Achieve World Class Communication, Like the World Champion Kansas City Royals

Nov 8, 2015 3:46:08 PM / by Matt Thompson

ShiftNote’s headquarters are located in the Kansas City metro, so you can imagine how insane the home office has been with the Royals winning the World Series! The Royals win is changing how baseball is played and a lot of that is due to the outstanding communication the team has.Besides the fact that all the players grew together in the baseball world,there is an immense openness and trust that defies that stats each player has. There have been some players that were projected to do well in certain positions that actually performed better in others. There have been players that were not supposed to hit a home run or steal a base but they were able to anyway.

Then you look at the 2014 World Series versus the 2015 World Series. In 2014, the Royals literally lost by inches. The team played by the stats when running to third and coming up on home. The base coach said we could not possibly make it home and did not risk it. This move cost the Royals the title of champion. Analysts even said later that the team actually would have won if they had gone for home. Flash forward to the 2015 game when Hosmer hesitated on third, then ran into steal home plate. Due to a shoddy throw from the Mets, Hosmer slid into home to tie the game in the 9th inning!

This is a great example of how open communication and listening to players pays off. Ned Yost, the manager for the Royals, has repeatedly said he lets the players call the shots. If they want to bunt, they bunt. If they want to try to steal second, they steal second. Some managers would balk at this behavior, but Yost has built up a team of guys who he has built immense trust with and vice versa. They all have the same goal and they work together as a team with open communication to get there.

Why are we rambling on about the Royals’ communication? Besides still being incredibly excited about the World Series title that has come back to Kansas City after 30 years, there is an outstanding lesson to be learned. With all of our restaurant experience, we have learned that outstanding communication and listening is what makes a business successful. This can be achieved using tools like an online manager's logbook and our employee scheduling software.

This is why we created ShiftNote – to provide an easy-to-use tool that improves communication to see great success.

Consider this scenario:

Yost is a manager who has awesome communication with his team. He is not out there barking orders and restricting the choices his team has. Instead, he allows them to tell him what they think is best for the team and he gives them the opportunity to achieve it.

If every restaurant manager operated their shifts the same way Yost does the Royals, imagine the world class service and success they would see?

Tags: Shift Management, Tips & Ideas

Matt Thompson

Written by Matt Thompson

Matt has let his lifelong passion of food and people lead him to 15 amazing years as a restaurant manager and another 9 years working as a Director with a major food service distributor. He has channeled this passion to help create and run ShiftNote. When he's not dominating the food service industry, he's spending time with his 4 children and cheering on the Tigers as a Mizzou Alumni.

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