July 4, 2008
by Lanny N. Okonek, FMP, President, FUN-Nominal Training & Consulting. Lanny is a 20-year member and past President of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART).
Music can inspire, soothe, motivate, energize, and activate the human mind. People everywhere love to listen, shake, rattle, rock, roll, twist, cry, jump, rap, bump, slam, disco, waltz, polka, relax, sleep, and even learn to a variety of recorded sounds.
Bringing my passion of music to training was a natural progression for me. The strategic use of music to train restaurant employees has proven to be an invaluable tool to engage employees, impact learning, and affect behavioral change.
Music sets the mood and atmosphere and also touches emotions, breaks walls of resistance, energizes, and relaxes. Here are some examples of how music can be used in ways that are appropriate, motivating, and memorable:
New Menu Item Rollout
We had a restaurant that was going to be adding a line of rollup sandwiches to their menu, so we tied training into a "Shake-Rattle-and Roll" theme. We used Joe Turner's old "Shake-Rattle and Roll" song as the theme for the staff training, and even called it "The Shake-Rattle-and Roll, Rollup Menu Roll Out" training session. It was a blast, and we had every team member shake, rattling, and rolling rollups!
Clean Is Mean!
During cleaning and sanitation training for a restaurant that employed mostly high school-aged workers, we created a "Clean Is Mean" rap contest. I used rap music during the training session, and then we had the employees team up in small groups and compose a rap song that was called "Clean Is Mean" (mean meaning "cool"). The objective was to include all our major cleaning and sanitation points covered in the session into their songs. We then had the teams perform their composition and awarded rap CDs for prizes.
Holiday Specials
I once used a surfing music theme before, during, and after a training session focusing on our Memorial Day weekend specials. We played surfing music from the 1960s during the training and throughout the weekend in the restaurant. We used music from the Beach Boys, The Ventures, The Trashmen, Dick Dale and the Deltones, just to name a few. We even called our servers "surfers" for the weekend and had them all "surfing" up food.
It’s important to choose the right music for the right situation and the right audience. Before you embark on using music to engage employees, remember the following “4 Ps”:
No matter what the training topic or setting, I never leave my office without my CDs and boombox! Have fun and rock on!
