Ask Before You Direct

Walk up to a stopped job and watch what usually happens. The supervisor looks for a few seconds, says what to do, and walks off. The operator does it. Sometimes it works. Often the operator knew something the supervisor did not, and the job stops again before break.

The person running the job has been standing there all shift. They heard the sound change. They saw the material come in different. They know it started after lunch. You walked up half a minute ago. Directing first throws away everything they saw.

Asking first is not about being nice, and it is not handing them the decision. The ask is for the facts. The direction is still yours.

Here is the difference. Say a filler keeps short-filling.

Directing: “Bump the fill time up.” Maybe it holds for an hour.

Asking: “What are you seeing?” “Only the right head is short. Started after we changed nozzles.” “Anything else different?” “The new nozzle looks narrower than the old one.”

Now you know where to look. Bumping the fill time on every head would have overfilled the good ones and hidden the bad nozzle. One question kept you from fixing the wrong thing.

Keep the questions short and about the job. What are you seeing? When did it start? What changed? Then stop talking and let them answer. If the first answer is “I don’t know,” wait. People are not used to being asked, and the second answer is usually the real one.

Then decide out loud, and say what you heard that made the call. That part matters. If you ask and then do what you were going to do anyway, they learn the asking was for show. If they hear their fact inside your decision, they learn it is worth telling you next time.

This week, on one stopped or struggling job, ask three questions before you give a direction. Then decide out loud and name what they told you.