Many years ago I learned the philosophy of the shit sandwich. Sorry probably should have warned you of the extreme language on today’s blog entry. Okay, not extreme.
The shit sandwich is a management technique for corrective action with workers. You make your point, they learn their lesson and everyone moves off and you future interactions are all still pleasant because you handled the situation well.
Here it is in a nutshell. Always surround a criticism with two bits of positive feedback. This works like a charm. The positive bits have to be sincere; you can’t just say the words; you have to mean them. They have to be just as true and sincere as the center piece of the puzzle.
~~~
Hi John. How are you?
John: Okay… what’s up?
I noticed that your productivity was well above the average for this work center. I wanted you to know that you are doing a good job. I appreciate that.
John: well, thanks. I like to keep busy it makes my day go faster.
One thing I have to bring up though is that you keep an eye on quality. Sometimes when people work fast they miss some details. We had a couple issues with piece count per crate. Sometimes they were off by a few pieces. Can you try to keep that in mind moving forward?
John: I thought my counts were good.
Most of them were accurate, but we are trying for one hundred percent on this. Oh, by the way Chuck was telling me you showed him a quicker way to do step A. That’s great for teamwork. Thanks for helping out the new guy. It makes his job easier and helps our team reach the production goals.
John: Yeah, well he looked like he was struggling a little.
He’s doing well now. Thanks. have a great afternoon.
~~~
John gets back to work happy. this same thing works with kids, coworkers, parents, spouses, or anyone. Arrival and departure are both highlights, the middle is constructive and mission is accomplished. The “bad news” or negative aspect is sandwiched between two positives.
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And here’s the thing. From the most confident person to someone who trembles at the thought of confrontation or even conversation we all are riding on the edge of our egos. Small words and actions compound to either build us up or tear us down, and unfortunately the tearing down seems to be the easier of the two operations.
I ran cranes on construction projects and on demolition projects and I can tell you that buildings are a lot like egos. The build is slow and methodical and the tear down is generally quick and messy. Such is life. You may consider criticism to be constructive, but truth be told it has to be managed or it will be mangled. This goes just the same for trust.
To deliver a message to a loved one or a co-worker effectively and positively consider the shit sandwich.
This is my “thought for the day” feel free to share or comment.
