Wisdom from an industry guru

I didn’t even have to climb a mountain to hear one of the industry’s wisest men share his sage advice. Here’s some of the wisdom Wally Doolin offered to restaurateurs during an entertaining presentation this morning at People Report’s Summer Camp.

He prefaced his comments by noting that these are actions that could be undertaken today to improve an organization’s performance.

*If you’re not fostering curiosity as a core characteristic of your organization, “you’re missing the boat,” said Doolin, the former CEO of Buca di Beppo, T.G.I. Friday’s and Le Madeleine.

*Along the same lines, keep learning whatever it takes to keep your organization vibrant and effective. “You have to continue to build your skills. If you don’t, it’s like a game of musical chairs. You’re going to be left out of a job,” said Doolin.

*Build trust. Without it, there’ll be no exchange of ideas, and not everyone will be freely pursuing communication and cooperation.

*Embrace technology, but do it as a cross-department endeavor, with a process in place to ensure there’s progress toward selection and adoption.

*In regard to social media, it’s all about “bringing the consumer and the employee branding together. How do we bring employee branding and consumer branding together to make a more powerful organization?

“That only happens when you drive it,” he said. “What are you going to do to drive it, to make it happen in your lives and your organizations? How are you going to put it into action?”