Say the Standard Out Loud

Picture a supervisor who says the crew has an attitude problem. Jobs come back half done. Cleanup gets skipped. Nobody seems to care.

Now ask that supervisor one question. When was the last time you said, out loud, what done looks like on that job?

If the answer is a long pause, you have found a gap worth closing before you call it attitude.

The standard is clear to the supervisor. It has been clear for years. It is so clear that nobody has said it in months. New people learn it from whoever trained them, which means they learn that person’s version. Two people, two versions. Four people, four versions. Then the supervisor calls it attitude.

Here is the system behind it. A standard that is not said out loud decays into a preference. A preference cannot be held, because nobody can be held to a thing they were never told. So the supervisor corrects after the fact, the crew reads that as moody, and the standard turns into a guessing game about what the boss wants today.

Another document alone will not fix it. Keep the training and the written procedure the job requires, and add a sentence, said at the start of the work, every time until it is boring.

“Done means tools back on the board, area swept, count written up.”

Three things, said in one breath, in words a new hire can repeat. It does not replace the procedure or the training. It puts the expectation in front of people at the moment it matters.

Then the hard part: when someone meets it, say so. Out loud, same day. A standard that is only mentioned when it is missed is a trap, not a standard.

You will know it is working when someone on the crew says the sentence back to a new hire without you in the room. That is the standard leaving your head and becoming the floor’s.

The challenge for the coming workweek: pick the one job that comes back wrong most often. Write the done sentence. Three items, plain words, under twenty words. Say it at the start of that job every workday. The following Friday, ask the newest person on the crew to say it back to you. If they cannot, find out why. Is the sentence unclear? Have they had the training and a chance to practice the job? Is something in the way? Fix the sentence and the setup before you fix the person.

Trust over titles. Systems over heroics. Growth through grit.

Marc Bradburry II
Big Bearded Ginger