A restaurant company with ambitious expansion finds a way to keep its growth strategies top of mind

The restaurants in its portfolio are known by food lovers in 24 countries ñ Chiliís Grill and Bar, Romanoís Macaroni Grill, On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina, and Maggianoís Little Italy. With more than 1,500 restaurants around the world, Brinker International is one of the most influential, trend-setting multi-brand operators in the industry.

To be sure, companies need to have foresight to be as successful as Brinker, and Brinker does have a vision ñ a grand vision ñ of the future: being the worldís dominant casual dining restaurant portfolio company by 2015. To lay the groundwork for reaching that goal, leaders have defined the companyís six competitive advantages and the six employee behaviors necessary to maintain those advantages. Brinker wanted to ensure that employees not only understand this message, but use the advantages and behaviors as a guiding force in making everyday decisions.

ìThe information was already out there, but we needed a way to reinforce the message and make sure it was completely internalized,î says Cindy Schuermann, Brinker corporate training and development specialist. ìThe best way to embed a message is to give people something they can see, touch and discuss.î Brinker worked with Paradigm Learning to develop a FastMap(TM) called ìServing the World a Great Taste of Life,î a name based on the company mission. By merging employeesí daily work scenarios with the ambitious future, and giving them a chance to talk about expectations, the program was presented as a vital message, instead of just another training program. Paradigm Learning worked with Brinkerís project team to incorporate a comprehensive look at the entire business strategy and to zero in on essential information at the employee level.

Brinker chose a FastMap because it had already identified and documented the key information, and management needed it delivered quickly. FastMaps can be created within six weeks. With FastMaps, faster development means faster deployment and faster return on the training investment.

The FastMap is being hailed within Brinker as an effective way to make the advantages and behaviors more relevant and applicable to everyone in the company. The goal this year is to deploy the Map to the Corporate Office employees and next year to the larger population. So far, it has been implemented on the officer level ñ presidents and vice presidents ñ and feedback has been exceedingly positive. The officers are now leading their teams through the activity. Their commitment to the Map activity shows how critical everyone views getting the message out. And, getting employees aligned around the ìadvantagesî and ìbehaviorsî is seen as vital to the success of Brinkerís 10 year-goal.

Though organizations can use FastMaps to implement change quickly, the programís success probably will be measured over a longer period. The company believes complete employee exposure to the program will lead to observable positive behavior. ìGetting the message out there couldnít wait, and this methodology fit our needs to be innovative with the approach. But ours isnít a short-term goal,î Schuermann says. ìWeíre in it for the long term, and leveraging ëthe power of discoveryí is one of the tools we are using to make the concept live for our employees.î