THE INDEX CARD
Chapter Four. The tool people will actually run, because it costs nothing.
Carry a folded index card in your apron for one full shift.
Every time you give a correction, put a tally on one side. Every time you give real, specific recognition, put a tally on the other.
That is it. That is the whole exercise, and most managers are shocked at how lopsided the card is at the end of the night.
Heaphy and Losada studied sixty business teams. The highest performing ones ran roughly five positive comments for every negative one. The weakest ran closer to two to one.
Before you go out tomorrow and start handing out compliments, understand the difference between the two things you can put on that card.
Praise is "great job tonight." It costs nothing and teaches nothing, because nobody walks away knowing what to do again.
Recognition names the behavior. "You saw that table getting frustrated before they said a word, and you moved. That is the read. Do that every night."
One of those is noise. The other one tells a human being exactly which thing to repeat.
Twenty seconds, and it is the cheapest thing you will do all week.
That is chapter four of Set the Tone. There are eleven more cards like it, and the toolkit in the back is licensed for you to photocopy and hand out to your crew.
