Your best dish?

Over the weekend I did a bit of cooking, as usual. Some of it used recipes, some of it used the knowledge I’ve accumulated over a lot of years in the kitchen. While doing some of the prep work (mise, to you foodie types), my mind wandered and was thinking about..um…thinking! And I figured out that it’s the thinking that makes all the difference, both in the kitchen and at your desk.
What I mean is that many folks can execute a well-written recipe. They have basic food skills, know what the recipe means when it says “sweat” rather than “saute” and can even manage their timings well enough to get multiple dishes ready all at the same time. But they’re not the ones I’d hire to cook for me.

Hire the one that THINKS like a chef. What flavors work together? What textures compliment and enhance one another? How can I use the techniques I know in new and different ways to construct something better? It’s not that one doesn’t ever use recipes – it’s just that I’d rather have the person who reads the instructions and makes that recipe their own.

It’s the same at work. There are lots of people who can follow the manual and do everything by rote. They get most of the work done on time and exactly as they been asked to do it.   But they’re not the ones you want working for you. Nope. You want the ones that have great vocabulary of techniques and who can use the raw ingredients of your business to make you something new and delicious. They’re also the ones who can deal with changing circumstances just a a great chef can improvise based on what’s in the pantry.

Tom Colicchio wrote a great book almost a decade ago called “Think Like A Chef“. I highly recommend it. But I’m not sure even Chef Tom thought he was writing a business book. Yet it’s his principles – learning and understanding the techniques and flavors that are the building blocks of food – that I think should be echoed in business. Make sure your people have those skills and think like chefs and you’ll be well down the road to success.