I am obsessed lately with the TV show The Bear. Once you have progressed through the very shouty, anxiety-inducing first couple of episodes it rewards you with an insider's view of the relationships, stress and drama of high-end restaurants and plate after plate of incredible food. It’s a foodie dream.

In Season Three, Carmy decides the new restaurant, ‘The Bear’ needs some values, as he calls them, the Guiding Principles on which the restaurant will be run. I’m reviewing them from my perspective as a value consultant.

Less is more

We can see the origins of this value in Carmy’s old head chef from New York, in a relationship that borders on abusive, he emphasises the power of reduction. Carmy immediately demonstrates how this value should be executed by reducing the seven fishes’ dish, down to just one fish. So far Carmy is living this value fully and I think it provides strong direction to the rest of the team.
9/10

Vibrant communication

I love that Carmy has enhanced what could be a very routine value with the addition of the word vibrant. It paints a picture of respectful dialogue with injections of humour, playfulness and joy. In reality, the communication at The Bear is filled with aggression, explicatives and hostility. Maybe this is what he means by vibrant? Some work to do on defining this value and implementing it in practice.
6/10

Push boundaries

Yes, this is what the restaurant is all about. In pursuit of a star the chefs are required to be different and do things that haven't been done before. I have no doubt that Carmy himself will push boundaries, but will he be accepting of others doing the same? When on day one of the restaurant opening he scraps Sydney’s menu in favour of his own, this may have limiting impact on her creativity.
8/10

Respect tradition

OK, push boundaries and respect tradition. It is on the surface confusing, I would advise Carmy to bring more clarity around the juxtaposition of these two values. Not to say they couldn’t work together and I am sure Carmy knows what he means but he needs to bring clarity for everyone else.
5/10

Shirts perfectly pressed

Clear, simple, no further explanation needed. Staff know exactly what is expected of them.
9/10

No surprises

Immediately after announcing the guiding principles Carmy surprises the staff by changing the entire menu. What he means by this is that he doesn’t want surprises from the rest of the team. Values should apply to all team members. Carmy should scrap this value if he is not prepared to live it himself.
1/10

Technique technique technique

This is what elevates the team from the sandwich shop to a fine dining restaurant. Their technique must be spot on. Carmy is so far fully living this value by investing in the development of the team. They have been sent to culinary school, to shadow top chefs in Copenhagen and to work in 3 Michelin star restaurants. A challenge for Carmy will be how to express this value in a supportive, not demeaning way.
9/10

Constantly evolve through passion and creativity

This value is inspiring and gives employees a clear idea about the essence of the restaurant - to never stand still and to have fresh ideas and a love of what you do. Cramy’s passion is clear and that inspires the people he works with. To embed values you need to always honor them in your management. The new Carmy who has these strong guiding principles will need to remember not to throw another Chefs food across the restaurant when they have poured their passion and creativity into creating said dish.
10/10

Pursuit of excellence

I like this value. It is what Carmy has been doing since day one and he constantly repeats this message to his team. Excellence in the food, the service, cleanliness and attention to details. From the date and time stamps on the food prep, the clean cuts on the cello tape labels and the placing of the tables. Excellence is everything in this place and it shows every day.
10/10

Change menu every day

I know he is trying for Michelin star status, but every day? I worry that this value will compromise other values that are important to the restaurant. Can we pursue excellence when we are constantly innovating? Carmy is willing to give up everything for the restaurant to be a success, but is it fair to put everyone else under the same pressure? I worry about the impact on the chefs and the front of house team who need to learn a new menu every day. As a value I would drop this, as to me it doesn’t sound sustainable. It could be an idea they test for a few weeks but it’s not an ongoing commitment.
1/10

Details matter

While I don’t disagree with this value I wonder if we are starting to say the same thing in different ways. Would it be sufficient to have pursuit of excellence to cover this value as well? With proper definition of that value to me it would feel right for it to include details as well.
3/10

Know your shit!!

This is the first curse word in the values which feels a little lacking to me. Values should represent who you are as an organisation and essentially The Bear is a lot of people just swearing at one another. This feels true to the restaurant in language and message.
10/10

Focus

A noble value. Focus in the kitchen is essential, or you might end up burning the place down or locking yourself in a fridge. It seems that this value has been written by Carmy for Carmy. He tortures himself for a lack of focus (i.e. having some semblance of a life outside of the restaurant) and vows to have no more distractions moving forwards. Again, this is fine for Carmy but is this the level of focus he expects from his team, or does he mean focus in a more micro level? More clarity is needed on this one.
5/10

Of the place

This value isn’t clear to me. What does it mean? Could it be a call to the spirit of the sandwich shop that once was? Could it mean that dishes should be created ‘of the place’? Is the place the restaurant? Or Chicago? Needs further explanation.
2/10**

Personal Hygiene

I’m here for it. It’s important, especially when working in a sweaty kitchen all day. To help employees live this value Camy might consider what washroom facilities are available to employees for maintaining hygiene and perhaps providing deodorants for the team in the back office. He could improve this value by specifying what aspects of hygiene he is referring to and what guidelines for hair, nails, piercings he expects in the restaurant and whether these rules apply to all employees – front of house and back of house.
7/10

Overall assessment of The Bear’s values

• Too many – reduce for clarity and combine some similar values into one overarching value.
• Clarify the values and give examples of what they look like in practice.
• The overall theme of these values is performance. For a new restaurant trying to get established this is what I want to see and where the focus should be.
• I would love to see something in these values that reflect the team spirit and love the people have for one another. While many companies say they are like family, this is literally a family who are doing this out of a love for what they do but also a love for each other. This isn’t coming through for me in the values enough.