Waffle House is an iconic all-day breakfast restaurant that has remained competitive in an ever-crowding restaurant market. There are a number of ways they stay relevant (low prices, convenient hours, predictable experience), but the most notable is their customer service and accurate orders.
They have a unique way of ensuring accuracy in their orders. When servers call out orders to the line cooks, they must be standing in a specific spot. A red tile surrounded by gray tiles. The reason is that only one person can stand there at a time, so it prevents servers from talking over one another and ensures the orders are heard correctly. Simple but effective.
The Japanese have a term for systems that are designed so that mistakes cannot be made: “poka-yoke”. In our classrooms, think about how “poka-yoke” can inform your activities and structures so students can be successful, not by luck, but by design.