Every change in the work situation of employees can cause a reaction and shift of attitude. When moving back to working on-site, new rules and procedures will be implemented for some time. This will affect the dynamic of teams and can cause conflicts in some cases.
Here are three things you can do to successfully welcome employees back to the workplace:
Hold team meetings with employees to discuss new guidelines and procedures to apply social distancing.
Give employees an opportunity to express how their feeling and engage in discussion. These meetings are best done in smaller groups by department or functional teams.
Provide guidelines and training on how employees should confront one another when someone is not respecting the new rules and procedures. You want people to act with respect and not have conflicts erupt that will impact teamwork and performance.
There three steps or guidelines are very easy to implement but should be done with care, so people feel free to share how they are feeling without fear of repercussion.
This is a stressful time for everyone as confinement feels like one’s freedom has been taken and of course the concerns about jobs and money come into play. Promote a culture of mutual support and get everyone working towards positive outcomes for all.
A group of musicians when in synch create beautiful pieces of music that is captivating and uplifting. Each musician contributes their unique passion and talent to the creative process, which starts with writing the music and culminates in performing the pieces.
A successful music band that experiences longevity needs to learn to collaborate between recording projects and performances. Some iconic bands like the Rolling Stones seem to have developed the ability to work and stay together for more than 50 years now, while the Beatles only last 7 years.
This makes for a good analogy for a group of employees. What makes employees go from being simply a group to a high performing team that continues to evolve and collaborate?
Each member is good at what they do and continue to get better though their own desire to grow in their chosen expertise
There is a genuine respect for each other and the unique talent each member brings to the team
They can work though differences for the good of the team
They help each other when things get tough
They find ways to grow as a team and continuously improve
Any band like the Rolling Stones usually has a leader who starts the group and helps it become successful. Of course, music bands will have a manager whose job it is to promote the band and manage the business side.
Business leaders are like the band manager whose job it is to form the team and ensure that their needs are met so they can perform well together. The leader/manager needs to:
Bring the right team members with the right talent, skills, and attitude. As the team progresses over time this responsibility can be done as a team
Make sure each member is improving on their skill set and discovering new opportunities to grow
Challenge the team to take risks to find ways to evolve and improve together
Help team members sort out any conflicts or disagreements that could derail the team
Involve the team in planning their future so everyone actively participates in the journey
As mentioned in point 1, over time the team itself can collectively take on these responsibilities and thus the original leader gradually shares more and more power with the team.
Who are the artists in your team? What are their talents? How can you continuously have them become more and more synchronized and output a performance that is truly world-class? This should be your goal and at the forefront of your thinking as a leader.
I am writing this while still in lockdown due to COVID 19 and most people are working from home.
You can still engage people in teamwork using online meeting technologies and drive continuous improvement.
Earlier this week I facilitated a masterclass session with business owners where they were able to work on problems that they are currently facing. There session was done using the Zoom meeting application and the result was finding practical effective solutions for the problems brough forward.
Task Team
The first step is to form a task team comprised of management or a mix of managers and employees. The size would vary depending on the size of your organization and how many departments you have but it could be as small as three but not larger than seven.
There needs to be a champion named to lead this team and report to the business owner or GM. The business owner or GM could also be part of this team.
The purpose of this team is brainstorm problems or continuous improvement opportunities in the organization and prioritize the list down to the top three to five items.
From the priority list of the task team described above, form one or up to three teams to work on solving the problems and proposing solutions. This could be cross functional team if the problems cross many departments of affect the whole organization. This is a good time to work on problems that may be human resource related like how to increase a
The teams would meet remotely using any online meeting app and work together using effective problem-solving techniques.
A champion for each problem-solving team would need to be named and a facilitator and this can be the same person. Roles should be defined. For example, you might have the project champion, a facilitator, a note taker, and a gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper’s role is to ensure that the rules of working together are followed so they assist the facilitator. So, you need to establish a few rules of guidelines for working together. IF the gatekeeper sees that the rule of respect is being abused, he will intervene to help the facilitator address this.
Action and Feedback
If you embark on this, you need to treat the recommended solutions and decide the action you will take as a business owner or management team.
You will also need to give feedback to the teams on what you plan to do as you do not want them to feel their time and energy spent on this was in vain.
Communicate Communicate this initiative to all employees so they are aware of things and are ready to support any new methods or processes that will need their backing.
I am writing this at the time of the COVID 19 pandemic and like most people I am staying home and limiting my trips to the grocery store. Most businesses are closed for the time being and those who still have jobs are working from home.
For business owners and managers, it’s probably a good time to do some strategic planning as operations may have paused due to the coronavirus situation. Often there seems to lack time to work on the business rather than always in the business.
It’s crucial to stay productive and feel like you are accomplishing important tasks and projects. Of course, this is always true but even more so if you are working from home and can be easily distracted with family life and staying abreast of the news.
I find that when I start the day with a list of tasks that must get done, I feel better organized and focused. And then at the end of the day when I review the list and check off each completed task, I get a clear sense of how productive my day was. Otherwise I sometimes find myself asking, what did I do today?
I have developed the habit of using an app on my phone as a tool to list my daily tasks and check them off when completed. I also use the app to keep track of future long-term projects, personal projects, grocery lists etc.
There are an abundance of apps available that are free and paid to do task and project tracking. I use then free version of Any.do as I find it simple yet comprehensive.
What I find productive is to make a few lists for various aspects of my business in the app. This could be new training program development, and in the category, I list the projects I want to work on. I can arrange the list by priority.
I have a list category called Today. This is where I list the 5 things that I feel I must do that day. It could be 4 things that I need to do for a client project and the other could be what I want to get done for my project in the new training program development category list.
Having this type of list keeps me focused on what I need to do for my commitments and to mange my time well, while also working on strategic initiatives. I also feel great when I can check of each item at the end of the day review and then I know my day was productive. This simple approach works but it could pose challenges for different types of people as it requires developing the habit to work the process. Once you find something simple that works for you commit to it and it will soon become a pattern and an automatic reflex everyday.
