by Shawn | Mar 26, 2021 | Podcast
Today, we’re going to continue on with our Ode to the Office series.
A few weeks back, in episode 11 we gave a shout out to the Sticky Note.
Today, we celebrate those brave heroes of the office… the ones willing to brew a new pot of coffee when the post has run dry.
Ode To The Coffee Brewer
If, while getting your coffee the pot has run dry
Please don’t run away… there’s no need to cry
For you have been chosen, right here on this spot
To make some more coffee to put in the pot
A nobler task would be hard to devise
For you’ll fuel tired bodies and open closed eyes
With this liquid that’s brewed over dark ground-up beans
You’ll power a workforce to do some great things
So go be that hero! Use bravery and skill
Grab beans and a filter, but try not to spill
Make sure to align well the pot with the basket
And push the brew button, that’s all that we’re askin’
Then fly off anew to do more super deeds
Because of your efforts, so many are pleased
All future brew-takers will collectively shout
“Thank you for brewing when the coffee ran out!”
If you’ve got an office or work topic you’d like me to do an ode on, just shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com. I’d love to hear from you and see what we can create.
Thank you so much.
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 25, 2021 | Podcast
Listening is one of the best skills you can develop. Being a great listener can value your team while also encouraging creativity, new thinking and new ideas.
In episode 5 we poked a little fun at the phrase of the year: “You’re on mute”
Even just that phrase still makes me smile a little bit honestly. I can picture the mouth moving and everyone scrambling to unmute themselves so that they can tell the muted one that they are, in fact, muted.
But today we’re going to talk about some ways that we might be actually muting others around us without realizing it.
Their mouths are moving but we’re not hearing anything. We’re not listening.
To me, one of the top skills you can have as a business leader is to be a good listener. And I don’t just mean someone that people talk to. I mean, someone that really listens.
To be a good listener means that you are approachable. It means that people know that you value them and what they have to share… even if it’s hard to hear.
Being a good listener isn’t asking for an opinion and then letting your team member speak while the whole time you’re secretly holding your own answer behind your back ready to pounce it on them.
Being a good listener is being curious. Being willing to acknowledge that you might be wrong, that you might not be able to see the whole picture.
I heard a great quote from Andy Stanley years back. He said that “leaders who don’t listen will soon be surrounded by people with nothing to say.”
I remember hearing that and having to think that one through again. But it is dead on and I’ve seen it happen.
If people don’t feel like their opinions and thoughts and ideas are truly valued, then eventually they might try to find a place where they are.
And then all that will be left are people who just repeat back what has been said before.
So, if you really want to not only help your business thrive but also to bring out the best in your team members, put in the work to become a better listener.
It may take time. And if your people haven’t been used to being asked for their ideas and really listened to, it may take some time for them to trust they this time it’s different.
Maybe you could start this week and invite a few members of your team in for a meeting with no agenda other than to just hear from them. Let them know that you want to honestly hear how things are going for them, what frustrations they have, struggles, roadblocks to success.
Ask them what ideas they have about making things better… and let them finish, even if you don’t believe they are things you can do right now. That can come later, but you’ll miss out on so many great ideas and empowering your team if you shoot down ideas from the get go or if they feel like it’s not even worth sharing.
Every person on your team is asking this same question: “Can you hear me?… do you want to hear me?”
I believe your answer is yes, because you care about each one of them… and you also want the business to grow as well.
So un-mute your team this week and let them speak what they’ve been dying to say… unless, of course that lawnmower is still blaring in the background…
by Shawn | Mar 24, 2021 | Podcast
Words of Affirmation is such a powerful love language and you can make a major impact in the lives of your team if you use your words well.
Back in episode 12 we talked about the 5 Love Languages and how powerful it is to understand how these work.
Today, we’re going to focus on one that is near and dear to me: Words of Affirmation.
As we mentioned before, we have all been wired differently and some languages speak louder to us and fill up our love tanks more than others.
For me, I’ve always been a words person.
This is evident from one of my passions, which is writing and creating. And it’s also one of my primary love languages.
I love to show love this way and it also is one of the main ways I receive love as well.
So, what is Words of Affirmation all about?
At it’s heart, if that is one of your primary love languages it means that words spoken to you that build you up fill your tank in a way that the other love languages just can’t match.
Everyone loves to be praised and appreciated, but for those whom this is their primary love language, those words carry even more weight.
In the workplace, this can be one of the best love languages to utilize, even for those that don’t have it as their top one.
And that’s because, more than the other four, it seems to be an easier one to fit into daily work life.
But… a warning. It must be genuine.
If you are going to try to get better at using this language with your team, it needs to first come from a heart of caring for them and of truly wanting to see what they are doing and contributing.
Humans are smart. We can sniff out fake praise, especially when it doesn’t seem to fit.
So, how might it look when this is done well in you organization?
It could be just taking an extra minute to shoot an email to someone to let them know that you admired how they responded to that crisis.
It could be shining the light on someone who has been that quiet, consistent force… delivering great work but rarely seeking the credit.
One thing that amplifies this even more is if there are other people around.
Receiving words that build up and matter in a one-on-one setting has power by itself. But if you have an opportunity to do the same when others are around, there is an even greater communication from you that your team member really matters to you. Think about a meeting situation or when others are gathered.
The bottom line is that your words are powerful. Don’t ever forget that. They can be use to tear down… or to build up.
And when used well, especially with those who are Words of Affirmation people, they can have a lasting impact.
Use yours wisely today.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
I can’t wait to connect with you again tomorrow
by Shawn | Mar 23, 2021 | Podcast
If you want to dig down to the root cause of a problem, try the 5 Whys method mentioned in this episode. And if you want to see what made me say “It’s almost as if…”, you’ll find that today to.
So, one day I had to do some work on a welding robot. This is a robot that you program to weld parts together.
It does a great job as long as everything stays in place correctly.
On that day, somehow the welds it was producing seemed to have shifted off location and I was touching up the program to try to fix it.
I had done this several times before so I jumped into the program, bumped the points a little bit and then ran it through the cycle.
When the turntable swung back around and I grabbed the finished part out I was a little confused because it didn’t seem like my change had done anything.
I took a closer look and put it under some better light just to check it against the previous part.
And sure enough they looked the same.
I was a little puzzled but I had seen this before and so I hopped back into the program, tweaked the points a little bit more and gave it another go.
Certainly, that had to have done it, right?
Well, as it turned out, that was a big NOPE.
The second part came out and… well… it looked exactly like the first one.
Robot welding can be a bit touchy and I’d seen a few times where welds just seemed to want to go a certain direction.
I told myself I’d do one more small adjustment and that should do it.
So I did. Then I sent the part in, the robot welded it… and… drumroll… STILL THE SAME RESULT.
I was like “are you kidding me right now!?”
So I sat down with the family of bad parts in my hand that all shared a striking resemblance of a bad weld.
And this thought came into my head as I struggled to figure it out.
“It’s almost as if…” I started, in my head.
“It’s almost as if… nothing I did affected this program.”
“It’s almost as if….”
Suddenly I jumped up and darted over to the controller. I looked at the part and then back at the screen.
I had been modifying the wrong program.
So, I went in, made the right change and boom… fixed it on the first try.
But the whole thing reminded me of a root cause or troubleshooting concept we have in Lean Manufacturing called the 5 Whys.
Similar to what we talked about in episode 4 on Curiosity, the 5 Whys is an easy way to dig deeper and deeper to find the true source of a problem.
Unfortunately, most times we stop at the first or second answer and assume that is the problem. But it’s just a symptom.
In my case, it might have gone like this.
Q1: “Why is the weld still coming out wrong?”
A1: “Because the robot isn’t welding the correct location”
Q2: “Why isn’t the robot welding the correct location?”
A2: “Because the points must be off”
Q3: “Why are the points still off?” (this is where I made a false assumption in my answer)
A3: “Because I still need to keep moving them.”
And so on.
The key is that each answer is not only analyzed for accuracy but is also followed up with another question that goes one level down… until you arrive at the real cause.
Try that in your own organization this week. The next issue that pops up that you need to solve, keep asking why until you feel like you’ve sufficiently gotten past the easy or surface answers.
Become a detective. Don’t settle. Dig down deep.
Because that is when you’ll be able to really leverage your energy and manpower to get at the root and get things back to where they need to be.
If you’ve been enjoying these episodes, I’d love it if you took a moment to share them with a friend. It helps me reach even more business leaders and make a bigger impact. You could share a screenshot from your podcast player or just send them to shawnwashburn.com.
Thank you so much.
by Shawn | Mar 22, 2021 | Podcast
Assumptions… they usually get a bad rap. But today we’re going to dig a little deeper and see how they can actually help us if we use them wisely
You know what happens when you assume, right? You make an…
Yeah, well, I’ll actually let YOU finish that sentence on your own. And… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, head over to the Google after this and just search for “when you assume”.
Now, I’m here to shed a little more light on assumptions.
Obviously, they have a PR problem. I mean, imagine if whenever anyone mentioned you, the first thing that popped into their head was that something really bad happens whenever you’re around.
Yeah, that’s what it’s like for assumptions.
They have to live with this dark cloud hanging over their very existence.
And I get it. Usually, when they’re around bad stuff happens.
But I want to dig a little bit deeper into assumptions today.
I’d like to propose that they actually can have a lot of value, but that they have to be used wisely.
You see, assumptions are sort of like a short cut.
When you say that you assumed something, you are basically saying that you took a short cut in your thinking or investigating or conversations.
As the saying goes, maybe you even “jumped to conclusions”.
But honestly, we assume things all the time. And if we didn’t life would grind to a halt.
We take calculated risks, we believe certain things to be true about the world around us.
We assume that our house isn’t going to fall apart today or that the milk that was perfectly fine in our refrigerator yesterday hasn’t totally turned to curdled yuck overnight. That we weren’t on mute when we chimed in with that perfectly timed response in our zoom call.
There are things that we assume every day… but we just don’t call them assumptions.
What I would like to propose is that most assumptions are fine… they just need to be interrogated. They need to be sat down in that dark room with the spotlight on them. And then we need to ask them some really tough questions.
If we’re willing to do this, then assumptions can actually be good. They can be beneficial. They can save us time.
If you question an assumption and it can’t give you a solid answer, then you need to do more work on your part.
For example, let’s say you have a big meeting coming up with a customer. You set it up weeks ago and you need to make sure that they will be present.
But you haven’t had any communication with them recently about it.
You have a choice to make. You can either assume that all is good on their end. Or, you can just shoot them an email to make sure that they are still good for the meeting.
An email that might take you a few minutes but could save a ton of waste and add tension to the relationship if they didn’t show.
Maybe they had emailed you last Tuesday saying that they had to reschedule but it got lost in your inbox. Or maybe they never got the initial request. Or maybe something else urgent has come up and they were so consumed with it that they had forgotten about the meeting.
Whatever the reason, if you have any uneasiness in your gut or if there might be a big downside to a potential miscommunication, then it’s worth your time to just check in and make sure everyone’s on the same page.
We’ve all experienced the bad side of assumptions and have been burnt by not interrogating ours or we’ve burnt someone else.
But together, you and I can help change the face of assumptions. Using them for good, instead of evil.
Try looking at them a little differently this week and how, when used well, they can actually be something positive.
Maybe the new phrase could be “You know what happens when you use assumptions wisely? You and I save a lot of time and energy!”
OK, so maybe that one needs a little work.
I hope you’ve been getting value from these episodes. If you have, I’d love it if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite player. It truly means a lot and lets me help even more people. Thanks so much.
by Shawn | Mar 19, 2021 | Podcast
B25… BINGO! I was amazed when I found out a hidden fact about BINGO, but it clued me in to something that happens a lot in business as well: we don’t see the whole board!
Sometimes, our eyes can deceive us. We may think we have all the information in front of us… but we’re really missing something.
And usually, when that happens, we make bad decisions or we feel the wrong way about a situation we’re in.
But if we knew the whole story, we might think differently.
I was reminded of this one time with a simple game of BINGO.
You ever played BINGO? Pretty straightforward, right?
You’ve got a sheet that’s got 25 squares on it and then five letters across the top: B-I-N-G-O.
Each square has a number and when your letter and number is called, you get to cross off that square.
All you have to do… is get five squares in a row in any orientation… and you win!
Well, I was playing BINGO and had my board and was ready to go. Number after number began to get called. “B3″… “G60″… “N32”.
At first I had a couple matches and crossed them off. Things we’re looking pretty good for a victory.
But then, as the letters and numbers continued to be drawn… every… single… one was missing from my board.
I was looking at the list of drawn numbers as it continued to grow and then staring blankly at my mostly empty board.
“How is this possible?” I asked myself. How could so many numbers be drawn that weren’t on my board?
Eventually, someone else won and I accepted defeat. But I needed answers, darn it! So, I went to the Google.
As it turns out that the 25 squares shown on anyone’s board are only ONE THIRD of the total.
There are actually 75 total squares and fifteen numbers for each column, even though any board only shows five.
It all started to make a little more sense at that point.
I was frustrated because I didn’t have all the information.
I felt like I should have won three times already when, in actuality, my chances of winning were still fairly low because of all the extra numbers that I couldn’t see.
And the same is true for you and I. Every day, there is a lot that we don’t see. Every time we’re faced with a decision to make. Every email we get ready to reply to. Every customer complaint or quality issue that we try to get to the bottom of….
Assume that each one is actually a BINGO board with squares that are missing. There is more to the story.
So don’t let your eyes or the information you’ve been given lie to you. Take a minute to consider what might not be visible right now and put in the work to find out those other details.
You’ll save yourself a lot of stress on the back end.
And… next time you play BINGO, just make sure you get the board with the right numbers to start with.
I hope you’ve been getting value from these episodes. If you have, I’d love it if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite player. It truly means a lot and lets me help even more people. Thanks so much.
