Towering workloads and no one to say no. Working ‘outside the box’
The labour market has become so tight that many professions are experiencing staff shortages. In this labour market, team leaders are struggling to find qualified staff and many organisations are understaffed. The negative effects of understaffing are mainly seen in terms of efficiency and loss of quality. There is also concern that employees will leave or be poached by other employers. What can you do about the effects of understaffing in your organisation?
During a peer review meeting with one of my clients, it quickly became clear that the workload was sky high and the team leader himself was being sucked into the content. The balance between ‘should’ and ‘do’ was out of kilter, and this was causing great concern. “It seems like a peat fire and I hear it throughout the organisation; loss of efficiency and quality due to understaffing”.
During the interview it became clear that no one is saying ‘no’ to new projects. We behave like moles; we avoid what we see and we don’t say what we experience. It is easy to be a mole because to say nothing is to do nothing. One reason might be that you don’t have the words to say it. Or that you will say it next time. The mole lurks when you are insecure. You say nothing, but you think all sorts of things. The result is that you get caught up in your own whirlpool and don’t set a good example for your colleagues. Because then they say they can’t do it either. And even the management doesn’t say no and takes on the more substantial tasks themselves, because the work has to be done anyway. So is that the solution?
Thinking outside the box
In the ‘consulting phase’ we came up with some refreshing suggestions: Have you ever thought of work-study students? Or the apprentice-master principle? How do you frame your problem? Is it positive or negative? If you ‘sell’ it positively, you can often get budget for it and an extra FTE. Another idea is to get an external consultancy to do research (people tend to listen to them). And have you ever thought of discussing this more widely with team leaders to share similar situations and learn from each other?
Self (consciously) at the wheel
The team leader regularly responded with ‘yes, but’. A sign that he really did not see any way out. This was not only to do with the department heads and management, but mainly with his own attitude. If you do what you did, you get what you got. Although it is not easy to start a conversation or think outside the box every time, you have to do it to continue to set a good example for your own people.
Harness the wisdom of the group
We concluded with perhaps the most important outcome; it felt very good to be able to share these kinds of issues and feelings in a safe environment. It is important to be heard and recognised. It helps to make things explicit and to use the collective wisdom of the group to arrive at new insights and solutions together.
Sharing multiplies
You need to express pain to test limiting beliefs and initiate change. By making implicit feelings explicit, it becomes clear that this also applies to other team leaders. Sharing strengthens mutual bonds and trust. Listening to different perspectives inspires creative thinking, provides support, encourages self-reflection and movement.
Can you see yourself in the above (similar) situation? What’s the benefit of making the implicit explicit? And do you encourage your colleagues to really tell you what is bothering them, or would you rather not know? Feel free to contact me for an informal chat.
