Win the Day! Using Motivation, Engagement, and Intentionality to Find Productive Results

Are you winning? I love to ask this question when I enter a manufacturing plant, and it’s always interesting to see the variety of results.

I recently had my own win—reaching Episode 100 on my Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast! I started the podcast in 2019, and have released an episode every two weeks without a single missed week. With the podcast, “winning” meant releasing my weekly episodes on time and creating something of value for my listeners with each episode. It’s also a win to have made it this far with Mindfulness Manufacturing, as only 10% of non-sponsored podcasts hit the 100-episode milestone.

To celebrate my 100th episode, I had the perfect guest: my friend and former neighbor Eric Berdan. After years of experience in manufacturing and running factories, Eric now works as the business optimization leader for Nestle North America. In the episode, he joined me to talk more about what it means to “win the day” and shared some insights leaders can use to motivate their teams and find more productive results.

Win the Day Tip One: Engage Your Team

While the answers to “are you winning?” often varies greatly between team members, everyone on your team has some kind of goal. For some, it might be a long-term plan, like becoming a manager. Others might focus on more day-to-day to goals, like meeting a quarterly metric or acing an upcoming project. To engage your team, find out about their goals and daily activities. Make them feel valued and supported in their own goals, and they’ll be motivated to play their part in improving success for your entire organization.

Win the Day Tip Two: Set Expectations

Similarly, remember that not everyone on your team will hold themselves to the expectations you personally set for yourself. Instead of forcing your own expectations on others, allow them to work within their own frameworks. For instance, they might set goals that are more sustainable for them, or work at their own pace.

Win the Day Tip Three: Be Intentional

When working toward your own goals, intentionality plays a big role. By being intentional about your mindset and how you start your day, you can set yourself up for wins and new success. For example, you might start your day by working out or writing in a journal. By finding a method that works for you—and then sticking to it—you can find momentum and get yourself into the productive, positive mindset you need to win the day.

Learn More on the Podcast

If you want to hear more from Eric Berdan and find new ways to win the day in your own organization, don’t miss his episode of the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, which you can listen to here.

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

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