Your Team is Bored

Is your team just going through their work; day in, day out?

Maybe your team is starting to make a lot of mistakes, miss deadlines or go over budget?

Sure they are getting things done, but you want your team to excel.

You’ve tried to give incentives and rewards, but you’re not seeing the improvement you were hoping for.

Have you ever thought that your team was bored at work?

I don’t know if you ever noticed but humans can get bored really quickly. Staring at a computer, performing the same tasks over and over, work can get pretty boring pretty quickly.

And this boredom leads to people forgetting things, waiting until the last minute, and an overall apathy for their work.

Let’s think about ways to make your work a bit more exciting while still getting the work done.

Cross-training is a great way to make work less boring while still obtaining or building the expertise needed for the job. (And, I am not referring to working in another department for a day - grumble.)

Think about the skills needed for each person’s job, then think about how to obtain or grow those skills in a unique and different way.

For example, project leaders need to give a lot of presentations. What if they took a creative writing course or an improv workshop? Would story telling and being a quick thinker help them improve presentations?

Another, mechanical designers need to draw, all day. What if they took an art course? (I personally like 3D art courses.) They will learn to look at objects as shapes and how to put those shapes together to form the parts and assemblies they need for their products.

It isn’t solely up to you to figure out these cross-training ideas. Get your team together, consider the skills needed for each position, list out what skills could be improved upon, and think of ways to cross-train to build those skills.

Right away, you are going to see more engagement and focus from your team. (Heck, the cross-training brainstorm will get things moving.) This focus will lead to fewer mistakes, and ultimately, hitting deadlines and budgets.

As cross-training commences, your team will start bringing in fresh, new ideas, alternate ways of looking at problems, and possibly even unique networking connections that could lead to collaborations or new business.