The Demand

The next time a cast member misses a standard, you stop before you label them. You run three questions before the accountability conversation happens. If you skip the read and go straight to character judgment, you will hold someone accountable for a system failure and the same miss will repeat with the next hire.

The Work

Before your next performance conversation this week, answer these three questions in writing for the specific miss in front of you.

  1. What were they handed? Check pre-shift communication, station readiness, and whether the floor assignment matched their skill level.
  2. What did they know? Identify the exact moment the standard was taught. If you cannot name it, the standard was assumed, not communicated.
  3. What conditions shaped this? Note fatigue, conflict, personal pressure, or a run of shifts without recovery.

If the answers point to the system, fix the system first: stock the station, communicate the standard directly, adjust the assignment. Hold the accountability conversation only after the system is clean. If the miss still happens in a clean system, you are now reading the person, not the system. This week, run the three questions before you run the conversation.