It’s Not You—It’s Your Hospitality

This Training Mistake Is Costing Your Restaurant Millions

Preston Lee

After creating training systems for over 300 restaurants and spending more than 10 years building restaurant training programs for groups and corporations, I’ve seen exactly where restaurant training breaks down, and why so many teams struggle to perform consistently. 

In this live training, I break down the two biggest reasons restaurant training fails: underdeveloped training that creates chaos and overdeveloped training that becomes impossible to execute.

Most restaurants rely on unclear, unstructured, and unintentional training...shadowing someone for a few days and hoping for the best. This approach maximizes trial and error, burns guests, creates inconsistency, and leaves new hires guessing. 

On the other end of the spectrum, overly complex training systems overwhelm teams, require constant micromanagement, and collapse the moment leadership isn’t present.

The most successful restaurant training lives in the middle ground: simple, intentional, and crystal clear. Training that’s easy to teach, easy to learn, and easy to execute creates buy-in from staff and leaders alike. When training is simple, performance improves, guest experience increases, reviews go up, and revenue compounds over time.

So, build simple but highly effective restaurant training systems, because training is the biggest lever to profitability, and brands like IKEA win by making complex things feel easy. If you want better staff performance, stronger leadership, happier guests, and a restaurant that actually scales, this is a must-watch.