The Culture You Build in May Is the One You Live With in July

(The Bear, Carmy, and the Kind of Leadership That Actually Works)

By the time the lines are stretching past the entrance and your team is rationing ice by noon, your culture has already been set.

What shows up in July—the ownership, the burnout, the energy, the resilience—wasn’t built that morning. It was built in May. And if you’re not intentional about culture now, it will default to whatever your busiest, most stressed-out lead is modeling.

As someone from Chicago and a fan of The Bear, I’ve seen this play out on-screen with brutal honesty. But I’ve also seen it in the field—across waterparks, zoos, FECs, and attractions—when the weather heats up and the tension follows.

So let’s talk about what The Bear gets right, and what every ops team can learn from Carmy, Richie, and the hardest-working 30-minute episodes on television.

If You Haven’t Watched The Bear, You’re Missing a Leadership Masterclass

Sure, it’s about a kitchen. But if you work in attractions, you’ll feel the chaos in your bones.

Carmy, short for Carmen Berzatto, is a classically trained chef who inherits his family’s failing sandwich shop -- quick shout out to the beef, IYKYK. He brings Michelin-level discipline into a kitchen that’s messy, stubborn, and barely hanging on. What unfolds is so much more than a food show—it’s a masterclass in leadership, heartbreak, pride, and second chances. But what makes The Bear so brilliant is that it’s not just about fixing the food—it’s about fixing the culture. Not with slogans, but with standards, rituals, and emotional intelligence under pressure.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in Season 2’s "Forks"—an episode where Carmy sends Richie to stage(intern) at a fine dining restaurant.

At first, Richie’s lost. Out of place. Furious about polishing forks. But over a week of training, exposure, and mentorship, something shifts. He sees what excellent service feels like. He gets the rhythm. He learns to love the work. He finds dignity in details. He shaves. Puts on a suit. And by the time he times the perfect guest drop with Pequod's (you know the one), he’s fully bought in.

The lesson? People don’t rise to slogans. They rise to standards they feel proud of—especially when someone takes the time to show them how.

What Carmy Gets Right About Culture (That Your Ops Team Can Steal)

Culture isn’t fixed in a handbook—it’s forged under pressure. What your team sees in May becomes their default in July. If managers snap under pressure, so will your frontline.

Standards are the ultimate form of care. Carmy doesn’t scream because he’s mean. He screams because he cares. High standards aren’t harsh—they’re invitations to belong to something excellent.

Rituals create rhythm. "Corner." "Heard." "Hands." These aren’t random callouts—they’re culture anchors. In attractions, your version might be:

• Morning team huddles

• First test ride rituals

• Mid-day "reset" breaks

• End-of-shift gratitude shoutouts

  
  

Calm is contagious—and chaos is too. Your managers are thermostats. Their energy sets the temperature for every shift.

Growth takes reps. Richie didn’t change overnight. He changed because someone made space for him to grow. That’s what great leaders do: they show up every day with patience, feedback, and belief.

How AI Can become your Syndey aka your Sous Chef

You don’t need more guesswork. You need tools to check the pulse—before burnout takes hold.

Here’s how AI can give you real-time visibility into culture before it cracks:

• Ask Better Questions, Let AI Sort It - Drop simple prompts like “What’s making your shift harder?” into a form. Tools like ChatGPT Tasks or Zapier + OpenAI can summarize responses into one clean weekly readout.

• Read the Room (Digitally) - AI tools like Microsoft Viva or Moodbit for Slack analyze tone in manager chats, helping you spot stress, frustration, or disengagement in real time.

• Let AI Sort the Noise - Collect open feedback and use automation to tag it into buckets—training, communication, recognition—so you know where to act first

• End-of-Shift Reflections for Leads - Give your leads a one-minute daily prompt:

  “What went well? What would I do differently?” Use Notion AI or Otter.ai to track reflections and surface trends for coaching.

These small check-ins, powered by AI, make it easier to lead with the kind of awareness Carmy fights for—without burning yourself out.

This isn’t about replacing your leadership instincts. It’s about giving you a smarter mirror to see what’s really happening—and where the next Richie is waiting to rise, and also lets face it, we start seasons with good intentions to do these inspo check ins and pulse checks but we get busy... simply using AI to maintain that workflow could be all that you didnt know you needed this season.

The Carmy Culture Checklist : What to Audit in May—So You Don’t Spiral in July

Culture Cue	Ask Yourself	Use AI To...	Do This Like The Bear
Team Energy	Do people show pride—or just survive?	Analyze weekly pulse surveys + team chats	Call out one “quiet win” per shift like Carmy noticing every small detail
Lead Behavior	Are managers modeling composure, or crumbling?	Use behavior journals or shift check-ins	Train leads to show calm like Sydney—not just authority
Emotional Safety	Can team members make mistakes and recover?	Spot burnout cues in open-text surveys	Normalize learning through mistakes, like Richie’s fork-polishing arc
Feedback Loops	Are we learning or just reacting?	Use AI to tag recurring friction points	Start a “What We Learned This Week” huddle segment
Recognition	Are we celebrating small, specific wins?	AI can flag patterns of consistency across shifts	Give your team a “Taylor Swift drop” moment—something earned, meaningful, and personal
Shared Purpose	Does the team feel like they’re part of something bigger?	Analyze guest feedback + tie to internal impact	Share weekly wins from the guest POV to close the loop

Final Word: Culture Is Built in the Reps

Carmy didn’t change the restaurant with one big meeting. He changed it with standards, rituals, and relentless care for his people—even when he didn’t say it out loud.

Your team doesn’t need a hero. They need a steady leader who models what matters and helps them see the value in what they do. And they need that in May—not when the line is wrapped around the parking lot.

So check the pulse. Adjust the rhythm. Show them how it’s done.

Because July is coming—and they’ll lead the way you taught them to.