“We’re as good as our last meal…” (Taken from Gordon Ramsay on staying on top of business.“)

Managing a restaurant/being a world class chef and being an English teacher: never thought that they had much in common until I came across this article. If you didn’t catch anything for your classroom practice, why don’t you try and read it again. There’re a few ideas here.

Today’s Idea: “We’re as good as our last meal…” (Ramsay)  So if you insert “class” instead of “meal” you get something pretty interesting.  ”We’re only as good as our last class.” Now that’s something to think about isn’t it? It’s so easy to take students for granted – that they’ll always show up the next class. The group will always be there because their company is paying for it, etc. It’s easy to slip into that way of thinking. It’s happened to me. It’s easy – but very risky.

The truth is, as the Ramsay article goes on to state: clients will vote with their feet. They likely won’t tell you that the last class sucked, or that it was boring, or that they found it really hard to figure out. They’ll just cancel on you, or stop showing up. And when that happens, HR will soon start noticing – and before you know it, you’ve lost a class or group – and in the end, money.

Being a great teacher is not a one time event. It’s not something that happens to you once, and remains true for the rest of your career. It’s something you do each day with each class you give. It’s something you have to build up and work hard to maintain.

How? Here are a few ideas that I came up with:

• Adapt a “classroom as a restaurant” mindset. Imagine your students as your paying customers, and remember to cook something up for them that YOU would like to sit through AND pay for.
• Ask for feedback – in most good restaurants, the floor manager makes their rounds while you are eating to ask how the service and food has been. Do the same: ask your students how they liked the class. Ask often, and listen carefully. When you get feedback, make sure you adjust accordingly.
• Read your students: unless I’m really ticked off by service or food at a restaurant, I won’t complain about it even if I’m not that happy. Why? I don’t want to bother. I don’t want to make a scene. I dunno. But it happens to me.  There are also students like that. Perhaps not really upset with the class, but not really happy either – but for some reason, they are unwilling to complain. So watch your class carefully. Are they showing up on time? Do they participate? Clients will vote with their feet – or silence.
• Ramsay goes on to say that he’s happy when clients experience other eating joints – because he knows that they will come back to him when they taste the difference. Could you say the same thing about the work you do in your class? Would you happily invite a student to go off to the competition knowing that your work is so tight that they’ll come running back? If you wouldn’t dare do that, what do you need to change to make it so?