Why Watershed Works

Most of my career in restaurants and bars has been spent with just two organisations. One was a high-performance business, the other the opposite.

The low-performance company was one of the UK’s largest providers of restaurants, cafés and hotels. It was big – in excess of 4,000 units – but in retrospect that was not why it systematically wasted its talent. Managers came to it purposeful, open to learning and prepared to work hard, but after two or three years of endlessly trying to marry the interests of the customer with the interests of the organisation they simply gave up and became cynical, lethargic and unproductive.

The high-performance business was radically different. As an organisation it thought long-term, contained brilliant people, connected those people to its heart and consequently grew rapidly, powered by individuals who believed in it.

One of its many achievements was to create a first-class management development programme, one that was very different from anything else going on in the industry at the time, in terms of its focus, quality of teaching and use of innovative learning processes.

I participated in this programme, and it motivated me so strongly that I decided to recreate it and offer it on the open market to today’s most forward-thinking bar and restaurant businesses. The name of this new management academy is Watershed.

We have been in business for nearly a year. Recently a group of ten managers from four companies were together in Cumbria learning about leadership. They are like-minded, driven and are making a fundamental difference to the companies who have sent them there via Watershed.

This month we have thirty more managers from eight companies joining the two-year part-time programme. Among them are likely to be two people from Jamie Oliver’s well-known restaurant school.

So what does a young man or woman need to know to become a first-class restaurant or bar manager? It is more demanding than you might think. Our aim is to develop responsible and thoughtful managers whose actions create value for their organisations.

Know yourself

Getting to know our strengths and weaknesses. Understanding how others see us. Learning how to deal with feedback.

We work with a range of psychometric instruments including Honey & Mumford’s Learning Preference Styles, Belbin’s team roles, The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, FIRO-B and particularly with Ned Herrmann’s Brain Dominance Indicator.

In addition to these proven psychometrics we have developed our own tailor-made 360º instrument measuring participants on the seven dimensions particularly appropriate for bar and restaurant managers: working with customers, setting direction, managing the business, managing self, demonstrating charisma and presence, building the team and developing the team.

Students gain an in-depth understanding of their personal profile and how others see them through an initial workshop at the outset of the programme followed by six one-on-one coaching sessions over the two-year programme.

Creating commitment

Our leadership module, run mainly in the outdoor learning environment, focusing on "The Space That I Create".

This involves two of our key teaching events. The first with Phil Hayes at a two-day Influencing Skills event held in London and the second with Pete Donovan on the only residential part of the programme, at Derwent Water, Cumbria.

Phil’s influencing course examines the six core skills of influencing. The first three are 'pull skills', which are associated with finding out from others what they really want and what they are really thinking. These pull skills are creating rapport, authentic listening and asking skilful questions. The second set of skills is to do with 'push' levers – setting out what you think should happen. These are asking for what you want, saying no when appropriate and giving feedback.

Pete directs “The Space That I Create” component of the Watershed programme. As others approach us, what type of space is created for that person? What energy is coming from that space? Is it positive or negative strength? Does the person approaching feel more comfortable, or more intimidated as they get closer to you? Are they feeling welcomed and invited to approach, or are they feeling it is safer to keep their distance? The space we create for others will provide us with a better opportunity to make a difference as a leader.

Spoken communication

The achievement of excellence in all types of spoken communication.

Ensuring that managers themselves come across as capable and trustworthy, so that people respect them and see them at their best. Developing confidence in achieving communication that motivates the listener to take action.

Mood creation

The mood or atmosphere that pervades a good bar or restaurant is an important influence on the customers’ decision to visit.

Possibly because mood has more complex components than food and drink it can be overlooked. We propose the idea that mood creation is a competence at least as important as the production and service of food and drink. We work with a designer and architect, a theatre director and a musician to develop our understanding of this idea.

Customer listening and innovation

The idea that customers, if properly listened to, can provide us with our most important source of intelligence and energy.

The principle is that customers are an inclusive part of the business. They do not exist on the outside to be 'done to' by the business. That customers are the most potent source of inspiration and innovation and that we need their energy to keep us recharged and moving ahead. Developing an appetite for feedback and dialogue with customers and developing an instinct for measuring satisfaction from a customer’s point of view.

We work with Charlotte Villiers of Piper Insight and Andy Firth of Management Futures to explore the ideas and gain the skills involved in customer listening.

The dynamic organisation

Why some businesses are full of energy and purpose and others so badly lacking in it.

Volumes are written about high-performance organisations, and we take some of these and apply them specifically to our own business, one that is full of its own natural sources of energy. We look at cultures, organisational values, the role of storytelling, corporate heroes, rites and rituals and consider their appropriateness for our own businesses.

Financial awareness

Commercial awareness within restaurants and bars and in the wider financial world.

The module divides into four parts, balancing financial awareness in the context of bars and restaurants with a wider understanding of the UK business environment.

The first event covers P&L analysis and management with a specific focus on restaurants and bars.

The second event, How to Read The Financial Times, demonstrates the benefits of a regular or daily reading of the newspaper, enables appreciation of the potential value of the facts and opinions expressed about customers and competitors in the paper and teaches understanding of the listings of companies in the UK stock market section.

The third event, How to Read and Understand a Company Report, enables delegates to extract the financial data from any Annual Report as input to a standard model used to calculate key performance ratios under the headings profitability, liquidity, asset utility, gearing ratios and employee ratios.

The fourth event, Understanding Return on Investment, enables delegates to describe a sensible process for evaluating capital projects, understand the five steps of investment appraisal, appreciate that from a management point of view, the estimate of benefits is often the most difficult part of the process and use the payback method of investment appraisal to make judgements about a business case.