Yesterday I was standing at the glass case of the Chipotle. I was thankful I made it in before the dinner rush when people are getting off work and coming out of the airforce base. I was the only one in there, in no particular rush, so when there wasn’t someone in line to take my order, I waited.
Looking around, I saw a poster on the wall “5 Pillars of Throughput – ELMAD”. I looked at the colonnade graphic and read barely discernible words from where I was standing. Immediately, I understood why I wasn’t helped yet despite there being people behind the counter. Each one smiled, I smiled back. Until one of the young ladies hollered into the space behind the kitchen for the line server to come out.
I noted ELMAD for future googling and placed my order. Both rices, black beans DRAINED OUT… you catch my drift.
Culture initiatives in the wild
I know about Chipotle’s commitment to their brand and brand values. My very general understanding has come from their marketing, activations, and standards. I was in my undergrad Animal Science program when they committed to ONLY using antibiotic-free meat. The livestock students and the students in my Ag fraternity were livid. I was indifferent and I still am. But here we are, a decade later and they have continued to double down on these values.
So ELMAD was interesting to me immediately as a brand and culture strategist that looks for connections between what a brand says they do, and what they actually do. After a night full of googles and exploring lesser clicked links on their website, I decided to write about what I learned.
When you visit Chipotle, the line moves fast, almost too fast if you don’t know what you want. The team knows their roles, supports one another, and somehow keeps the flow moving even with digital orders streaming in and customers filling the dining area.
This isn’t by happenstance. It is what happens when brand and business outcomes develop into a system. A collection of processes that produces culture in real time. This seems to be part of an intentional strategy that Chipotle has been refining for years.
2025 Brand Purpose goals are centered on sourcing local produce, gaining insight on employee sentiment, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through measures such as renewable energy use, fuel efficiencies and cook line upgrades.
And executive compensation is tied to the execution of these goals. Transparency.
ELMAD Breakdown
At the center of their strategy is the simple framework I discovered on the wall known as ELMAD. It stands for:
Digital Make Line – a dedicated system for digital orders, optimized for speed and accuracy. That ingredient station on the right side is newer, but allows for digital orders not to impact the experience of the in person orders.
Expo – the person ensuring orders are completed correctly and efficiently at the end of the line. They are going to ask you if you want chips and salsa, a drink or any extra sauces.
Linebacker – a flexible team member who supports wherever bottlenecks arise. YOu might find this person saying “Mild, Medium, or Hot? Cheese?” toward the end of your order process.
Mise en Place – a commitment to prep and readiness so every station is stocked and service never stalls. This is what everyone was doing when I walked in. Prepping. They acknowledged me, but also knew they had a job to do to prepare for their upcoming rush.
Aces in Their Places – putting the right person in the right role based on skill and experience. I saw a young man slapping chicken on the griddle like he was trying to win a quick draw duel.
ELMAD seems to be the operational heartbeat of Chipotle’s brand promise at the store level. When a purpose-driven company talks about their journey to “Cultivate a better world” through “Food with Integrity,” they’re not referring to sourcing practices or sustainability goals (though they lead in those areas too).
They’re referring to a REAL philosophy that stretches from farm to foil, from their executive offices to each store’s serving line. In Chipotle’s world, they are cultivating brand and culture alignment, building a business where culture is the system that makes the brand thrive.
Reporting the impact of the work
In their 2024 Executive Summary, Chipotle outlines a clear goal: sustainable growth driven by operational excellence, digital innovation, and people development. These aren’t separate priorities. Each one reinforces the other. You don’t get operational excellence without culture. You don’t scale without investing in your people.
That’s why the company recently opened a state-of-the-art training hub, The Pepper Center, inside its Columbus Restaurant Support Center. A place for onboarding or skill-building, this center supports Chipotle’s belief that investment in their people is the foundation for their growth. Every investment (internal leadership development, digital kitchen tools, promoting from the inside) is filtered through the lens of how it will support and sustain the employee experience. It’s a pretty simple concept actually… if your team is thriving, your customers will feel it.
After reading that summary and understanding where the company is going, you can see my excitement learning about their day-to-day execution. Throughput (the amount of material or items passing through a system or process) isn’t treated as a dry operational KPI. To me, it seems like a sign of team cohesion, training, and commitment to the plan.
Chipotle doesn’t rely on heavy tech to solve speed (I’m looking forward to seeing the robot avocado deseeder called AUTOCADO though). They rely on their people, supported by systems like ELMAD, to create a seamless and swift guest experience. Increasing their throughput by 6 orders an hour in Q2 of 2025, a major increase from their 2 orders per hour in Q1 2025 is the kind of empirical KPI I love to see.
Leading by example
This is where so many companies fall short. They build beautiful brands at the surface, visually and verbally, but fail to equip their teams with the tools and support to embody that brand at every level. Chipotle has made brand embodiment part of the job description. Every employee I saw was serving a purpose, and their purpose for the 2 minutes I waited, was not to serve me. It was serving a larger mission, but they for damn sure made sure the person whose role it was to prepare my order was called forward.
The brilliance of ELMAD is that its simple rules support a clear goal. It ensures team members are anticipating, adapting, and supported in their positions, making the work that much more sustainable. And because performance on the line is tied to incentives and development opportunities (promoting 23,000 employees internally annually???), there’s clear motivation to get it right.
I didn’t expect that my excuse for not cooking dinner would lead to Chipotle showing me what happens when brand, culture, and execution are treated as one system. I didn’t expect for it to confirm how quickly I can recognize system alignment and the brand-culture connection of a global brand, but alas, here we are. When strategic goals aren’t just articulated in an executive summary, but are a part of a larger system present at every level of the organization, you create a workforce that knows exactly what they’re doing, and why it matters.
Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your people do when the line is out the door and what your customers expect at every interaction.
And at Chipotle, they are cultivating brand and culture alignment.
All resources for this article have been found on the Chipotle website, except for ELMAD. That was found on their wall.
