I agree. The show is entertaining, but not completely aligned with the principles of Kaizen, especially the principle of teaching and stretching your people from pure motivations. There is too much of a hero-does-all element to it, but it is entertaining television.

Thanks, Mike.

Good post on restaurant kaizen and I do learn from these type of makeover shows currently on TV. I have not seen this one yet but will look out for it in the future.

For the most part, they all have a good combination of turnaround methods (assess, rapid implementation, deep clean, simplify, etc) closely linking to our lean world. Amazing how often cleaning is a huge part of each turnaround!

However I do notice one problem. Many of these type shows rely heavily on the expert to provide the solutions instead of the team coming up with the improvement ideas. I saw this on Bar Rescue, even to the point of renaming the business!

For me, that kills it from my idea of kaizen. I prefer to “enlighten” my teams to lean principles, give them a chance to see through new kaizen eyes and unleash them to make their own improvements. Much better approach to me.

What do you think?

Mike