Within the last year, we started baking cookies in our restaurant. One day I walked through the kitchen and noticed that the cookies looked very over done and some of the cookies were missing on the tray.
Perplexed, I asked a team member what had happened. I was told that the cookies were burnt and unable to be sold thus the team members decided that it would be a good idea to eat the cookies so they wouldn’t be wasted.
Over the next couple of weeks, this started becoming a reoccurring theme. Burning cookies seemed to be happening almost every other day.
As I started thinking about why we were burning so many cookies, it occurred to me that there was actually an incentive for burning cookies. Burning cookies = eating free cookies.
From here a new policy was set: Burn the cookies: pay for the cookies.
Interesting enough, they stopped burning cookies.
Thus the Burnt Cookie Principle was formed. It’s as simple as this:
People will stop burning cookies, when they have to pay for them.
You can insert almost anything in the blank and see a positive effect take place.
When you attach someone’s actions or performance to his or her pocketbook, things change.
Well said Mrs. Cheney! I agree. When something affects us personally (monetarily) we tend to put more emphasis on getting it "right". We need to have that integrity in everything we do.
Well said Mrs. Cheney! When the consequences of our actions begin to affect us personally (monetarily) we tend to pur more of an emphasis on getting it "right". We need to have that attitude in everything we do, not just what affects us personally. I believe that is called integrity.