Seventy percent. That’s the percentage of people who say they feel overwhelmed, if not burned out, in the most recent surveys I’ve seen. How did we get here? You and I could probably fill a page with the contributing factors. But that’s not the subject of this post.
I have always approached this issue with a belief that it’s the little stuff, taken together, that drains the energy and focus in any workplace. It’s the people who become so busy, they ignore little courtesies and considerations. It’s the person who gets overwhelmed because all the meetings. It’s the person who gets consumed with the overwhelming number of emails, texts, or Slack messages and just shuts down.
As a result, we can feel like we’re dying a death by a thousand cuts. And as a manager or team leader you might be a contributor. Now, you might be thinking, “Hang on, Bucko! You can’t drop all that on me! I’m trying the best I can. It’s the culture. It’s the leadership above me. It’s the nutty customers. I’m a victim too.”
Perhaps. But here’s the thing. In the same way that all these little distractions and nuisances tax our time, we can recapture our time, energy and focus by eliminating, delegating or automating those that waste our attention. If you search online for the term “workplace burnout,” you’ll find dozens of videos and articles that recommend changes to the culture. These include reducing the number of meetings, cleaning up communication, and organizing opportunities for social interaction.
But changes like these require time and concerted effort in the middle of the super-busy days you’re trying to manage. Besides, reducing the number of meetings how? Cleaning up communication how? Organizing social interaction how? Most don’t go into the details.
When you, as an individual, attempt to alter or establish a new habit, your brain puts up immediate resistance for two reasons. First, practicing a familiar habit produces endorphins that make you feel good, even if the habit is destructive. Second, any attempt to change or establish a new routine creates a sense of uncertainly. Uncertainty triggers the release of the stressor hormone cortisol, not to mention immediate thoughts of all the stuff that might go wrong if the change doesn’t come out as expected.
The same thing happens when attempting to change or establish new routines within the workplace. This is usually augmented by one or more people who are solidly invested in the status quo. This is the primary reason why so much of so-called culture change fails. As the saying goes “culture eats strategy for lunch.”
I am a firm believer in beginning at the margins. In other words, start with tiny adjustments that are easily implementable without consuming time and energy. Subtle changes meet less resistance and they help conserve energy by making life less complicated.
If you simply ask, these adjustments will be suggested by those on your team, which means they will be welcomed. After all, they thought of them. You might be surprised by some of these suggestions because you’re the leader rather than the person on the front line who has to implement the day-to-day projects and processes. They get to think about them all day as they work while you’re focused on the bigger picture.
Here are five easily fixable things that I’ve seen work in client workplaces:
One customer support team got so frustrated with being called into impromptu meetings that they gathered one afternoon and decided, as a group, that everyone should just make decisions on customer issues without having to consulting everyone all the time. Will mistakes be made? Sure. But then mistakes were being made before they decided to change the process. Instead, once per week, they gather to discuss decisions they made where things did not go as planned and ask for input on how to handle those situations the next time they happen. This has compelled them to build self-confidence in their own decision making and significantly improved workflow. What they have discovered is that these meetings have gotten shorter as the number of unique situations they have faced have dwindled. Collectively, they have calculated that this simple change in approach saves each of them an average of three hours per week.
A leader in a reinsurance firm sent out a brevity memo, as I mentioned in a previous video. In it, she asked that every email contain a summary sentence at the beginning, identifying the sender’s ultimate question or request for resources. In addition, she has set an expectation that emails should not exceed 100 words in length. While she received some pushback at first, the long-winded members of her team have learned to be more concise, sometimes with some coaching from her.
A logistics team for a plastics manufacturer combined three weekly update meetings into one. Each updater is allowed 15 minutes to present and answer questions. There is an additional 15 minutes allowed for a more complicated issue, if necessary. But that needs to be identified ahead of the time. If the team maintains these parameters consistently, every other month, the leader buys lunch for everyone, consisting of Olive Garden, Qdoba, or something like that.
The general manager of a truck dealership authorized every employee, regardless of their role to spend as much as $250 to fix customer issues without asking a supervisor. This might something as simple as buying coffee for the customer who waiting for an oil change that’s taking longer than expected or replacing floor mats for a long-time customer as a goodwill gesture. Initially, many employees were reluctant to use this new-found power. But they adapted over time. In the process, the management team avoids hundreds of interruptions every month.
A school district superintendent started putting a time parameter on every item for every monthly administration meeting. Those attending are expected to submit their topic or issue for discussion at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. He’s found over time that when asked, most people overestimate how much time they need to resolve an issue or present their report. So he began cutting each estimate by thirty to forty percent. While there was some initial resistance, everyone fell in line and these half-day meetings now average two hours.
These are just a few of the practical approaches you can use to recapture time and energy for you and your team. There are lots more in my book, Overcoming Overwhelm. There is a link to purchase it in the description.
What simple changes have you made to recapture time and energy? Put them in the comments below? I’d like to share them with others.