Honestly, if what you want is your crew and managers to follow procedures, the easiest way to - I'll be blunt here - manipulate those human beings to do what you want them to do, is to show them how it benefits them and how their actions can affect others.

Production crew? Explain to them the severity of following Food Safety procedures - How would they feel if their child/loved one/spouse/parent were to come in to the store on a day that Food Safety procedures weren't being followed, they get E. coli and, if they survive it, they may have to live on dialysis for the rest of their life.

Service crew? Ask them about a situation where they got poor customer service, and how they felt about it. Get them to describe the whole situation. Help them to realize for themselves that when they aren't smiling, when they aren't pleasant, when they aren't providing and instant greeting, and fast, accurate service, they make someone else feel exactly how they felt in their poor customer service experience.

Managers? Well, honestly, I have a hard spot for managers who don't want to do their best. I know that it's really no different than crew, but I really, really get angry over some "managers" who chooses to be lazy, inaccurate, or fail to follow proper procedures. I work hard, so hard, to treat lazy, work-avoiding, procedure-skipping managers the way I would crew, and counsel them and coach them and give them new skills to work on, and follow-up on them often with constructive and appreciative feedback. It's difficult though, and it's my own area of opportunity to work on. The most difficult thing about these type of situations is that the manager who needs to improve is likely to be a peer or even a superior. How does one enforce behaviors on someone who you can't provide consequences to?

In short, systems are great. There are some amazingly simple systems in the McDonald's program, and for just about every situation you do encounter, there is a system in place to help you win in that situation, efficiently. Use the resources provided to you (MDP materials, Operations and Training Manuals, SOCs, e-Learning, and the experience that your peers and colleagues can offer) and remember - BE HERE NOW.