Broken dishes mean lost money to Alan Roteman, director of dining services at the 385-resident CherryWood Village in Portland, Ore. To make his staff of 48 more aware of the problem, he created The China Olympics, a month-long competition to cut down on breakage.

“The staff was divided into four teams, with each team having a mixture of front- and back-of-the-house staff. Each team started with a $200 ‘bank’ for breakage. With each broken dish or glass, the cost of that item was deducted from the bank. At the end of the month, the team with the most money left in its bank won. The winning team members split the remaining money in their bank.

A lot of times when people break dishes, you hear clapping, as if it’s a joke. The competition really made people aware of their actions and the monetary consequences. Most people didn’t know how much something like a glass costs. I made a poster with all the different items and their costs so the staff could see. The staff had a really great time policing each other for broken dishes. Breakage is inevitable, but I saw a significant reduction in replacement costs during the competition. In one month, we would normally have between $200 and $300 in broken dishes. During the competition, we had $60.”