Improve communication with 3 easy rules in your operation. Eat with purpose.

The operational strength of a plant is anchored in the effectiveness of inter-team communication – honest, direct, and kind communication can bring clarity to any issue – no matter how difficult.?Here are 3 rules that I found that can make each meal a best-practice team building event for your industrial or manufacturing operation.?As a best-practice, we would often ‘break bread’ together and it was never about the burgers – it was always about allowing people to serve others, demonstrate ‘please and thank-you’ manners, sit as a group, and to laugh as a team.?Togetherness was the desired outcome – the outcome was never about food…unless we had ribs – then you needed to mind your fingers as it was every person for themselves.

One of the best lessons learned from our dinner table growing up was that eating as a family was more about communication than food – that may have also been a function of too much dry chicken.?I think that’s why I maintained (and continue to maintain), meetings and team building around food.?To this day, it’s hard for me to meet a person without at least a coffee and a bagel in my hand.?

I’ve found that it’s hard to build communication silos when you are handing someone a Diet Mountain Dew.?It’s hard not to laugh when someone piles 4 patties on a bun ‘because they only want just 1 burger’.?People are weird and eating together in small groups builds friendships and inside jokes, and allows relationships to take root if executed with purpose.?Here are 3 rules that I would always employ when we had the team break bread together:

Rule 1:?Get a few folks to spend some time setting up for the event.?Work with them as side dishes are set out, the grill is preheating, and the drink coolers are loaded.?Involve people with the set up.?Thank them profusely and have them prepare the set up to make everything fast and sanitary for the folks that will be coming through the line.?This gets people to serve.?This gets people to think about cleanliness and hygiene – not big topics in most industrial plants.

Rule 2:?While people are eating and laughing and otherwise relaxing together, thank them for working so well as a team and for embracing the new folks in the fun.?Find something small to celebrate (a birthday or work anniversary or a milestone) and offer a small soda toast – and then sit down.?If you talk for more than 72 seconds, then you’ve gone too far.?Encourage anyone else to share a celebration or win with the assembled group.

Rule 3:?Everyone helps clean up and everyone has a leftover bag for the ride home.?Translations – we are in this together and don’t forget to take home a memory (often shaped like a hot dog).

Building a strong team means building trust and trust is, in part, a function of how vulnerable you are with those in your world and how well you stand tall on the promises and commitments that you make.?If you want to build a strong work culture – think about who you want to share a burger with and think about how important it is that you are comfortable being a good host.?The role of the host is not to be the star but is to make all of the guests feel like stars and to feel special.?

When recruiting, think about who you want to sit next to at the picnic table.?Think about people that enjoy connecting, laughing, and breaking bread together.

My experience tells me that strong teams do well when they care about each other.?Find ways to get your people to connect in positive, meaningful, and purpose-filled ways – your operations will prosper from the ease at which communication happens.

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