Today I was grabbing a coffee at a nearby Starbucks. It was a total zoo when I arrived, you couldn’t tell who had ordered and who hadn’t. It reminded me of a busy pub on a Saturday night. People didn’t know who’s drink was who’s, it was turning into a disaster.
Something strange happened though. One of the baristas came out and basically halted the entire operation. Total reset. No orders were being taken while his team regrouped, figured out where all these coffees belonged and took a break on incoming orders. It was an effective tactic, after that everything seemed to go quite smoothly.
I’ve never seen anything like that happen at a coffee shop or restaurant and it reminded me that it’s probably an important lesson in life. We spend a lot of time heads down working away without taking time to stop and objectively look at what’s happening.