In short, the average employee is drowning in complexity. And the outstanding employee, the one who has a chance of keeping up, is a much scarcer resource than many managers are willing to acknowledge. We're designing jobs for superhumans, and it turns out our people are flesh and blood.

Scenes like this played out across the country. And they did because BBBK's incentives to excel not only worked for individuals, but they also worked seamlessly with the rest of its employee management system. We're not suggesting that the company's approach is somehow universal, although its deliberate balance of "trust and verify" shows up in the management systems of many other successful service companies.

Great service, it turns out, is not made possible by running the business harder and faster on the backs of a few extraordinary people. It's made possible — profitable, sustainable, scalable — by designing a system that sets up everyone to excel.

In short, the average employee is drowning in complexity. And the outstanding employee, the one who has a chance of keeping up, is a much scarcer resource than many managers are willing to acknowledge. We're designing jobs for superhumans, and it turns out our people are flesh and blood.

Scenes like this played out across the country. And they did because BBBK's incentives to excel not only worked for individuals, but they also worked seamlessly with the rest of its employee management system. We're not suggesting that the company's approach is somehow universal, although its deliberate balance of "trust and verify" shows up in the management systems of many other successful service companies.