Private Club Radio Show
346: Crafting Elite Teams & The Future of Training w/ James Cronk
This episode with chat with James Cronk. Co-founder of Golf Industry Guru (GIG)
Leadership is a central theme as we dissect the anatomy of vibrant workplace cultures. Our conversation delves into the nuances of encouragement, creativity, and recognition, illustrating how these elements can breathe life into any team.
We share actionable strategies to reignite team members' passion and commitment, acknowledging the diverse motivations that drive individuals within an organization. By embracing these concepts, listeners will learn how to elevate a good team to greatness and foster a sense of belonging where every team member feels valued and inspired to excel daily.
Learn more about James and Golf Industry Guru.
Follow us on the socials
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Private Club Radio Linkedin
Denny Corby Instagram
Denny Corby Linkedin
This episode with chat with James Cronk. Co-founder of Golf Industry Guru (GIG)
Leadership is a central theme as we dissect the anatomy of vibrant workplace cultures. Our conversation delves into the nuances of encouragement, creativity, and recognition, illustrating how these elements can breathe life into any team.
We share actionable strategies to reignite team members' passion and commitment, acknowledging the diverse motivations that drive individuals within an organization. By embracing these concepts, listeners will learn how to elevate a good team to greatness and foster a sense of belonging where every team member feels valued and inspired to excel daily.
Learn more about James and Golf Industry Guru.
Follow us on the socials
Private Club Radio Instagram
Private Club Radio Linkedin
Denny Corby Instagram
Denny Corby Linkedin
And so if your training is not documented, if you can't prove that someone's been trained on how to use a deep fryer, on how to clean a deep fryer, and they then burn their hands, aware about how we, as managers, as people that work in an industry, are under a much different microscope than it was a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio club industry source for news trends, updates and conversations. And we say clubs, private clubs, we mean country clubs, city clubs, golf clubs, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, military clubs, all the private member clubs. I'm your host, denny Corby. Thank you for joining us today. This episode I chat with James Kronk, james Kronk Kronk Kronkinator. He is a co-founder of the Golf Industry Guru, golfindustrygurucom, the gig which provides online education for golf course owners and operators, from flipping burgers at Earl's to flipping the script on golf industry training. James, you have done it all here to spill the beans on the good, the bad and the outdated when it comes to training, and you're going to hear to share the secrets that are going to turbocharge our club's success. Get ready for a dash of humor, a pinch of wisdom and a whole lot of insights. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome James Cronk.
Speaker 1:Benny, it's a pleasure to be here. I love it. What a great introduction.
Speaker 2:I was like either he's going to hate me or love me.
Speaker 1:No, I love it. Hey, we don't want to be boring. We don't want to be boring, we got to entertain people. Well, in fact, that's the key of training is make it fun. So, anytime you can make things fun. And, denny, you seem to be an expert at making things fun, so I, you can make things fun, and then you're seen to be an expert at making things fun, so I love the introduction.
Speaker 2:How? How has training evolved over the years and what's it like in the current climate?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, depends who you asked, denny, I would. I would propose to you and share with you that, in my humble experience in 30 years in the club industry, you know that there's some people that still don't train. So you know, sometimes training is nonexistent. Training is here's your apron and table number 24, just sat down and go take an order. Or, you know, if you've worked in a kitchen before then, there's the line and start flipping burgers, like you said.
Speaker 1:But I would say that how training has changed is that those clubs that are leaders that attract the right people, that are able to keep people, that are able to create a culture that delivers a great experience, have learned that by engaging their people and helping their people be better, which is what everyone wants. That comes from training. It makes people have more fun and enjoy their jobs better. You know, it's like I gave a presentation this morning actually to a group and we were talking about hockey. So so, denny, I'm a Canadian and so you know I'm going to use some hockey references, if that's okay.
Speaker 1:You know I'm crazy Canuck, but you know, because, because we were talking about training and and, and you know, a team doesn't start the season and then never train again. You know, like when the doors, when the, when the first game starts, uh, they don't stop training, they'll stop practicing, they'll stop trying to get better. They're constantly trying to get better, every single day. And, uh, the clubs that are killing it, in my humble opinion, that are that are that have got a great experience, that are have happy members and happy staff and are hitting all their targets, they're always training, and I think that's a little bit different than how it was when I first got in the business.
Speaker 2:How do you? So the continual training. So the hardest part is starting the how do you keep it going? Like, what's the key to keeping it going? That's probably what happens with a lot of people is like they start and let's just, you know, one thing leads to another. Oh, we're going to postpone until tomorrow, or like whatever, what's the key to keeping it going?
Speaker 1:I think people mistake training as a task, as opposed to understanding that training is a way, is a value. So, you know, you go to a club and there's a manager and you say to the manager what's something new that you've done in the last four months to make things different or better? And the answer is we do the same thing we've always done. This is how we do things, this is the tradition that we have, this is how we do, that's how we do things around here, son and or you have an attitude of how can we be better every single day? Right, that concept of Kaizen, of continual improvement.
Speaker 1:So you know, I think, to answer your question, you have to have a belief that you can always be better every single day. It's the Ricky Potts 1% better every day philosophy of always constantly trying to improve and trying to improve your business, your people, the way you do things, the way you greet people, the way you serve a table, the way you cut the grass. If you're always trying to improve, then training just becomes part of getting better. Right, it's just a philosophy and attitude. So I think it starts from the top. Your leadership has to believe in the concept that we can always be better, and if you believe that, then you will always be trying to get better, and that comes from getting better by doing training, by doing new things right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right'm. Let's say I'm, you know, jimmy john, I'm a gm over at shanksville springs. You know, I think I have like a good training, you know program. How do, how can I know if my training is good like? Is there like a barometer that I can like use, be like, I think my stuff's pretty good like? Or I can just, like you know, use it to be like, oh, maybe I think I might need some help here yeah, no, that's uh.
Speaker 1:First of all, shanksville country club. I love that name, um that's shanksville springs, shanksville springs, even better, shanksville springs.
Speaker 1:There must be a pond somewhere. Um, shanksville springs, well, mr, shanksville springs. Uh, the first thing you got to do is ask your people. So you know I'm assuming Jimmy Johnon-one sessions with your team, and in those one-on-one sessions or in that annual survey, asking the question, you know, do you have the right tools and training to be successful in your job? And if you know, nine times out of ten the answer is yes. There's two things that are happening to 10, the answer is yes, there's two things that are happening.
Speaker 1:Either one you are doing it, or two people don't have an attitude of getting better, right? Because if the answer to that question is you're actually not getting better and making the experience better and performing at a higher level, like the KPIs, the results of training is in guest and customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction and in financial results, right? Those are the things that we measure our business by. So that's the standard, that's how we measure success. Or however you measure success New members, member retention, you know, member satisfaction, achieving a budget, whatever are the KPIs you're using, and so then, from there, everyone is striving to deliver that.
Speaker 1:So if those numbers aren't improving, I would propose to you that you're not. Your training is not helping people get better, because, because, if they were getting better, those, those, those responses your, your, your net promoter score would be higher. Your, your, your results would be greater. Everyone would be making more money. You know like those are all the measures of success, and so what I find, as I said, is that what an operator needs to ask is are my people finding new and improved ways to do things? Are we becoming more efficient? Do I have staff that are growing, that are coming from being a back shop kid to the back shop supervisor, to being the assistant golf professional, to being the director of golf, to being the general manager? Our career is progressing.
Speaker 2:That sounds a lot like your career, that is exactly my career, but you've got to add in.
Speaker 1:you've got to add in that's right Then you've got to add in the consultant part and then the et cetera part. But, thanks, denny, you're totally right. You're totally right. Well, and you know what? And you know what, denny, thank you. That's a good segue.
Speaker 1:I'll add to that when I got in the golf business, I was 28 years old formally to get in the golf business and there was only two people I wanted to work for, only two. They were the best head professionals known in my city, in my area Village, and one of them was actually working in England at the time, so I couldn't work for him. So I waited seven months before I finally was offered a job as a back shop kid to work at the one, only one facility. Because because I, I, I was smart enough back then to know that if you want to be the best, you have to work for the best, and so I wanted to learn from an individual that I had great regard for at that time, and still do, and created an environment of improvement. He embraced an environment of improvement. So I think that's also what I would say. Once again, it gets back to either live and breathe, getting better, therefore training or you just do what you've always done, cause it's what's got you where you are, wherever that might be.
Speaker 2:If you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to get what you always got, something like that Exactly. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Exactly Definition of insanity. Blah, blah, blah blah. You know doing the same thing, you know everyone uses that.
Speaker 2:I was chatting yesterday with Josh Paris down at Old Town. He was saying how it was a really great quote. I forget who he even quoted, but it was saying how, when it comes to change, people aren't afraid of change. It's the transition from you know getting to that change. It was just. It just felt the right, felt like the right moment.
Speaker 1:That's a great one, I mean my. My favorite quote about training, by the way, is the only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay right. That's. That's a kind of a famous quote about, about training, which is that that we we, you know people worry about. If I invest all this time and effort and money into helping this person be better, and what if they go somewhere else? What if they pack up and they move down to Shank Springs down the street? Well, what if you train them and they don't leave, and you don't train them and they stay, and then they don't do a very good job?
Speaker 2:No, because I was going to bring up my friend down at Silver Spoon Sands, bobby Kelm, and he does not do any training, you know. So how does he even start? Well, what's like the first thing, how do you you know what I mean like going not, you know, maybe even going back to basics, like if you have a training program like what's like, you know, just like looking back, hey, you know, I just want to maybe like re revamp, or I don't even have one, how do you even start? Because that that's a big like, that's a big first step, like that's, how do you even take that one?
Speaker 1:it's a, it's a, it's a big first step, but because that's, how do you even take that one? It's a, it's a. It's a big first step, but because of technology, it's now really easy. So we'll talk about that in a second, but let me get back to Bobby's problem. Um, well, obviously, what probably is the situation with Bobby let's just extrapolate, if we may, cause this is common is that Bobby's got a leadership team that had been there for 15, 20 years and they haven't written anything down and it's in their heads and they all know what they're doing. They're competent people, they're skilled people. The problem is, if they get hit by a bus, the next person has no idea what's in the filing cabinet, and when they open the filing cabinet, there's documents that haven't been updated for a decade.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that's different, denny, today, that is very important is about liability and risk, because what used to happen back in the good old days is you know, something would go wrong and the question would be is well, why did that happen? And the answer would be is well, that's just the way we do things, that's how we do things Nowadays. Someone's going to show up and they're going to say show me the document that confirms that Billy's been taught how to use that walk-behind mower and show me the training that was done, show me the documentation, show me Billy's signature that shows that he was trained on how to use that walk-behind mower, and so that I can understand why did Billy cut off his toe? And now the risk and liability on that owner, on that manager, is significant now in this world of being held accountable. And so if your training is not documented, if you can't prove that someone's been trained on how to use a deep fryer, on how to clean a deep fryer, and they then burn their hands, well, you are now personally responsible for that exercise. And not that that wasn't always the case, but in today's litigious world, we need to be much more aware about how we, as managers, as people that work in an industry, are under a much different microscope than it was a long time ago.
Speaker 1:So, getting back to Bobby's problem, the first thing Bobby's got to do is he's got to start documenting what people do on a day-to-day basis. Let's just start with some task lists. Just start with some checklists. Let's just start with what are the 15 things that have to happen when you go home at night? What are the five things that need to be done before you start using that $100,000 fairway mower, what are the nine ways that we're supposed to close out a table, and et cetera, et cetera. So it starts to getting people to document their materials and their content, and then, obviously, it's to start to make sure that your materials reflect what you want to have happen, because training means nothing if people aren't engaged in the process of understanding why we do something, why we're doing it understanding why we do something.
Speaker 2:You know why we're doing it. Are there any ways to like gamify, or are there people or tech that have gamification to it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. That's a great question here's. I love this example the old days versus the new days, and sometimes the old day still works. By the way, when I managed a cloud club long time ago, we started off the season each year with our Olympics and what happened is that we would get all 250 employees into the clubhouse before we opened and we would divide them up into teams so that you'd have someone from the kitchen with someone from the restaurant, with someone from the golf shop with someone from the outside, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and then they would go around to different competitions that were put on by each department.
Speaker 1:So, for example, the back shop, they had to load a golf cart and pick up a bunch of range balls on the floor of the banquet room, the kitchen. The chef decided this was back in the days when they had some show on TV. They had to taste, test things and identify what it was, and it was super gross, by the way, like I never wanted to try that one. But the chef would get all these different foods that people had to, kind of, you know, taste and identify what it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, it was exactly. It was like beer factor, and, and, and of course, the superintendent had the staff out there using a chainsaw of some kind, which was you couldn't do today, but back then you know they were, they were cutting some wood or something. And then the accounting department I love the accounting department, they did, they played the prices right and staff used to have to stick price tags against the item. That was the applicable price right, and they used to always make it wrong. They used to always guess that my car was more expensive than a mower and they were always shocked to learn that the mower was double what my car was back then. So, anyway, and then of course, we gave out prizes and we had pizza, and everyone got to learn the different skills and the different things that all the different departments did, so that they understood that it was a team effort to deliver what we were trying to do, to deliver what we were trying to achieve. And we had great success there from a service standpoint and a team culture standpoint. We had a wonderful, wonderful team culture because we broke down the silos and got everybody engaged. So you don't need technology to make training fun, you know. You don't need gamification to get people together to understand what everybody does, to learn different skills, right. But there are ways through technology, obviously. Now we're making In our platform, golf Industry Guru Daniel.
Speaker 1:When we started three or four years ago, we started making training videos that were in little chapters of like five, six minutes each. I explained that to someone the other day. They were like five, six minutes. Our staff is not going to watch them for five, six minutes. It's got to be like a minute. So now we're making these shorts because now Instagram and all that other stuff I mean, the attention span of a 20-year-old right is, you know, less than a minute. So now we can't.
Speaker 1:Our training can't be, first of all, some boring binder. You know that. They got to flip through and look at drawings you know, of how to set a banquet table, you know. And it can't be. You know some kind of you know complicated process. You know some kind of you know, complicated process. If we want to show them a quick little video about how to do something, if we want to show them something fun, if we want to, obviously we got to personally show them and demonstrate and get out there.
Speaker 1:But there's lots of different ways that training can be part of your culture whereby it's not oh my goodness, we got to train. Oh, my, you know. Oh, training, you know we don't have the budget for it, we don't have the time for it, we don't have the people for it, we don't have the you know, training is just what you do every single day when you're working. Is training? That's what training should be, it should be. Everyone should have that attitude of how can I show you? Hey, do you know how to do this? Hey, show me how you do that. Hey, how could we do this differently or do this better? Or I noticed that when you walked away from that table, you didn't take anything.
Speaker 1:It's one of my pet peeves, denny. I noticed that when you left that table with a tray in your hand, it was empty. So it makes more sense, right? If you, when you leave that table, you clear some empty glasses and you clear some dirty plates, or or you walk by the other table and grab some of their glasses, like, just because it's not your table doesn't mean that we're not all cleaning tables and making things more efficient. So you know, training is an attitude, it's not a task.
Speaker 2:Hmm. So okay, staff buy-in is huge and I happen to know, you know, bobby Kelm over there at Silver Spoon Sands. He's also having an issue. I don't know why it's so funny to me, but he's having an issue of, uh, like staff buy-in just isn't there. Like what, like, what do you do at that point? Like how do you like? Because you know, sometimes you can say, hey, you know, hang out or get off the pot. Uh, sometimes you can't always afford to do some of that. Or like you know how are ways to re-engage or get some of those people who are on the fence, or like the old guards, the, you know, the naughty nelly nutmegs, who are just uh, yeah, besides getting rid of bobby listen bobby calum because bobby's doing the best he can.
Speaker 1:Because if your people, if your people aren't engaged, okay, like, like, if, if you don't have a, a culture in your club, um, you have to look in the mirror. Um, okay, your job as a leader is to create an environment where people thrive. Now, there's lots of obstacles that get in the Bobby's way. Okay, there's lots of obstacles. Maybe Bobby can't fire negative Nelly that's been there for 25 years and is on a contract and it's going to cost the club and the club doesn't want to pay the severance, whatever. That might be Right. So so Bobby's got to find creative ways to kind of create that, that culture and that and that attitude.
Speaker 1:But it you've been. You, for goodness sakes, danny, have been in all kinds of clubs and I have no doubt that if I asked you right now to tell me the difference between a club that is energized and powered on, that have staff that are hitting every single opportunity, versus a club that the energy looks like they just came out of a library session and are the most boring, dull, unengaging, uninspiring environment you've ever seen, I would propose to you you're going to be able to identify leadership that represents the culture, represents the leadership. The leadership creates the culture. So it's very important. You can't be a chef anymore and yell at people and throw knives. You're just not going to survive in the restaurant business, not anymore.
Speaker 1:Spoons maybe, but maybe still spoons, but you know so. And a 20-year-old, or whatever age, but especially a 20-year-old they have different expectations. You know, I can't get my kids to do the dishes in my kitchen, let alone work in a restaurant and do dishes for eight hours a day. And the fact is that through their life on their phone and technology and their lack of people engagement, they have a different expectation of that job. Right, they have a different investment. They don't look at it like they're coming to learn their career. They don't look like they owe you something because you're paying them a paycheck. They're like my cat's sick, I'm going home for four hours. If you don't like it, I'm quitting, right. So we have to adjust our way to engage and create that culture. So Bobby's got to look at what are the things that he's doing or they are doing, that is, enhancing and creating their culture. So are their staff clear about what's expected of them? Are they learning and do they get to contribute to the process?
Speaker 1:You know, in the old days we told someone I want you to put the fork here and the knife here and the plate over here and the cup here. Now the best way to do it is to show them the finished product and say you do it as you see fit, just get it done. If you want to put the knife first and the fork second and the cup third and the glass over there, I don't care. This is what it's supposed to look like. Use your creativity, use your own inspiration, use the way that you want to do it.
Speaker 1:If you want to do 18 knives around the table and then come back and do 18 forks and then 18 cups, if it's done in the same amount of time, to the same standard, that I'm expecting, great, make it your own right. They got to make it their own, as opposed to you have to do first A, then B, then C, then D. No one wants to work like that anymore. That's why we have machines. That's what AI is coming. That's why we're going to have burger flippers that are machines, because there's no fun in just flipping a burger for eight hours a day.
Speaker 1:It could be, but Well, hey, and you're right, Well, it can be. And what's critically important from a leadership standpoint, that Bobby needs to do, if Bobby wants to create a better culture of his people, then Bobby's got to create a great environment that people love to come to work and that they love to work with people like them that are rock stars, like them. No one wants to work for losers, with losers on a losing team. No one does. So Bobby probably has to look at the quality of the team to make sure that the people that are there every day are people that other people want to be with and want to walk through a wall for.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's look. So okay, gotta stop with the characters. Now I'm getting I'm confusing myself, all right, so let's just say, for example, it's you just have, maybe that that those one or two people who are just, you know, just a little, not quite buying in, not quite, of course, you know, or maybe just like disengaged, maybe they were, now they're you know, you're starting to like lose them again as like a leader. What are some ways to re-engage a little bit more, like that personal level, like how do you, you know because I think you know sometimes that's a hard line to walk or like a hard area if you're like you know everything's going well, there's like maybe one or two people, something's going on. How do you fix that little like nugget? Like, how do you get the ship back on track and run a little bit leaner and smoother?
Speaker 1:It's unrealistic to think that you can constantly be cleansing right, and I've managed enough clubs to know it's not a perfect world. It's not a perfect world and you know. Just like a winning team, everyone's got a different part to play. You can't have 22 goal scorers on a team. You, you, you need a defenseman, you need a passer, you need a forester, you need a goaltender, etc. Etc. And and so you're not going to have rock stars in every role, in every position and sometimes, by the way, you don't want to.
Speaker 1:I don't need my accountant to be the most personable individual in the in the in the room. I need to be really good at making sure that people aren't stealing money from us or that bills are getting paid on time, whatever it might be. I don't need them to be a joke teller. But getting back to your question, I think that as leaders, our job is to try to find out everyone wants something, everyone has an ROI, everyone wants to feel valued and to know that their time is worth something, what they're doing and sometimes it's difficult to pull out of some people why are they there and what turns them on and what gets them excited and how do they pull Like we have to have minimum expectations.
Speaker 1:So, betty, I know you're not the most positive person, but you can't speak negatively about Stephen to the guest. That's a minimum standard. I don't need you and you know sing a song every time you walk in the door, but what I do need you to do is to stop talking negatively about Steven to the customer because you think that Steven's lazy, I will manage Steven, you worry about you, so you have to have minimum standards. You have to have minimum expectations. Now then, you know it's like. It's like. It's like any good relationship, danny. You know how you have a good relationship. You know how you'd be the most well-liked person in the room. Tell me you let everybody else talk about themselves.
Speaker 2:Be more interested than interesting.
Speaker 1:Right, and so you know it's always. The great leaders that I've worked for and aspire to follow are those leaders that are unbelievably good at asking questions how are you doing today? What do you need? How can I help you? What would help make this go faster? I noticed that you're having trouble being engaged in the culture that we're trying to create. Is there something you don't agree with? Is there something that I've said? Is there something that I could do differently? I need when you come to work. I have some minimum expectations that I need here. They are A, b, c, d. I have these expectations of everybody. Are those fair? Do you think you can deliver? Is there any problem?
Speaker 1:Like you know you've got, you know we've got to. But you know what, denny? That's a hard conversation to have and most people don't like having hard conversations, so most people avoid uncomfortable conflict conversations, and what I would share with what I would tell a manager, is that that helps people be better. Like if not you. Who Like if not you?
Speaker 1:Your role as a leader is to tell people what they do great, to tell people what they should stop doing, and to tell you know people what they should start doing. You know the stop, start, continue, kind of you know, and so that's that's, that's your responsibility, that's your, amongst many other things that your job is to do to make sure the food is fantastic. You're also is to mentor your team. So, yes, chef, having a food cost and and you know, delivering a great meal and keeping everything clean and safe and healthy is part of your role. Your other role, in addition to that, your role, is to mentor people and to help them be better so that they can go on and have a fruitful career just like you have. And everyone's got to have that attitude. And if you have a manager that doesn't believe that that's their role, well then you've got to find someone that does, because your team can't get better if people aren't committed to improving. In my humble opinion.
Speaker 2:Are there any? Because you've had a, you know, a good long career. Are there any? I don't know if initiatives is like the right word, but are there any like training initiatives or things that you're most proud of or that had like a really major impact that you did, that you saw play out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I like trying to make things fun and I think you can make, you can create that culture of getting better without scaring people, right, and the idea that you can have conversations about where we're not doing great, Like, like we. We were so in our, especially in our business, like our first of all, the club business and the golf business and the club business is is the weirdest thing ever, Right we?
Speaker 1:all playgrounds right, we all understand that Right Like it's like literally. You know you're managing a club. You got 900 bosses. You know the entitlement that people have, you know the expectation. I mean we're not even talking about the customer or the member at the moment, we're just talking about managing people.
Speaker 1:But I'm not managing people in an environment that is not even real in this, in the sense that, you know, a normal business would never operate that way. Right, you'd never allow you know eight people to sit around a room talking about how to make the French fries better and you have to listen to them. You know, like in the corporate world it would be like who the heck? You know you're a plumber. For goodness sakes, why am I listening to you tell me how French fries, how to make French fries, like, just because you eat in a restaurant doesn't mean you know how to run a restaurant bud. But anyway, that's a whole other topic, Denny, for another day. But I want to get back to your question, which was yes, there's a couple things that I've done that I still tell today because they're great little tools that anyone can do. One is called the best idea contest. So the best idea contest is that you challenge the staff to come up with an idea that is going to make the employee experience better or the guest experience better or the business be more profitable, and it can be any idea. And then the management team, or whomever chooses a winner once, once a month, and the prize is that in front of the clubhouse you take the the spot, you know the parking spot where the club captain or the general manager parks. You throw that in the garden and then you make a new sign and on the sign you put a light bulb and that is the parking spot for the winning employee that gets to park there for the entire month. They get to drive to the front of the clubhouse and park their 1977 Subaru in the most important parking spot right in front of the clubhouse. And what happens is a couple of things. One is they're very proud because they won the best idea of the month contest. And the second thing that happens is that everyone walks in the clubhouse customer member and says why do you have a parking spot with a light bulb on it? And then the answer, of course, is well, we have a contest with our staff that looks for great ideas and every month the person that gets the greatest idea, gets to park in that parking spot, and then, of course, the next question they will ask is well, who's parking there now and what was their idea? And that exercise creates that attitude A with the guest and the member, that you believe, a in your employees coming up with ideas and you support them. Number two is that you promote a culture of improvement and of always making things better, that you're always thinking and sharing with new things. So that's one of my favorites. I have one more real quick. I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:My second favorite contest we came up with is called General Manager for the Day, and it's the exact same premise best idea blah blah, blah blah. Voted on by the leadership team at one of the regular meetings. But then the difference is the prize. The prize is the employee that wins comes to work at 11 o'clock. When they come to work, they go have lunch right away. They get to bring three of their friends and then after lunch they go and they play golf, and then they play golf and then they come off the golf course and then they sit on the patio and they have a drink and then they go home and of course, course. The reason is because that's what general managers do all every day. That's the. That's what. That's what GMs do every day, right? So, so they get paid. It's they get. They get a full paid wage for their day, but they get, they get a. They get their own spa day, their own golf day, their own kind of experience where they get to bring friends to see their club. And, once again, the number of stories that I've heard and the examples of people that have been still talk about that I one time won the GM of the day contest and this was my idea and this is what I did and this is who I brought and this is my whole thing, right? So that's, you know, there are lots of ways to create that culture, that attitude.
Speaker 1:My final thing for you, sorry, my final thing for you, denny, is I'm a big believer in celebrating acts. Okay, so you don't have employee of the month, cause it's Susie and you know she's finally her turn and she no longer comes to work drunk. You know, that's not, it's not, that's not employee of the month, right? She used to be so much fun. She used to be so much fun, um, but you know, if Bobby or Harry wants to create something to create that culture happening.
Speaker 1:Start to celebrate the acts that people do, that are above and beyond, that exceed expectations, that take care of each other or take care of the consumer, of the member, and you start to gather these stories of things that people did. So every manager needs to come to every management meeting with at least one act that they have recognized or seen around the facility. And it happens, they just don't talk about it. We just don't. We just don't. We are always looking for what to do, how to make someone do better. You know, they screwed up here, they screwed up there. Very rarely do we say what did they do right? What did they exceed? Where did they go above and beyond? And that's what we want to celebrate. We want to celebrate the act so that all the employees recognize oh, that's what it means to be recognized, that's what we're striving for, that's the level of getting better that we're looking to do.
Speaker 2:Because I think that sort of goes into my last kind of bit or question, which was going to be like what's I don't say, what's the future hold or what do you see, but it sounds like recognition is probably the word or the the I don't say the trend, but it sounds like maybe you know over recognize, over over compliment yeah, yeah, that's yeah and I'll talk.
Speaker 1:You talked about the future, because I want to talk about um, ai and and technology. Um, we, we, like we. We should say we want to use high tech to increase high touch, okay, so. So what makes our club business special is the personal connections that we make with people, that that that is actually one of the things. That's why people join clubs. That's why they used to join clubs. Now, now they're joining clubs because they want a tea time on Sunday morning at nine o'clock and they don't want to be involved in the club. But once again, that's a whole other podcast we can do.
Speaker 1:But the reality is that we, from a service standpoint, from an experience standpoint, we struggle as managers in the business. We struggle to find the time to spend more quality time developing relationships with our staff and with our customers. You hear it all the time Where's the manager? They're in the office. Why are they in the office? Because they got 300 emails to answer. They got 40 invoices to process. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So chat GDP.
Speaker 1:Artificial intelligence video creation. Match, etp artificial intelligence video creation. Denny, right now I could film one minute of you talking, okay, and then I can take that one minute of film clip and then I can create 22 training videos that I don't need you for, but those training videos will be you speaking, will be you talking, and it'll look like you, it'll sound like you, it'll talk like you, it'll have a haircut just like you, which I love, by the way, I'm going to go get a wig. Right after this session, I'm going to start doing my Denny Corby impersonation. I love it, but you know it's, I can make that video with you using technology. So, using technology, I can use ChatGDP and type into ChatGDP write me a training exercise on how to clean a ball washer on the driving range, okay. Or I will say to chat GDP, chat TV.
Speaker 1:I want, before you, write me a training manual on how to do inventory in a kitchen. First of all, tell me what questions I should ask you before you write me that training video, right? Or that training manual, so using which is and, by the way, there's also, you know, we could also talk for an hour about the scary elements of AI and chat GB and all that stuff. But I'm saying there's no excuse, though. There's no excuse for a manager to say I don't have time to sit down and write out the 10 steps that it takes to close the golf shop at the end of the night or to reorganize inventory, or to.
Speaker 1:You know we on our platform chat a golf industry guru, denny. We have our own chatbot that you can type in any question and it will search our library of curated 240 hours of training content to come up with an answer that is from a guru, from an industry expert right At a club. You can add your own chatbot to your website that any member could ask any question and it will come up. You can put the rules of golf in your website chatbot and so afterwards, when they're arguing over whether Bill should get a penalty for teeing in front of the yardage marker, you know they can type into the club's chatbot what's the ruling on teeing in front of the yardage marker. They can type into the club's chatbot what's the ruling on teeing in front of the marker and ChatGP will search the rules of golf and will give you the exact answer.
Speaker 2:Call your local Moyle.
Speaker 1:No, sorry. So the future is using technology to help make the training materials that we used to have to spend a lot of money on training become inexpensive. You know, our, our platform is like literally dollars a day. We, we, we train staff because we know that that a manager has a difficult enough time doing their day-to-day stuff. That adding in the training right that that that someone needs to get right. So, you know, we just added a new employee onboarding course that that tells us someone that's never worked at a golf course before what's golf Like some people come to work.
Speaker 1:You know whoever sits them down and says here's what a bogey is, or what a birdie is, you know or, or or here's what they're talking about, or, or understanding that someone's got a tee time to get to, or whatever it might be Right. So there's all kinds of things that that that can make training simpler and less expensive than it used to be. You have a training platform for golf courses that costs $3 a day that every employee gets access to. That includes everything from a beverage cart training course to how to use a knife safely to, you know, a safety manual that you can download and make your own right.
Speaker 2:Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. If you're interested in learning more about James and Gig, head on over to golfindustrygurucom and check it out. If you're enjoying the content so far. Like share, subscribe with someone you like, someone you don't like, it doesn't matter. Sharing is caring. A like share subscribe costs nothing. It means the absolute world and helps our channel tremendously. I'm your host, denny Corby. Until next time, catch you on the Flippity Flip.