Wasted work is a disservice to employees’ time. No employee wants to hear that the big project they’ve been focusing on is no longer applicable. Nor do they want to hear that a prior task needs to be redone. Both of these scenarios can lead to a disgruntled, pessimistic workforce.
As a leader or manager, you want to ensure that your team’s tasks align with the company’s overall mission and vision. The assigned work should ladder up to the larger strategy and corporate direction. For instance, editorial writers should be creating copy for an upcoming product launch, not a product that has yet to be developed.
Unaligned projects happen for various reasons. A CEO may have a side passion project that they want to see fulfilled. Employees may be spending time on something because they’ve always spent time on it, even if it doesn’t make sense today. Putting an end to unnecessary work ensures you’re getting the best return on investment for each employee’s efforts. Here’s how to stop squandering your team’s best efforts once and for all.
Define Common Goals
The most productive, efficient teams have a clear goal in mind. Each employee is like a gear in a machine, churning out work in order for the team to move forward. Having clearly defined goals can be motivating to employees, particularly if they feel invested in the overall company’s vision. They recognize the work they are doing each day matters and that there is a larger purpose for their individual output.
This is essential for strategic alignment, which is when all stakeholders in a company are aware of the organization’s objectives. Everyone, including employees, managers, and senior executives, works in unison with their eyes set on the predetermined goals.
To achieve this state, goals should be outlined clearly and distributed appropriately so everyone is on board. A lengthy, multi-page document about where your company will be 10 years from now is useless. Being concise is key. Everyone at the company should be able to state what the main goals are without hesitation. Also, goals shouldn’t just be set at the beginning of the year and remain untouched until the next. They should be spoken about often and should seep into company culture, value propositions, and client experiences. A company’s goals should be a checkpoint for progress throughout the year.
Examine Ways of Working
Many unnecessary tasks are a result of employees doing what has always been done before. Let’s say that your company has just invested in building a separate research team. This new team is responsible for analyzing site metrics, pulling industry-related data, and collaborating with other teams. A marketer who used to pull needed metrics via Google Analytics may still be doing this despite having a dedicated team and new tools. Disrupting this old behavior is one way of making sure you’re getting the most out of the marketer’s time.
The marketer may think it’s a waste of time to ask someone else to do this work because they know how to do it. In reality, however, it’s a waste of time for the marketer to be spending this effort when they could be focused on crafting a pitch deck. Not to mention, the research team may be able to do this task more efficiently and more thoroughly than the marketer.
As a manager, it’s up to you to ensure that each team member is being productive and relying on their strongest skill set. During team meetings, ask your employees what is the biggest waste of their time or what takes up the largest amount of time. Their responses may surprise you, especially if they are related to administrative-related tasks. Then, seek out ways to either eliminate this wasted time altogether or make it less of a burden. This could look like investing in a collaborative software or project management platform to streamline processes better.
Pause, Process, and Reflect
Pretty much everyone is strapped for time. When one project is complete, it’s onto the next one. The neverending to-do list can make it challenging to take time to pause and reflect. However, taking this time is crucial to your team’s future success. Without recognizing how a project went and what could have gone better, you and your team will likely continue down the same path. There may be inefficiencies and redundancies that you can recognize after a project has run its course.
Holding a retrospective meeting or a debrief demonstrates your commitment to your team. You want to hear their thoughts on what went well and what didn’t. If there’s room for improvement, acknowledge that and discuss change. Create a safe space to brainstorm how things could go differently in the future.
This is the time for you to sit back and listen to your team. Don’t go into the meeting feeling like you have a point you want to make. Instead, set up the meeting in advance so teammates can come prepared with their thoughts. Give everyone a chance to speak up and voice their opinions. This can help with overall team development, learning, and morale. Once solutions have been discussed and agreed upon, take action. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.
Takeaways
Making the most of your team’s efforts is a constant practice. What is working one day may not be working the next. A fresh perspective from a new employee may change how tasks are done for the better. As long as your team is focused and has a clear goal in mind, know that some ebb and flow is part of the process.
