This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 207, How to Teach a Process Using the Passive Voice in English.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com connection hey there aubrey how you doing today i'm great how are you lindsay i'm feeling good do you have a question for me to start off the day i sure do i am wondering do you ever have to explain a process at work oh my gosh lately i have been looking for a great task management system for us as a team and i've found monday.com is the trendiest thing going on right now and we're not sponsored by monday.com not an ad not an ad this is true real life running a business and um so i've been diving into their learning their academy and seeing if this is the right tool for us and i've been envisioning how we're going to write our workflows and generally the way i've been writing these workflows is in the passive voice actually for example we publish episodes every week and so in the taskbar i would say episodes are uploaded to drive on monday morning Right.
And so that's kind of what we're getting into a little bit of the structure around processes today.
Yeah. Yes, exactly. Because it definitely makes sense to use passive voice when you're talking about processes because they're the process is the focus rather than the person doing it.
You know, at work often we don't know who will accomplish a task.
Yes. That's not the focus. It's the task that needs to be accomplished.
Exactly. And SOPs, standard operating procedures, they live in files for companies for years.
And our listeners know this. You guys are writing these SOPs all the time, especially if you're a project manager or you are kind of an operations person and they live in files for years and years.
And different people are doing the work at different times.
So it's about what you're doing. It's not about who's doing it.
Yes, exactly, right? This allows you to explain steps in a very clear way.
So it is vital to be able to use the passive voice, especially when describing a process.
You're going to learn how today. We're going to share what does this even mean, the passive voice, so you're very clear about what it is and how to use it.
All right, so let's get into it. Aubrey, where do we go from here?
Do we have examples to start off? Yes. So to understand the passive voice, it helps to understand what active voice is, the opposite, right?
And in active voice, the subject is doing the action in a sentence.
For example, the CEO gives a speech or Jane writes a report, right?
The subject, the CEO or Jane, that's the focus of these sentences.
That's the focus. Or, for example, as my intro example at the top of the show, our editor uploads the episodes, right?
That would be the active voice, yeah? Exactly.
But in passive voice, the sentence gets flipped and the subject is acted upon by the verb.
So the action's target is the focus of the sentence.
For example, for these two sentences we shared, a speech is given by the CEO, a report is written by Jane, or your example, Lindsay.
Or our episodes are uploaded by our editor.
Love that. So the subject is acted upon by the verb.
Ooh, very grammar-y. Yes, exactly. You guys listening out there, you use passive voice a lot because as we're speaking, sometimes it just makes sense to have the action be the focus.
And it's especially important when we're describing a process.
That process or action should be the focus.
It just makes sense. And it also adds a level of professionalism.
Instead of saying, you do this, we do this, when we flip that sentence and use the passive voice, it sounds more professional. right and it's also a great way of building out a scalable company right where it's more about the things that are happening and yeah it makes total sense and where do we want to go now aubry do we have more examples or where where do we go from here we are going to show a share a really interesting example here we're going to describe the manufacturing process But we're going to share these steps with passive voice and then share what it would be in active voice.
So you guys can really hear the difference and see lots of examples of how to describe a process using the passive voice.
Yeah. Do you know anyone that works in manufacturing, Aubrey?
Anyone in your world? Or when you worked at the potato factory, right?
Was that considered manufacturing? Yes, absolutely.
It's still manufacturing, right? Because it's really interesting with different companies, right?
There are a lot of the equipment that they had to manufacture or the boxes, the packaging, all of that has to go through the manufacturing process before it even got to where we used it.
That's funny. The potato factory when I was 15.
Yeah. i love that i love going back to that that's so fun so as our listeners guys as you're listening today think about if you work in manufacturing right or logistics uh think about tie this to a real example in your life right that's the key okay Yes, this makes me think about Shark Tank.
We watch it and they'll often ask them about, okay, what's your manufacturing process?
Do you have manufacturing set up? And they might have to describe this process right there as part of their presentation.
I love Shark Tank. I watch it every time I get a chance.
Anytime it's on TV, that will be my go-to if I'm just killing time.
Yeah. absolutely so fun okay let's go through this so manufacturing process all right here's the first step a product vision is developed and researched so passive voice here the product vision is the focus of our sentence yeah as opposed to the active voice which would be you develop and research a product vision and that sounds amateur when we say you develop and research a product vision it doesn't seem like business at scale enterprise level business right exactly it sounds much less professional i agree if you imagine someone on shark tank you presenting your product or or a process and you say you do this you do that or we do this we do that i absolutely agree it sounds a little more amateur Amateur.
Yeah. And you don't want to look amateur in front of the sharks.
Exactly. All right. What would be the next one?
Here's an example for the next one. The product is then designed and a prototype is created as opposed to Aubrey active voice.
You design a product and you create a prototype.
Yeah, two homemade, two individual early stage, right?
Exactly. Whereas that sentence with the passive voice, the product is then designed and a prototype is created.
This feels very, you could write this, it could be in a brochure, it could be an explanation in a process, in a document, and you could say it and it sounds so much more professional.
Yeah, I love it. Here's the next one. After testing has been completed, the product is manufactured.
So this is a honed process. We know the steps.
It's a, as we say, bonus phrase, Aubrey, a well-oiled machine, right?
Yes, absolutely, right. As opposed to an active voice, you test the product.
After your testing is completed, you manufacture the product.
Doesn't make sense. That is not a well-oiled machine.
That's right. That's something that's going to have kind of problems along the way and we haven't fully tested it.
And we can't scale that if we don't know, if the processes are reliant on individual people, right?
Exactly. And when we don't know who will be doing it, if we find ourselves saying you or we, we're getting to that amateur level.
And instead, it's okay if you don't know who will do these steps, use the passive voice so that the who's doing it isn't important.
The process is the focus. I love that. And we have one more, which is feedback is obtained and further testing is performed before the product is officially released.
This also makes me think of if you're giving a tour, if let's say, I don't know, let's imagine the Ben and Jerry's factory.
And of course they use this terminology.
They don't use, first you put the ice cream into the freezer.
No, they're going to use because it's a well-oiled machine.
They're an international global company.
Okay. So to describe that process, they would say cream and milk are inserted to the machine.
Yes, exactly. We have no idea how ice cream gets made, but yeah, exactly.
It's not you. We wouldn't use that general, very informal you to mean one, one, someone.
Yeah, 100% agree, Aubrey. This is the difference between amateur and professional.
So that's it right there. All right, let's get into a role play, shall we?
Yeah, so you are describing a process to me.
I'm a new hire at the company where we work.
All right, here we go. Okay, so blank forms are kept in this folder.
Okay, the folder can be found on the shelves here?
Exactly. Folders can be retrieved from these shelves whenever you need a new form.
Perfect, thanks. The information needed to complete each form can be found in these accounts.
Got it. Sounds very professional. Yes, I love it.
But this is, I mean, everyone has had that opportunity to train a new person, whether you're showing them how to do your job because you're moving on to something else or just training them on a process.
And when you use the passive voice, it gives you this more professional feel. elevated level and i want to say it doesn't mean that we can't be personal with the person we're training the person we're talking to right that's really important business is still about relationships okay and connection human connection it just means once you get into the meat of what you're explaining i think the person learning also wants a more objective flow workflow Yes, and it just makes sense because these are forms that everyone is finding.
So you say, you find the blank form here.
The subject is not important, right? Everyone who works there, this is where they find these things.
This is where it's stored. And so it makes more sense to use the passive voice.
Forms are found here by everyone. Exactly.
And it doesn't mean we can't have an opening chat. you know, building that relationship, getting to know the new hire or the person at work, right?
Doesn't mean we have to be robots again, like we talked about in another episode.
Okay. Exactly. Right. This of course would come after lots of chit chat and we're being informal, but then when you go to describe the process, it makes sense to use passive.
Like let's go through this role play. You say blank forms are kept in this folder.
The other option is we keep blank forms in this folder, not the end of the world, but just that little bit of tone change when you use passive. yeah it's not the end of the world i mean you can say we keep uh blank forms in this folder you can it's not wrong okay it's just about elevating your speech to become more professional and also about showing let's say we're training someone new on sop standard operating procedures that this is a serious thing this gets done on the in this way and it's not debatable right exactly and this this next part that what i said this is interesting to point out i say okay, the folder can be found on the shelves here.
I don't have a lot of options because as a new hire, it would sound strange for me to say, we find the folder on the shelves.
Or I can find the folder on the shelves.
Or I find the folder on the shelves here.
Whereas the passive voice, just recognizing like this is how it's done instead of making the subject what's important.
Yeah, it takes you out of it, which is probably a good idea in the beginning because you want to understand the systems, especially for a large company, large manufacturing company.
Exactly. And then you said folders can be retrieved from these shelves whenever you need a new form.
And just like we said, you could say we retrieve folders from these shelves, but we automatically use the passive a lot because that process is what's important and not who does it.
Everyone does it. It's so true. I like how we're talking through this and figuring out what the use really is.
It makes total sense. And maybe we do throw in the active voice one out of Six times, for example.
Sure. But then we come back to this style to deliver those SOPs.
The last thing I said was the information needed to complete each form can be found in these accounts.
Yes. I love that you pointed that out because with active and passive voice, this is not grammar that you have to stick to once you've started.
Like if you use a passive sentence, you don't have to feel like, oh no, now I have to stick with the passive.
We go back and forth. That's very native and natural at work in business to flip back and forth between the passive and active voice.
Exactly. Because this comes to the takeaway for today.
I think your ultimate goal is still not to be as professional as possible, it's to connect.
And you still have a goal of connecting.
Let's imagine in that training context, you're training a new hire, you still need to connect with that person, right?
So maybe you do throw in, like I said, the active once in a while, you're going to judge, but you're showing a system.
And so passive voice does make more sense.
Any other takeaway for today, Aubrey? No, I love that.
Yes. Just to think about how the passive voice can help you when you're describing a process.
But I love that takeaway, Lindsay. I think it's so smart too.
We do need to think about when to be informal, when to be formal, but always with the goal of connecting with those that we work with.
Yeah. That's always the highest goal. So we're going for that.
All right, Aubrey. Glad we were on the show together today and you have a good day.
Talk to you soon. I'll see you next time.
All right. Take care. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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