This guidance gives your team the plans to stay calm and connected in high-pressure hospitality moments by creating clear, shared language known as Play Calls. These simple verbal cues act like a playbook in sport; trained in advance, used when needed. You’ll build core calls for your venue and learn how to embed them into daily rhythm, training, and culture.

Part of building a resilient and empowered team is preparing them for the realities of hospitality, a very rewarding, but sometimes pressured and highly reactive, industry.

Truly resilient teams don’t fall apart in moments of chaos because they’ve built the muscle memory to stay calm. There’s a sense of, “We’ve been here before. We knew this could happen. We’ve trained for this — and we’ll get through it.” There’s also confidence in the power of the team, “I’ve got their back, and they’ve got mine. I’m not facing this alone.”

To talk in scientific terms, this means moments of stress or crisis don’t leave the same psychological impact. There’s a plan, there’s language, and there’s leadership in motion so psychologically ‘we’re safe’.

The purpose of this module is to help you create that plan. It gives you the tools to develop simple, shared calls that can be used under pressure to keep intense times calm, coordinated, and resilient. We call these Play Calls.

Just like in sport, these plays are trained in advance, triggered when needed, and give your team a way to move from confusion to clarity — fast.

This guide will help you:

• Build three core Play Calls for your venue
• Create a repeatable framework to design your own
• Embed these tools into service training, daily practice, and team culture

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The Play Calls outlined below are designed as practical guides to help strengthen workplace culture, training and wellbeing. They are not intended to be one-size-fits-all, but can be adapted to suit the unique needs, operations, and team context of your business. We encourage you to tailor them as appropriate so they are relevant, workable (and at all times safe), and aligned with how you run your organisation.

The Three Core Play Calls

 1.     “Clear Air”

Purpose:

A short, team-wide moment that is designed to interrupt panic, slow the nervous system, and bring the team into focus.

Trigger Moment examples:

• Chaos in the kitchen as a surge hits unexpectedly
• The morning rush hits all at once, orders are piling up and the till jams.
• A sudden wave of drink orders and a bottle smashes on the bar top
• A front desk line grows rapidly while the phone rings nonstop and a guest is upset about their room.

What It Looks Like:

• Called by a senior staff member: “Clear Air!”
• For 20 seconds, everyone takes 3 deep breaths and silently resets
• Nobody moves fast, no one speaks unless necessary
• A team-wide moment to shift from panic to presence

Rules of the Call:

• Who can call it?
• Practically, how do they call it? (In a kitchen, yelling “Clear Air” could make sense, but not so much in a hotel lobby – work out how you can still utilise the call? Is it hand signals? A double-tap on the shoulder?)
• How do we make sure people respect it and don’t mock it?
• Where and how will you practice it?

Your “Clear Air” Protocol

Who can call it: When to use it: How we use it across our venue: How we’ll practice it regularly:

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2.   “SCRAMBLE ON ____”

Purpose:

A pre-designed team play where spare capacity is redirected quickly and calmly to help recover a specific pressure point. In assisting with recovery, distress is minimised and psychological safety is maximised in the unity of the team.

Trigger Moment examples:

• One section falling behind (e.g. grill overwhelmed, bar jammed)
• One guest/table needs urgent attention (e.g. spilled wine, upset diner)
• Dishes start to pile dangerously high in the middle of brunch.
• Demand surges during happy hour, and the bar is out of clean glasses.
• Unexpected tour bus drop-off floods the check-in desk.
• Any moment where collective support will speed recovery

What It Looks Like:

• Called like: “Scramble on Protein! 20 steaks need pushing!” or “Scramble on Glassware!”
• Anyone who’s able immediately redirects to help
• When task is complete (e.g. steaks done, or all dirty glasses picked up) everyone returns to their zone

Ground Rules:

• Always include the target and the goal when calling a scramble
• Not everyone must jump — only those with the ability to help

What to Write in This Module:

• What areas might we scramble on?
• What are some potential scramble moments common in your venue? (Big group booking, a tour bus arriving unexpectedly, etc.)
• What language makes this feel strong, not panicked?
• Who should lead the scramble?
• How do we end a scramble clearly?

Your “Scramble on _____” Protocol

Who can call it: How we call it across our venue: Common use cases and their potential endings: How we’ll practice it regularly:

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3. “TIMEOUT”

Purpose:

A full-team hard stop to pause, reset, re-assign, and go again with clarity.

Trigger Moment examples:

• Service is completely breaking down
• The POS crashes, a staff member is overwhelmed
• No one knows who’s covering dine-in vs takeaway and dockets are piling up
• A staff dispute begins to escalate in front of guests, while orders are behind and spillage increases
• Backlog in check-ins, confused housekeeping reports, and the manager is missing
• No one seems to know what the next step is

What It Looks Like:

• Called loudly: “TIMEOUT!”
• Everyone stops what they’re doing (safely) and gathers in fast
• Quick briefing by leader or caller: The duty manager calls “Timeout, We’re regrouping – we will do check-in first followed by rooms next. Focus on getting those done well and when the manager returns we will make the next step clear.”

Ground Rules:

• Not for overuse — this is your emergency break
• Needs clear re-entry plan after pause
• Works best when modelled by leadership

What to Write in This Module:

• What situations would justify a “Timeout” in our venue?
• What’s the protocol for calling and leading it?
• How do we protect its weight so it’s not overused?
• What’s our process for re-entry?

Your “Timeout” Protocol

Who can call it: How we call it across our venue: What happens next: How we re-enter:

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Building Your Own Calls

Beyond the three above, every venue is different. What is hugely beneficial for the wellbeing and resilience development of staff is leadership providing the framework to navigate difficulties they are likely to face in their roles. What we recommend is thinking about the common challenging moments your staff face and what collective actions might make facing those moments a whole lot easier.

Consider creating a call yourself around those moments. You might already use some without knowing, such as “Hands” call when a plate needs running immediately – giving the chef a tool to use when they are needing to clear the pass, or “Cover Me” for when someone needs to step off floor – ensuring consistent service through changes in personnel. These are great starts and the obvious ones, but what are the non-obvious ones in your venue that would mean the world to your people?

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Design Framework:

1. Name:               Short, sharp, no fluff
2. Trigger:              What event/situation calls for this?
3. Action:              What exactly happens when it’s called?
4. End Point:         How does it resolve/return to normal?
5. Ownership:       Who can call it? Who leads it?
6. Practice:           Where will we rehearse this?

New Call Template:

Name:
Trigger:
Action:
End Point:
Who calls/leads:
How we practice: Making It Stick

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How to Implement New Calls

• Introduce 1 call per week at pre-service
• Run drills just like you would for mise-en-place or specials
• Reflect after service: “Did anyone call a play today? Did it help?”
• Print them on the kitchen wall or POS system

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Resilient teams are built, not by avoiding pressure, but by preparing to meet it together, with calm, clarity and confidence. Let your calls become the soundtrack of trust in your venue.

View the ResilienceOS health and wellbeing tools here.