🎗️The Muffin Massacre of 2018

"What the fudge is this? Would you eat this caca?"

Only the text didn’t say “fudge” or “caca.”

It came with a photo of two lonely Safeway muffins on a naked saucer.

I forgot.

I’d asked the new office manager to grab “breakfast” for the VIP meeting.

I forgot “breakfast” was code for something different around here.

Here, “breakfast” didn’t mean food. It meant a feeling.

Coffee urns. Fresh blueberries or a thinly-sliced strawberry on the edge of the plate. Paper doilies. Tiny pitchers of three kinds of milk. 

Cold eggs were okay. Pastries were not.

“I like muffins,” I said, trying to soften the blow. “I think they’re a treat.”

The reply could’ve set my phone on fire.

He didn’t get mad often, except when he was embarrassed. He knew what the occasion called for. He thought I did, too.

I did, I just didn’t think to pass it on.

This is the kind of tribal knowledge that teams forget to write down. It feels like part of the “culture,” and something that “good fits” should “just know.”

Until a disaster like the Muffin Massacre of 2018.

If you keep thinking “Why does this keep coming back broken?” the problem might be what you’re not asking more than what you are.

Most “bad delegation” is just vague scoping. If you can’t clearly define what you’re asking someone to do, they can’t succeed.

Moments like the Muffin Massacre reveal your hidden assumptions. They aren’t only opportunities to surface the things that veterans stopped seeing, they’re opportunities to bake them into your tools and dial in your processes.

→ OUTCOME: Spread on the conference table when the guest enters.

→ CONTEXT: Provide a welcoming experience consistent with the Ritz, not the Holiday Inn.

→ TOOLS: Four-star restaurant across the street okay, grocery store is not.

→ DEADLINE: Must be on the table before the guest arrives. 

→ RISKS AND PITFALLS: Cold eggs okay, carbs are not.

Without specifics, it's not delegation, it's abandonment. You’re setting someone up for an “off with her head” moment.

Have you ever had a “lost in translation” moment where you realized your team was speaking a different language?

Get help translating your culture into action