Repeating the order

I get a small sense of dread at a group dinner when the waiter takes everyone’s order and rushes off without repeating a word of it back. It’s remarkable how often that ends in a wrong plate arriving at the table. There’s research on this. A well-known study found that waiters who repeated the order back to customers — word for word — earned close to 70% more in tips. One simple move that both saves heartache while boosting pay. But the principle runs well beyond a dinner table. Replaying the key takeaways at the end of a conversation. Confirming the next steps before everyone leaves a meeting. Making sure the room is actually on the same page before moving on. All of these are almost embarrassingly basic — which is exactly why they get skipped. Sometimes excellence is just the ability to do the simple things consistently.