Help your team learn the hard way

It is a challenge to not do the work of your team when they mess up.

I see this in lots of places I visit. Someone on the team messes up, there's no time left, so the manager rolls up their sleeves and takes over.

Two observations.

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1. You don't increase the capacity of your team if you step in.

2. The person you help out hasn't felt your pain and therefore isn't incentivised to avoid this situation in the future.

Now, we all make mistakes. I am talking here about the consistent mistakes.

So, without being vindictive about this situation, how do you ensure that your team feel some of the pain whilst also learning how to avoid this situation in the future.

I'd like you to use this musing as a prompt to help you avoid crises in the future.

Here is one idea, to get you started.

Look at the work that needs to be done, to get you out of the crisis, and give the most 'painful' part to your colleague. Help them, but cherry pick the best bits for yourself (if there are any).

I joked with a client the other month that this was like wiping their backsides with sandpaper!

(Yes, the owner of this particular company was complaining that he had to wipe his staff's backsides too often!)

What ideas can you come up with?

Giles

About the author:

Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.

Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.

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