Simplify, prepare, focus

Simplify, prepare, focus

When I started working at Dunkin’ Donuts, I wanted to learn everything. From baking donuts to brewing coffee, working the cash register and taking drive-thru orders. I was 20 years old and while I looked forward to earning $7.25 per hour, I was excited to learn how a Dunkin’ Donuts store operated.

The night before my first day of work, I laid out my DD visor, white polo and brown apron. I arrived early for my 4am-noon shift, ready to hear my training schedule from my new boss, Kevin.

Kevin said, “Ian, you are going to be Lou’s apprentice. He has been here 6 years. He is our best sandwich maker. I hope you become half as good at making sandwiches during your time here.”

“Kevin, what about baking donuts, brewing coffee, working the cash register and managing the drive-thru?” I responded.

“Don’t worry about that Ian. Just listen to Lou and focus on making breakfast sandwiches”.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Kevin was doing me a huge favor. He was keeping my job simple.

I walked over, introduced myself to Lou and asked how I could help. Lou put me right to work defrosting eggs. He continued baking bagels, warming trays of bacon and working through other items on his checklist.

How was Lou so busy making breakfast sandwiches when the store wouldn’t open for another 45 minutes? I couldn’t help but indulge my curiosity. While defrosting eggs, I asked, “Hi Lou, why are we so busy doing this? Can’t we just cook the eggs when someone actually orders a sandwich?”

Lou just laughed. Still confused, I shut up and continued working. I would soon learn why we needed to prepare.

Later that morning while getting a box of eggs from the freezer, Lou intercepted me to request that I follow him to the sandwich-making station. At the station, Lou pointed to the monitor where there was an incoming order for a sausage egg and cheese on a croissant. “Damn it” says Lou, “Croissants are tough to slice”.

Next, I witnessed Lou effortlessly slice and toast a croissant, warm sausage, cook eggs, slap on cheese, wrap the sandwich and place in a bag before handing it to our teammate working the drive-thru window. It took Lou 20 seconds.

While Lou handed the bag to our drive-thru window teammate, the monitor pinged again. This time the order included 2 sandwiches - 1 veggie egg white with cheddar on an English muffin and 1 bacon egg and cheese on a sesame bagel. Lou instructed me to slice and toast the bagel and muffin while he prepared everything else for the sandwiches.

As we prepared the sandwiches, Lou told me that it was important to work fast. We were expected to prepare every sandwich in less than 2 minutes. If not, the screen would turn red, which was bad.

As we finished the veggie egg white and bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, another order came in. Then another. The orders kept coming and Lou and I kept knocking them out. I handled the bagel/croissant/English muffin/flatbread/French toast slicing and toasting while Lou put our 2 man team on his back by preparing everything else.

When I finally got a chance to catch my breath, it was 10:30am. The store’s donut racks were now mostly empty and our tip jars were now mostly full. I had been so focused on making sandwiches, I hadn’t been aware of everything else happening in the store.

There was still cleanup and prep for the next day. We quickly got through it together before it was noon. We handed off sandwich making to the afternoon team, who would receive a small fraction of sandwich orders compared to the morning rush. My first shift at Dunkin’ Donuts was finished.

I continued learning from Lou. By the end of my time as a professional breakfast sandwich maker, I could deliver a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich in 17 seconds. I never did learn to work the cash register, take drive-thru orders or brew coffee (to this day, I don’t know how to brew coffee).

Most importantly, my time at Dunkin’ Donuts taught me the significance of simplifying, preparing and focusing. Today, I am still excited to learn, but no longer want to learn everything. Instead I strive to simplify, prepare and focus.

At Run The Day, we work to do the same 3 things:

• Simplify: A million things go into organizing a race. When thousands of runners come together, issues are inevitable. Keeping things simple prevents issues and creates time to troubleshoot the issues that arise.

• Prepare: Much of the work required for a successful race gets done ahead of race day. By preparing with regular communication, thoughtful logistics, consistent marketing and proper data capture, we give ourselves the best chance for the seamless execution of a memorable event.

• Focus: On race day and always, we focus. We cannot support every community and we cannot solve every problem – so we focus on serving our customers (races with less than 5,000 participants) and advancing our mission (uniting athletes and strengthening communities).

Photographic evidence and more learnings from my days as a Dunkin’ Donuts worker can be found here.

— Ian

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