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 communications, 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,
and 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 party
delivery (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