Well, it’s nearly halftime. You are at the two-minute warning and the score is tied. You want to try a hurry-up, last-push drill with the hopes of scoring a tiebreaker. But, the energy is lagging and everyone seems ready to hit the locker room for a short rest and break from the action.

What is your strategy for the second half of the academic year? What is the content of your locker room speech that will energize faculty, staff and students as they push to exceed expectations before the summer? Right now, everything seems fine. You are on schedule, students are performing at an acceptable level, budgets are in line, and the road seems clear in route to that May destination. Is your plan to stay the course, keep things moving as they have been, don’t rock the boat, and simply step to the same drumbeat?

Let me ask you this, “Is this how you would have approached your job as a chef in a successful restaurant? Is business as usual the right approach for you and your program?” It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I’ll go out on a limb and guess an operational chef would likely look for ways to add a little more zest, change things up a bit, surprise all involved, and in the process energize all the players. Why should it be any different for you, your faculty, the students, and your culinary program’s reputation?

Common sense would dictate changing mid-stream, or upsetting the way things are done when everything seems fine, is careless and absurd to consider. There are countless examples of businesses and industries that remained complacent because they thought they could and failed to reinvent themselves before it was forced upon them. Every business and business product has a life cycle from product introduction through a moderate, or sometimes rapid growth phase, to maturity and onto decline. Historically, the businesses that continue to flourish are those that begin working on “what’s next” during the growth phase when it seems safer to stay the course. If we wait until maturity when business levels off or if we fail to act until decline, it is incredibly difficult to innovate and reinvent when the air is letting out of your balloon.

Those of us who teach know culinary education has been in decline for a decade or so and by all rights we should have stepped into reinvention before now. Alas, it didn’t happen. But, it is never too late to put on those thinking caps as we prepare to walk back out on the field for the second half and beyond. Now, you can’t change your curriculum mid-stream, nor can you dramatically change a program’s mission. Now is the time to begin a new conversation about what you can change during the second half. Perhaps new and exciting activities can be added, outside influencers can be brought in to spice up presentations, and pride in the program can be charged up.

What should the locker room speech focus on, coach? Well, we are all part of a robust, exciting industry – the food industry. It is changing and culinary programs should be standing in the quarterback position ready to lead the drive for another touchdown. In our role, we must understand what is before us, where the industry we service is headed, what the possibilities are, and what role we want to play in showcasing all the careers in food might represent. The faculty and staff have the expertise and the ability to grow and drive the next play series and the students are there to carry the ball. Let’s call the right mix of plays that will catch everyone by surprise and demonstrate your uniqueness and potential.

Use the halftime to refresh, to study, to identify what is possible, to reignite the energy that started the game in September. This is not the time to start counting the weeks till the end, use it as a chance to start fresh again. There’s still loads of time left – let’s get to it.

“Companies don't exist for 150 years without reinventing themselves. As you reinvent yourself, in some ways you're pressure-testing yourself as to your beliefs, your purpose, and how you're going to act going forward.”
– McKinsey Consulting: Aug 24, 2022

If this is true in business – why should it be any different in education?

Food for thought.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC, president of Harvest America Ventures, a mobile restaurant incubator based in Saranac Lake, N.Y., is the former vice president of New England Culinary Institute and a former dean at Paul Smith’s College. Contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..