Does your workday frequently feel like mayhem? I have talked with many people who feel like their job is filled with unnecessary chaos. I believe a lot of organizations self-inflict themselves with craziness. There is a way to stop the mayhem!
Overburdening people (and equipment) is a form of waste. Your organization must first identify where people experience this waste. Usually it is very easy to find just by asking who feels they are overwhelmed.
Here are some examples of what you may find (also note that most below do not have a paying customer waiting for the outcome):
- Leaders asking for non-standard reports with quick deadlines (usually to sit on their desks for weeks before they look at them)
- Constant edits or change of direction to documents because planning is often done after the content was created
- Support departments get projects dumped on them without ever problem solving around their ability to have capacity to do the work
- Somebody’s procrastination or lack of planning becomes another person’s urgent priority
The next step is to acknowledge this kind of mayhem is a problem. This step is difficult because firefighting heroics and the rush of adrenaline from last-minute deadlines becomes “how things are done around here”.
As an outside observer, I usually see little need for subjecting employees to this kind of work condition and believe it lowers engagement. Until teams align that overburdening staff is a problem, it will continue unabated.
The final step is to identify the root causes of the mayhem and eliminate them.
What sort of unnecessary mayhem do you experience in the workplace?
(NOTE: The attached video is only related to this post because of the title and I thought it was a cool rockabilly song!)
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