Stay in your lane

To 'stay in your lane' is to focus on your area of expertise or assignments

Today's story: Chick-fil-A
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Stay in your lane

Today’s expression is “stay in your lane.” JR is a swimmer, so we’re going to use a swimming analogy. JR swims every day; I think he was a fish in a previous life. And he swimss laps, lots of them. And in the pool he goes to, there are swim lanes. The lanes are designed to keep people from crashing into each other. If everyone just swam wherever they wanted, there would be chaos. So there are lanes.

So think about this with the phrase “stay in your lane.” This is often used in a business or professional sense, and it means, focus on your own responsibilities, or focus on your own area of expertise, without interfering with the responsibilities or expertise of others. Because if you don’t stay in your lane—just like in a swimming pool—you’ll cause chaos and bother other people.

What do they sell at Chick-fil-A ? They sell chicken. Their menu is chicken sandwiches. Fried chicken sandwiches, grilled chicken sandwiches, spicy chicken sandwiches, chicken sandwiches without a lot of toppings, chicken sandwiches with a lot of toppings. Salads, but with chicken on top. Chicken nuggets, chicken fingers.

And I said this about Chick-fil-A. I said, they stay in their lane. That means, they’re not trying to compete with Wendy’s on burgers; they’re not trying to compete with Taco Bell on tacos. They don’t have beef; they don’t have fish. And they don’t have a vegetarian option. They don’t have special themed menu items. They have their own expertise and they stick to it; they stay in their lane.

Contrast that with a visit to McDonald’s. They have lots of beef burgers. But they also have chicken sandwiches. They have a fish sandwich. If you’re lucky, you might get a pork rib sandwich—but that’s seasonal. For a long time, they served breakfast all day. At breakfast, you can get sandwiches, pancakes, a burrito, muffins, or oatmeal.

There’s nothing wrong, per se, with the McDonald’s approach. But Chick-fil-A’s approach has been different. Their expertise is chicken, and they decided to stay in their lane. That has helped them stay focused on their brand, keep the menu simple, streamline operations, and maintain quality control.

You guys know I used to work in consulting, and my huge firm would do large consulting projects for clients. And often these projects would have many different teams working on them, each team with its own specialty and each team with its own responsibilities in the bigger project. My industry specialty was real estate. And we would often be one part of a much larger team working on a big project.

And when there were multiple teams working on a project, it was important for us all to stay in our own lanes. We had to identify who was going to do what, we had to recognize who had what expertise, and then when we did the project, we all had to focus on our own responsibilities and expertise, and not wander off into other parts of the project that we knew less about.

You can use this in the imperative. If someone is doing things they shouldn’t be doing—not because it’s wrong, but because it’s outside their expertise or responsibilities—you can say to that person: “Stay in your lane.”

For example, if I start editing the video lessons and uploading only parts of each Plain English lesson to the web site, then I would be veering outside my responsibilities here at Plain English, and I would be causing confusion and probably not even doing it right. So if that ever happened, JR can call me up and say: “Stay in your lane.” That means, “stop doing the things that are JR’s job here, because you’re causing confusion and not doing it right.” And I would have to pay attention.

Just be aware, when you use this, that this is not a gentle way of expressing the idea. If you ever tell someone else: “Stay in your lane,” this is an admonishment. This is a very direct, almost harsh way of telling someone to back off. You would only say this if more polite, more indirect messages didn’t work.

For that reason, you often hear this when someone is talking about someone else, almost complaining, rather than talking directly to that other person. JR might grumble to one of our other team members, “Jeff really needs to stay in his lane.” And then he might call me up and politely suggest—using softer words—that maybe I should stick to my own job and not worry about his responsibilities.

JR’s song of the week

Today’s song of the week is “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones. This was late-career Rolling Stones; they had matured and some of their songs were mellower. This one has a soul vibe. A beast of burden is like a donkey or a mule, or an animal used in heavy labor. The lyrics open with, “I’ll never be your beast of burden,” and it reflects a man who’s later in his career and is tired of working and wants to settle down into a more tranquil life. It’s one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs—”Beast of Burden” is the song of the week for today.

See you next time!

And that brings us to the end of today’s Plain English. If you haven’t been to Chick-fil-A, you are missing out. They’re not super popular in the cities. I think there are only three in all of Chicago—like I said, they don’t have a lot of stores. But if you’re in a place with a Chick-fil-A, you have to visit.

I was in Pittsburgh, a medium-sized city, a few weeks ago. And I had an early-morning flight, I think 7 a.m. And there’s a Chick-fil-A at the Pittsburgh airport…and I confess, I had two chicken biscuit sandwiches for breakfast that day. One is plenty. I had two. I didn’t need to eat for several hours. But it was worth it; they are so delicious.

All right, enough of that. We have a new topic coming on Monday. Remember to check us out on Instagram, @plainenglishpod , leave your comments and likes on the content we post. See you right back here on Monday.

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Story: Chick-fil-A