by Shawn | Apr 5, 2021 | Podcast
Last week we talked about how asking more questions and getting outsider perspectives can help you find communication issues in your processes or workflows.
Today, we’re going to talk about another tip that is equally helpful.
Mistake proofing.
Whereas last week was about communication gaps or opportunities for instructions to be misinterpreted, today is about putting features in place to make it impossible (or seemingly impossible… people ARE creative after all) to do a step wrong.
In the Lean Manufacturing world there is a term for this: Poka Yoke.
Like with a lot of Lean Manufacturing terms (kanban, kaizen, gemba), it is a Japanese term born out of manufacturing techniques they developed years ago.
Even so, I like it because it’s fun to say. In fact, I’m going to say it again. Poka Yoke.
OK, so what does it mean exactly.
To Poka Yoke or mistake proof something is to basically look at any way that it could be done wrong.
Per our conversation last week, sometimes that can happen because the instructions aren’t defined clearly enough.
But if there is a physical step that must take place, Poka Yoke can look like adding something in to make sure that an item is oriented correctly.
In my realm in manufacturing, we see this all the time. If there is a part being put into a die (which is basically blocks of metal that will cut or form the part), if the part is symmetrical or there is otherwise a chance for it to be misoriented, we will try to add something to the die, the part or both to make sure that it can’t be put in wrong.
Another benefit of Poka Yoke, honestly, is efficiency.
Poka Yoke can allow you to take some mental work out of the equation and streamline your processes.
Imagine picking up a block and placing into a slot. It might be simple, but what if the block has to be oriented a certain way each time?
If, every time you pick up a new one and place it in, you have to look at it closely and orient it, you might be adding a ton of time over the course of a shift.
But what if you could add a feature to the block or the slot that would make it both impossible to put in wrong and also easier to identify when you picked it up. Then, you could grab it, know which way it goes without even looking and place it through.
As you look at your own business, I’m sure you already have a ton of Poka Yoke items in place, but you’ve maybe just never thought of them in this way.
But as you find errors happening or mistakes popping up, that’s a great first place to invest some time and see if you can add some mistake proofing into the mix.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love to know what you find out about your mistake proofing. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com. Â Can’t wait to be back with you tomorrow. Â I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 2, 2021 | Podcast
I’ll keep this one short and sweet today.
Someone on your team or in your organization needs something from you today.
They need your belief in them.
They need a champion in their corner, spurring them on, building them up, believing in them and their idea or work.
They need a spark.
You may not see it on their face, but just underneath the surface, underneath the mask (literally) is doubt.
Doubt in themselves. Doubt, maybe, that they have what it takes. Doubt that they are going to be able to make it through a tough project or finish a difficult task.
And then there are the outside influences as well. Stress at home. Strained relationships. Fears. Worries. Financial issues. The weight that they carry in with them each day, invisible to the rest of the world.
We’ve talked about it before, but your words and your message are powerful.
Choose to believe today. Even choose to give the benefit of the doubt.
Pick one person. Affirm them. Be in their corner today.
Believe in them.
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts at shawnwashburn.com/apple  Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
by Shawn | Apr 1, 2021 | Podcast
How Can You Help Your Team Members Succeed?
When you look at each of the people in your organization, they were brought in to make an impact, to solve problems, to make the best product or deliver the best service to your customers.
There was a reason why you brought them on board.
Hopefully a lot of reasons. Skill set. Experience. Personality. Approachability. Integrity. Curiosity. Dependability.
But sometimes it can feel like they’re just not getting it.
You may have found yourself getting frustrated because you’re just not on the same page. There’s a team member who isn’t giving you the results that you’re looking for.
But I want to suggest that maybe there is something else going on.
Take a step back and think about what you really need from them.
Not how you want them to do it. But what is the end goal?
You see, I’ve seen this happen all the time.
Usually, the person assigned the task is more than capable and more than willing to do it and deliver the end result in flying colors.
But the problem often comes in the how.
Granted, there are plenty of guidelines or procedures or standards that need to be met and kept in order to maintain consistency and quality.
But I think where the issue comes sometimes is when we put unnecessary constraints on the process that limit the creativity of our team members and their ability to get to the end result in a way that fits them best.
Let’s go back to the peanut butter and jelly example from Episode 15.
I could tell you that I want you to make me a PB&J and I could even tell you what type of bread, how much peanut butter and how much jelly.
And you could get to the finish line with a sandwich that met my expectations.
But what if I watched over your shoulder or if I had created such a detailed set of instructions that it just made it super inefficient and frustrating for you.
For example…
Take one piece of bread with your left hand and place it on the left side of the cutting board.
Reach into the silverware drawer with your right hand and grab out a knife.
Place the knife on the cutting board 1″ away from the piece of bread and parallel to the side of the…
OK, you might have just gone ahead and quit by this point. And you might already be asking “can I just do it my way?”
And if I responded “no, unless you place the knife 1″ from the side of the —” I probably would have ended up with a face full of jelly.
So, today, as you think about work that you’ve asked others to do, whether inside or outside of your organization, allow yourself to take a step back and look at what you’re really asking.
Maybe you can give more freedom and creativity in the in between, the process, and allow your people to do what they do best.
You just might surprised at the result.
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts at shawnwashburn.com/apple  Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
by Shawn | Mar 31, 2021 | Podcast
What Is a Tip For Improving Your Processes?
As we mentioned back in episode 3, just about everything we do is a process. You could take any aspect of your day and break it down into steps that you might create a work flow for… you know, if you really wanted to do something like that.
At your organization, no doubt… hopefully… you have different standard operating procedures or instructions for different items that happen to make your company work.
But how do you know if they are robust enough? How can you tell if they need some improving or tightening up.
There are plenty of things you could do, but I want to suggest one for simplicity.
Ask questions. Act like an outsider, someone new. Or better yet, take someone new or from a totally different department and have them try to walk through one of your organization’s procedures and ask their own questions.
I’ve found that, often, we maybe aren’t communicating as much as we thought (leaving communication gaps) because we are too close to a process.
Our brains may be filling in those gaps for us, answering questions that we didn’t even ask verbally, and allowing us to get to the right destination.
But when someone new is dropped in there (or we’re able to try to look from a new perspective), we can unearth some potentials for miscommunication, defective parts, letting customers down, and more.
So, here is your challenge for today.
Find a written (or maybe even a verbal) process.
Then, for each step, ask as many questions as you can come up with. EVEN IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWERS.
Ask away.
For example:
Step 1. Open the HPE file, fill out lines 1-3 and submit it to the sales department
Questions:
– What is HPE?
– Where can I find this HPE file?
– Does everyone have access to it or could there be a problem for some?
– Is the file editable?
– Should I save a copy or change the actual file?
– Who should I contact if I have questions?
– How should I submit it to sales? Email, paper, fax, carrier pigeon (I hear those are making a comeback)
– Who specifically in sales should get it?
You get the picture. I’ve found this exercise to be really eye-opening when I’ve done it with procedures on manufacturing lines where I’ve worked. And it has always opened up the potential for a communication gap and given us an opportunity to close that gap before it leads to something bad.
So, good luck with your quest. If you find that you’re not coming up with many questions, grab someone new and have them go through it. I think you’ll find their input invaluable.
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts at shawnwashburn.com/apple  Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
by Shawn | Mar 30, 2021 | Podcast
How Can You Better Organize Your Work?
On today’s Tech Tuesday episode, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite tools.
Evernote.
If you’ve never used Evernote I don’t think we can be friends. OK, totally not true… as long as you give it a try.
Evernote is a cross platform app (meaning you can access it on your phone, computer, tablet and lawn mower — I think they’re still working on this one).
I love that, first and foremost because I use it in different ways on each of those… except the lawn mower.
At it’s heart, it’s a place to store notes electronically. But it’s so much more.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the ways you can use it and how I use it from different platforms.
OK, so, let’s start with my phone.
Generally, with the phone version, I mostly use it for searching for and retrieving notes I’ve previously created.
But I sometimes will use it to auto dictate notes into Evernote from my phone as well.
From your phone, you can create a text note, scan something into a note with your phone’s camera, hand write, attach, record audio and more. It really has a lot of functionality.
And as an aside, the structure of Evernote’s system is pretty cool too. Each note has a title that you give it. And then you can assign an unlimited number of tags to a note (for different categories you created) or place notes into folders as well.
The searchability is one of my favorite aspects of the whole thing.
Now, on to the other way I use it. On my laptop. On a laptop, you can use the native app by itself or also install a Chrome Browser plugin.
The nice thing about the plugin is that it creates a little button that lets you quickly save a whole web page, just an article on a page, bookmark the page, take a screen shot and more. And it comes with a lot of editing tools to go along with that.
Even if you just use the regular desktop app version, it’s still a great way to capture or type things out.
If you’re already an Evernote user, I’m sure you’re just sitting there nodding your head, resonating with the awesomeness that is, in fact, Evernote.
If you haven’t tried it, just search for Evernote just about anywhere and you’ll find the app.
Then, search for “how to use Evernote” and you’ll also find some great tips and techniques people have developed to help you make the most out of it.
I’d love to hear from you about how you like to use Evernote. You can email me at  shawn@shawnwashburn.com. I read every one and would love to hear from you.
You could share a screenshot from your podcast player or just send them to shawnwashburn.com.  Thank you so much.
by Shawn | Mar 29, 2021 | Podcast
How Can You Really Get To Know Your Team Members on a Deeper Level?
I’ve talked in the past about how I love digging into how each of us has been designed. Our strengths, love languages, interests, communication styles and more.
And there are a ton of assessments out there that can help you discover more about yourself in these areas.
Today, I wanted to focus on personality types.
Now, I know I’ve taken some pretty extensive and complicated assessments in personality and other areas, but one of my favorites was actually a lot simpler.
It involved four animal types: Lion, Otter, Beaver and Golden Retriever.
I remember learning about it from Dr. Gary Smalley several years ago but you can also find it online now as published by Dr. John Trent from Focus on the Family. I’ll post a link to his article in the show notes. I encourage you to check out the article and then take the assessment for your self, although you may already be able to tell where you land as I describe these.
(Here is the link:Â https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/4-animals-personality-test/)
Like with many assessments, it is pretty eye-opening to not only learn about yourself but about others. And it also can help explain why certain people really mesh together while others can get on each other’s nerves.
I’ll tell you where I tend to fall with this test, but first let me lay out generally what the four types represent:
Lions are the take charge people, the natural leaders. Assertive, goal-driven.
Otters are the life of the party. They don’t plan, they do. They go with the flow.
Gold Retrievers are the feelers of the group. They tend to think and feel deeply.
Beavers are the detail oriented ones. They plan, are more risk-averse… keep people alive.
Like with any assessment, we are usually a mix of the results, with some being higher than others.
And also like with other results, there are generally strengths and weaknesses associated with any of the results.
So, where do I fall?
Well, to start with I’m a super high Golden Retriever. I’m wired to be more empathetic. I tend to think a lot about how something makes other people feel. I’m loyal, listener, caring, etc.
My second trait would be Otter. I love to be creative, to do new things, very verbal, etc.
Honestly, Lion and Beaver are in there somewhere but they’re a distant third and fourth.
One fascinating thing about these four is that each of them has another one that is like oil to it’s vinegar. They clash.
You can probably guess, but Lions and Retrievers can have difficulty together. As well, Beavers and Otters don’t play as well together as they might out in the wild (I have no idea, but I kind of imagine them being best buds in all kinds of river-related activities)
The Beaver will carefully plan out every detail of an event only to have the Otter show up right at the last minute, ignore the plans and say “he, let’s just wing it!”.
And while a Retriever is carefully thinking through people’s feelings and wondering which direction they should go, the Lion leaps past them, makes the decision and is basically like “hey, let’s get on with it”.
Bottom line is that each person is wired differently.
And in God’s creativity and design, each personality is needed in an organization or team to function effectively.
Got a room of all Beavers? Lots of plans. Not much fun.
Got a room of all Otters. Most won’t be alive for long.
Got a room of all Retrievers? The room will explode from all of the empathy flowing out of it… but not much action will take place.
Got a room of Lions… you can just imagine.
The first key is to understand yourself. Understand your own strengths and blind spots based on your personality.
The second step is to do the same with the people on your team.
So, what about you? As we’ve been talking about these different personalities, I’m guessing there were one or two that resonated with you.
Take a deeper dive into them. See what blind spots you might have been missing or where you’ve misunderstood others of had conflict because of the interaction of your respective personalities.
Ultimately, you want to be able to harness each person’s uniqueness and strengths to help your business thrive and grow.
Diversity is awesome.
Celebrate what makes us each unique and seek to understand those that are different.
Here’s a link to find out more:Â https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/4-animals-personality-test/) Â Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love to know what you find out about your personality. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com. Â Can’t wait to be back with you tomorrow.
