Lessons from The Bear show AEC leaders the value of purpose, process, development, and treating every client like a VIP.
I just finished tearing through season four of the FX series The Bear, and in addition to being a fantastic season of television, it provided several lessons on life and work that I find compelling for leaders of AEC firms. If you’re unfamiliar, The Bear follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a world-class chef who returns home to run his late brother Michael’s gritty Chicago beef sandwich shop. Armed with fine-dining experience and ambitious plans, Carmy sets out to transform the struggling family restaurant into something exceptional, using the same scrappy team that’s been there all along. Lots of yelling ensues.
The show is beautifully shot (if you like Instagram pictures of people’s food, buckle your seatbelt), superbly acted, and very well written; the tension pours through the screen. But among the chaos, passion, triumphs, and battles (seriously, so much yelling), there’s a lot to learn from how this team of disparate individuals unite to achieve something great. I’ve grouped these musings as answers to three crucial questions (and I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum):
1. Why do we exist? You’re likely familiar with Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why or the companion Ted Talk, but, “Why do we exist?” is a fundamental question for any business to answer. This is especially crucial during times of change. Alignment on “why” is of paramount importance; misalignment causes chaos and confusion, common occurrences the audience sees on The Bear. Carmy’s “why” is an obsession with perfection and recognition via obtaining a Michelin Star. The passion to be great can be a worthwhile endeavor and certainly all businesses want to be great at what they do. But striving for excellence at the exclusion of other goals and considerations can be destructive and distracting to the overall purpose. Here are a few lessons from the show on “why” and “how” we do what we do:
- Too much change is destructive. In his all consuming quest for greatness, Carmy insists on changing the menu every night. This imposes inefficiency throughout the restaurant, negatively affecting purchasing, food prep, sommelier Gary’s wine pairings, and the wait staff. This chaos also keeps the restaurant from being profitable; the arc of season four centers around a literal clock, counting down the hours until the investor pulls their funding. Without profit, the passion cannot be realized. Change is necessary in business and life, but we must tackle it at a pace our team can handle.
- Process matters. In season four, line chef Tina Marrero struggles to get her dish prep time down to three minutes, a goal that will provide benefits that cascade out to other functions in the kitchen. Part of the problem is the way she deals with the external pressure, but part of it is under her control, as she streamlines her section by portioning out all her ingredients before the restaurant opens each night. Encourage your team to find the little ways existing processes can be tweaked and improved; small efficiency gains multiplied throughout the company can have tremendous benefit.
- Every guest is the VIP. During a staff huddle, a conversation bubbles up about trying to identify who the restaurant critics are before they arrive for their meal so they can be treated with extra care. An industry veteran pipes up that instead of spending energy on the detective work, it’s best to treat every guest like they’re the very important person (VIP), then you don’t have to worry about whether you missed one or not. This is a great lesson in customer experience; treat every client like they’re a VIP and they’ll keep coming back for more.
2. Who am I? Everyone has a role to play, and everyone has value. That’s one of the beautiful concepts that The Bear continually shows. From the flattened hierarchy, where everyone is called “chef” to the constant encouragement that everyone can improve, the show reinforces the inherent value of the individual by showing:
- Training and development are critical. In The Bear we see that to turn a rag-tag band of fast-food operators into world-class restaurateurs, a significant amount of upskilling is needed. Rather than replace the existing staff with outsiders, Carmy pours substantial time and money into teaching his staff the skills they need, including sending pastry chef Marcus to Copenhagen to train at well-known bakery Hart Bageri. Similarly, he deploys aspiring maître d’ cousin Richie to work at real life Michelin two-star restaurant Ever to see firsthand how the best of the best operates. As business leaders, developing our team offers a fantastic opportunity to not only improve the work we produce, but also to let our people know we care about their future.
- Everyone has a voice. One of the ongoing tensions the kitchen must navigate is between Carmy’s genius as one of the best chefs on the planet and the ideas and suggestions provided by his talented team. The setting has an obvious hierarchy with Carmy on top, and it would be easy to force everyone to defer to him. But he knows his team is excellent, and if he wants to get the best out of them they must be given freedom of creative expression. Positive ideas are blessed with the encouraging “Let ‘er rip!” catch phrase from the departed Michael. In season four, when Chef Sydney Adamu has Carmy try out a new scallop dish he calls it “better than perfect” and immediately puts it on the menu for the night. The look of pride on Sydney’s face in that moment is powerful. By praising innovative ideas from our team, we express gratitude and encourage more positive creativity.
3. Who are we? Many businesses use the word “family” to describe their culture, but in the rush to associate the firm with the sense of acceptance and belonging that families provide, we risk ignoring that for some people families can be a source of struggle and trauma. The family operators of The Bear present both sides of this coin (I mentioned the yelling, right?). Taking the good with the bad, The Bear shows us that how we relate to each other matters:
- We bring our whole selves to work. Both Marcus and Sydney deal with scary situations involving the health of their family members, and their team at the restaurant has their back. It’s important that when life circumstances intrude, we care for each other so the focus can be where it needs to be. When my mother passed away in 2021, I had to step fully away from work for two weeks with zero notice or preparation; my teammates at EEA fully supported me and covered for me with no questions asked, and I’m not the only person who has benefited from that kind of grace. Yes, the work we do is important, but our lives outside of work are what truly matters.
- Don’t ignore the difficult conversations. Nobody enjoys confrontation or difficult conversations. We want to be well liked by our peers, and discussing sensitive topics exposes us to a risk of hurt feelings and resentment. But for any enterprise to succeed we must be willing to get vulnerable and discuss the issues holding us back. In one of the final scenes of the current season, Carmy and Richie finally discuss an issue that’s been simmering below the surface for the entire run of the series. Putting off the hard conversation just creates more (and more difficult) conversations later.
Great art can inspire us in a myriad of ways, and I found myself actually taking notes while watching this latest season of The Bear (yes, my wife thinks I’m nuts). The show demonstrates the numerous ways we fight each other, love each other, push each other, and make each other better. The characters are richly portrayed, and the pursuit of excellence is compelling. Not a bad way to feel about our work.
Morgan Stinson is chief operating officer at EEA Consulting Engineers. Contact him at morganstinson@eeace.com.