How to Change Your Language—and Mindset—To Find Productive Outcomes

“I’ve told her to complete this task a million times . . . why hasn’t she done it yet?!” As a manufacturing leader, have you ever asked yourself a question like this? On the floor, all leaders experience communication issues from time to time, and it’s all too easy to blame the team member who doesn’t seem to hear a single word you say!

But could you and your language be the problem? The language of leaders was the topic of my recent Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast with guest Phil M. Jones! As the bestselling author of Exactly What To Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact, Phil is the expert on improving language, and offered some great tips leaders can use to find the fuel for productive conversations with their team.

Tip #1: Focus on Clarity, Not Answers

As a leader, you probably get asked a ton of questions on a daily basis—and of course, you want to provide the right answers! But instead of focusing solely on finding an answer, shift your mindset to include clarity. Instead of rushing to provide the first answer that comes to mind, sit with the question and think about how to answer in a way that will actually help the other person understand. Oftentimes, the person asking the question may already have an idea for a solution, but they need more clarity or a bit more explanation before they can really get the job done.

Tip #2: “Help Me Understand . . .”

When you have a team member who keeps putting off an important task, your first instinct might be to get defensive. But instead of asking them why they haven’t done it, change your language to include phrases like “help me understand . . .” For example, imagine a team member hasn’t completed a safety check. Instead of jumping to “why haven’t you done this safety check?” consider phrase like “help me understand why it’s so important for us to complete these safety check.” This allows you—and your team member—to approach the issue from a more conversational direction, and will help you find solutions without creating conflict.

Tip #3: Find the Context

Before you add more content to someone’s day, find their context! When you’re trying to give someone directions or get them to do something on the manufacturing floor, it’s important to understand their situation and mindset first. To find a team member’s context, ask open-ended questions starting with phrases such as “when was the last time . . .” or “how do you think that made us feel . . .” By understanding someone’s context, you can find a way to get right to the solution without adding unnecessary noise to the conversation.

Tip #4: What You Want to Say Vs. What They Need to Hear

When you go into a conversation, your focus is probably on what you want to say. You might want to get straight to your point, and might not put much thought into what the other person needs to hear to understand or feel motivated to complete the task. To get more productive conversations, spend some time thinking about what the other person needs to hear. Then, tailor your language to really help them understand and come to a solution.

Learn More on the Podcast

To learn more about using “magic words” to create meaningful and productive conversations on the manufacturing floor, don’t forget to listen to my podcast with Phil M. Jones! You can find his episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing here.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

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