Table of Contents

The Demand

This week, you pick one role in your building and subtract from it. If you keep adding responsibilities to a role without ever removing anything, the cast member is not underperforming — they are complying with a role that no longer has a shape they can hold in their head during a Saturday night rush.

The Work

  1. Pick one role this week — server, host, runner, kitchen manager — and list every responsibility that role currently carries.
  2. Circle the responsibilities that belong to the original verb: server serves, host hosts, runner runs.
  3. Everything outside the circle is accumulated complexity. List it separately.
  4. Ask the standard question: can the cast member execute the original verb at standard while carrying everything currently outside the circle. If the answer is no, the role has reached its tipping point.
  5. Identify one item outside the circle to remove this week. Return it to whoever it actually belongs to, or eliminate it entirely.
  6. Tell the cast member directly that the item has been removed and why — so they experience the subtraction, not just absorb it silently.

This week, you remove one accumulated task from one role and return that role closer to its original verb.