If you want a good leadership exercise that’s designed to improve teamwork, then I suggest you grab some rubber bands. Rubber bands can teach you a very good lesson in how you can stretch your team’s productivity too far.
Think of your team like rubber bands. Imagine holding a rubber band with both of your hands. Don’t stretch it out.
The space inside is the amount of work that someone can normally perform. These are achievable tasks that are the core part of someone’s job.
With both hands applying equal pressure, you can stretch the rubber band so the area inside gets wider. If you are deliberate in your movement, you can ensure that the area in the center stays in the center, while expanding the zone outside of it.
This should be your productivity model with your team. The key is being thoughtful before you increase someone’s responsibilities. This way you make sure the current tasks are performed, as well as any additional ones.
In your world, this may involve running an inventory of someone’s duties, seeing if technology can make the position more effective, or simply asking if the person feels comfortable taking on more responsibilities.
This last part is important. It’s often thought that people will automatically turn down more work. I’ve found that many like a new challenge but will become stressed out when they’re unsure if they can still perform their current tasks at a high level.
This where your skill as a leader need to emerge as you evaluate the person and the position. You’re looking for potential solutions to new problems and need to get your employee to buy into doing new things.
Let’s use our rubber band again but this time let’s illustrate this process done poorly. Hold the rubber band with both hands but this time, pull it quickly and only from the left side.
What happened to all the space inside? Most of it is now gone. You traded the space inside for an increased length.
In our world, this is what happens when a big task is added to your plate. Suddenly, a lot of your regular duties can no longer be done.
For some, this opens the door to lost productivity, people finding themselves working extra hours to try to catch up, and even burnout.
If you’re a supervisor who likes to unexpectedly dump a lot of big tasks on people’s plates, then these are likely challenges you’re going to experience.
Most people will stretch some but a fast change or an ongoing dramatic demand will hurt productivity. Rubber bands can break…
Maybe it’s time to bring Ken Okel to your next meeting…
Read any good books lately?
