Supervisors Tell

Walk a floor and ask three people on the same job what good looks like. You will often get three different answers. Each one is honest. Each one is what that person figured out on their own.

That is what happens when a supervisor does not say the standard out loud. The crew still needs a standard to work to, so they make one up. One learned it from whoever trained them. One copied the fastest operator. One goes by whatever got them yelled at last time. Now there are three standards on one job, and the supervisor is frustrated that the work is inconsistent.

A lot of supervisors think they have told people. They put it in a memo. They said it in the office. They mentioned it in a huddle once. But a hint is not a standard, and a memo is not the floor. If the crew cannot point to what good looks like while they are doing the job, they were not told. They were notified.

Telling takes three things. Say it at the job, not in the office, so the words land on the thing they describe. Show it, so “clean” or “tight” or “done” has one meaning everybody can see. Then watch a cycle, because the first time someone does it is when you find out whether you were clear.

Say the standard is that the station is cleared before changeover. Saying that in a meeting gets you three versions of cleared. Standing at the station and pointing gets you one. Tools on the shadow board. Scrap in the bin. Nothing on the floor inside the tape. Now it is not your opinion against theirs. It is the standard, and everyone saw the same one.

This matters because correction without a clear standard feels personal. If you never said what good looks like, every correction sounds like you just do not like how they do it. Once the standard is said and shown, correcting is just pointing back to it.

This week, pick one job. Say the standard at the job, show it, and watch one full cycle.