Waffle House teaches us to navigate chaos with a shared system

Breakfast at Waffle House It didn t matter what else was going on House a mess Schedules full Total chaos Didn t matter We went We piled into the booth We ordered big Credit Waffle HouseAnd to the boys it felt like freedom A place where you could get whatever you longed All the bacon Eggs your way Syrup on everything It was comfort It was ritual And it was a break from the noise of growing up But behind the counter it was something else A system that made the chaos run like clockwork At Waffle House cooks don t just hear the order All-Star Eggs over medium Grits on the plate Wheat toast with jelly Waffle golden Coffee hot They read the plate like a code Where the jelly packet sits how the butter is placed what gets stacked where it s all part of a visual shorthand that keeps the whole thing humming So What s the Business Lesson Here Chaos isn t the enemy But you ve got to have a system that makes it navigable At WITH our version of jelly-at- -o clock isn t butter packets or waffle stacks It s Monday com Because for us Monday is the flattop It s where everything gets cooked tracked sorted flipped and plated Campaigns deliverables timelines feedback it all hits the surface there But here s the thing the tool alone isn t the magic The system came from the company through creativity civilization and necessity We had to give things names We had to decide what a clean ticket looks like We had to agree on what s on the burner and what s already off the line That s when it started to work Now we can glance at a Monday board and know what s hot what s next what s stuck Just like a Waffle House cook reading a plate The TakeawayYou don t need a perfect system you need a shared one Tools are just surfaces Values is the heat When your unit shares a language a rhythm a way of seeing the work chaos becomes clarity and the work flows To this day when my boys pass that yellow-and-black sign they light up Remember when Big Wade took us to Waffle House They remember the freedom The chaos The syrup And with high school graduation coming up for my oldest and Big Wade heading back to town I wouldn t be surprised if someone asks for one more breakfast booth one more waffle and all the syrup they can pour Because that s what we re all building isn t it A space where the chaos makes sense and the people feel seen This story is part of a series of weekly emails by the author which blend personal reflection and professional perspective Subscribe for free The post Waffle House teaches us to address chaos with a shared system appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta