How to Use Positivity to Unlock Stronger Connections

If you want to improve safety, quality, productivity, and results, the first step is looking toward improving connection. With more mindfulness and connection, your entire organization can thrive. But from “energy vampires” to negative self-talk, there are many factors that can stand in your way of creating a more mindful, positive organization.

How can you combat positivity-draining challenges like these? Find out in the latest episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing with guest Jon Gordon! Jon is one of the top three leadership speakers in the world, and his talks on mindset and leadership have inspired hundreds of organizations. He is also the bestselling author of 28 books, including one of my favorites, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy.

In this episode, Jon talks about some common challenges faced by organizations, plus shares insights from The Energy Bus and beyond that leaders can use to bring more positivity, mindfulness, and connection to their team and organization.

Positivity Challenge #1: Energy Vampires

In The Energy Bus, Jon has a perfect name for negative people who try to suck out all your positive energy: energy vampires. From apathetic coworkers to naysayers who don’t believe in your goals, you are always going to have energy vampires in your life or organizations.

Instead of letting energy vampires get your down, look at them as a test. Every encounter with a negative person is a chance to build up your own power and resilience. Over time, you’re build the skills and grit you need to overcome any negative influence in your life.

Positivity Challenge #2: Your Inner Voice

Sometimes, your biggest enemy isn’t another person . . . it’s your own negative inner voice. If you find yourself faced with negative self-thoughts, it can impact your ability to show up as your best self for your team.

If you find yourself dealing with a negative inner voice, look for the wound. What’s causing you to feel so negative? Is it an experience from a past? Is something in your personal life impacting the way you show up at work? Once you identify your wound, you can take steps to heal, grow, and find productive ways to feed yourself with new encouragement.

Positivity Challenge #3: Focusing on Results

In an industry like manufacturing, the focus is often on results and outcomes. But if you only focus on the outcome and ignore the process, it’s a recipe for disconnect. While focusing on the outcome might get the job done, it can come at the expense of safety, productivity, and meaningful connections in your organization.

To combat these issues, shift your focus. Pay more attention to your processes and team at every step of the way, and work to build stronger connections through productive conversations. “Focus on the root instead of the fruit,” as Jon puts it in his episode, and you’ll find ways to bring both positivity and productivity to your processes and outcomes.

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more about The Energy Bus and learn more about connection with Jon Gordon, check out 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

Visit his website