Management Tools
Spheres of Influences and The Five P’s
By Mark W. Healey
CEO – Virtual Hospitality Group
Article 2 of 3
Putting the 5P’s to work as a Manager or Supervisor
To recap, in article one we discussed that every good operating company either develops a management culture and approach, or lives and dies by the results of its individual stars and asteroids. At Virtual Hospitality Group we teach a “Spheres of Influence” approach using the 5P’s (People, Products, Process, Priority, and Performance). The Spheres of Influence approach aids in problem solving, but more importantly, the 5 P’s become a mindset and the common language and guide for managers and the whole organization to more efficiently and effectively manage. Once every manager and team member understand what each “P” means and stands for, the ability to move quickly to the heart of problems and solutions is greatly increased. In this article we discuss how managers and supervisors can put the 5P’s to work.
OK, so we haven’t mentioned a manager’s traits and skills like communication, creativity, initiative, flexibility, persuasiveness, persistence, decision making, understanding and leadership. You are right, these are not spheres of influence. We view these nine skills (in addition to technical proficiency in job duties) as the characteristics every hospitality manager must have and use to be successful.
Managers and supervisors at every level and competency must apply these skills and expand their capabilities when managing the 5 P’s to be successful each day.
Everything is a problem, and nothing is a problem using the 5P’s.
Let’s go over the management characteristics:
COMMUNICATION: The ability to be understood and to understand oral and written interaction with supervisors, peers, and subordinates.
INITIATIVE: The act of taking on new tasks or projects to solve current problems; or to begin or seek out new tasks in the interest of better management.
FLEXIBILITY: The ability to adapt under changing situations. The ability to try new things without preconceptions. The ability to be persuaded by new or compelling data.
PERSUASIVENESS: The ability through logical argument, advice or communication to convince superiors, peers, and subordinates of your position or stance on a subject or decision.
PERSISTENCE: The ability to see and finish a task or goal; to be un-swayed in it’s completion. (finishing what is started and in the time allocated)
CREATIVITY: The ability to use thinking outside of the known approach to solve, enhance, or initiate.
DECISION MAKING: The ability to make effective adjustments or changes given a set of information; also the ability to make decisions given new information or situational changes. (i.e. thinking on your feet)
UNDERSTANDING: The ability to comprehend clearly a situation or person through listening and powers of observation.
LEADERSHIP: The ability to guide a person or group through a complete task. The ability to show the way by example and direct through influence.
As you read through our description of the management characteristics you can begin to see how each of these can play a role in using the 5P’s. It will also not surprise you that these same characteristics are used in our performance management system for our annual manager’s performance appraisal and development planning.
When we discuss or evaluate how a manager is performing with regard to the characteristics, we ask the reviewer and the management employee being reviewed to rate them (or themselves) and provide actual examples of the characteristics in use—an example of leadership, an example of communication, etc. Each completed example must contain a S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). To put the 5P’s to work each day we apply the same approach. When presented with a situation or task, we need to identify and understand the issue/problem, take action using the 5P’s to determine and weigh all the factors, consider solutions and their effect on the 5 P’s, and implement the best solution.
Using the process:
- Always review each of the five P’s – eliminate any P that does not apply.
- Evaluate the rate each P factor (top to bottom).
- Adjust given the priority, then decide on solutions.
- Communicate and Implement solutions.
- Follow up to insure the solution is working.
- Adjust as needed – repeat.
Here is an example:
Situation: Jenny has not shown up for her shift at 8:00am as the opening cook. The manager arrives at 8:50am before their scheduled 9am shift.
The 5P’s assessment:
People – Jenny is missing and has not called or left a message.
Products – Jenny is the opening cook who is responsible to cook off the lunch items to prepare for service. This includes placing chicken in a rotisserie, and cooking off roast beef and bacon, before setting up and stocking all the kitchen stations.
Process – The chicken and Roast Beef take 2 hours or more to cook off, the bacon takes about 45 minutes to cook off the batches.
Priorities- Roast chicken is todays “special of the day.”
Performance – Without getting the chicken cooked and ready the luncheon sales will slump, and guests could get angry that we are out of the special during lunch, or they have to wait to get today’s advertised special.
The 5P’s solutions
Which of the 5 P’s in this situation outweighs the other P’s?
Answers:
#1 PROCESSES/PRODUCTS – The cooking the of the meats is 50 minutes behind schedule. The ovens must be turned on and the rotisserie loaded. START THE OVENS, PULL AND LOAD THE MEATS ASAP.
#2 PEOPLE – Is Jenny OK? Perhaps she is in traffic but on her way? If Jenny will not be in, her shift needs to be filled for a busy lunch. CALL/TEXT JENNY, ARRANGE FOR A REPLACEMENT AS NEEDED.
#3 PRIORITIES – Running behind for lunch prep, could make several other opening tasks (for the daily special) behind. CALL IN THE LUNCH STAFF TO GET CREW EARLY AS NEEDED. LET YOUR STORE MANAGER (DUE IN AT NOON) WHAT THEY ARE WALKING INTO – OR GET THEM IN EARLY AS NEEDED.
#4 PERFORMANCE – Under the best scenarios lunch will be behind to start, and daily special are very popular for online lunch and third partydelivery (TPD) orders. CALL THE TPDS AND EITHER BUMP YOUR TPD MENU HOURS FOR TODAY FROM 10:30 AM TO 12:15, OR REMOVE (TURN OFF) THE SPECIAL, REACTIVATING LATER AS THE TEAM IS CAUGHT UP.
Note: As mentioned, many tasks can be categorized by more than one “P.” In our example, the PRIORITIES analysis could be considered a PEOPLE topic, or PERFORMANCE could be considered a PROCESSES topic. The purpose of the 5 P’s analysis is less about which P is what, and more about considering ALL the spheres of influence on a situation, and then weighing which is the most immediate to address, followed by the next most time-sensitive solution step. At times, the most important influence may not always be the most immediate to require a response or action.
Using the 5 P’s is also a great foundation for Situational Manager (leadership)—but that’s a topic for another best practice.
About the Author: Mark Healey is CEO and cofounder of Virtual Hospitality Group. In a 35+ year career, he has more than 17 years of F&B experience working with more than 25 Native American Casinos throughout the country. He can be reached at m.healey@virtualhg.com