Do we practice Job Crafting subconsciously?

In this guest blog Manahil Syed, Recruitment and HR Officer and MBA student shares her insights and recent findings from her study on job crafting.

This was a fascinating research project sponsored by Tailored Thinking and we were so impressed with it that we convinced Manahil to write a blog on it!

Job crafting sounds self-explanatory, to some extent. Like a sculptor carves a stone, inch by inch, in the same way, we can carve or modify various aspects of our job. But the size of the chisel is limited by our job description defined in HR’s books.

If we closely look at job crafting, we all practice at least some aspects of it. For example, we all have had that one annoying repetitive task at our jobs that we just want to get done with as soon as we can. Our pursuit of streamlining such tasks would fall under the ambit of job crafting.

Job crafting is generally divided into three types of activities, task, relational, and cognitive.

Task Crafting:

We can practice task crafting subconsciously by adjusting our routine tasks to our preferences in order to make them enjoyable. Moreover, a significant portion of task crafting is based on new tasks that you partake in or new approaches for routine tasks.

For example, your task is to arrange quotations from suppliers for required material. You must present all these quotations in a comparable form to the decision-making body, after removing all ifs and buts from quotations. Instead of manually doing all this, you decide to change the process and develop a standardised form which each vendor has to complete as part of their quotation. Needless to say, this is being done with the consultation of your supervisor. 

Relational Crafting:

Once done, you visit a colleague that you are on friendly terms within the IT department and ask him to provide consultation regarding uploading this form on the company’s portal so that you can download it in the desired format. Your colleague/friend does not directly deal with such stuff and he invites you for a cup of tea at the company’s cafeteria so that he can introduce the relevant person to you. All three of you discuss the feasibility, in terms of cost, time, and resources, of doing this exercise. Somehow, you manage to execute your plan and the new portal is up and running. Now you simply have to download the worksheet from the portal and review it for any bugs and present it to the decision-making body.

Cognitive Crafting:

After a successful presentation, you feel relaxed and elevated as you have brought in a structural change to your job description. You imagine positive word-of-mouth about your contribution to the company and how other departments will try to follow the lead of digitization.

This hyper-simplified example was presented to highlight aspects of job crafting. The whole thing starts with your overt motivation to improve your work and save yourself some extra time. A gap was identified, which even left unattended would not have affected your performance, when looked at from the supervisor’s point of view. The mere act of kicking off this project would come under the umbrella of task crafting, whereas approaching your supervisor and other colleagues for executing it comes under relational crafting. When the project is completed, your accomplishment-based gloating stems from your contribution to the company. Anything, that is out of the scope of your pre-defined work might come under job crafting. It is unlikely that anyone would make such a claim, that he/she does not work over and beyond the pre-defined scope.

If this is the case, then why do we need to know about job crafting?

My research at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with Tailored Thinking, suggests people who knowingly practice job crafting have a greater level of workplace well-being as compared to people who obliviously practice it. This is related to the dynamics of awareness, cognition, and perception. A person using a smartphone of a prestigious and renowned brand is likely to have a better experience as compared to a person who uses a smartphone of an unknown brand. 

At the end of the day, we are all trying to do our best at balancing various aspects of our lives; get comfortable with whatever we have. Job crafting helps us by activating various primitive motivators to get the job done. Its benefits have the potential to go beyond one’s workspace.

Task crafting stimulates your creative problem-solving skills, relational crafting can help you develop relations that become long-term, even when you leave the job. Cognitive crafting helps in picturing yourself as an integral cog in the wider system.

It is better to practice job crafting knowingly as its benefits are much greater than the meagre cost of simply equipping yourself with its rudimentary knowledge.

If you want to find out more you can download our job crafting guide here.

Also, you can connect with Manahil on LinkedIn here.

Why it's time to ditch the Job Description

Over my career I’ve written, reviewed, edited and formally evaluated (high) hundreds of job descriptions and role profiles. And do you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever met a job description that I have really liked.

For many years, like many people professionals, I’ve tolerated job descriptions as a necessarily evil, something that was just a (frustrating) part of normal organisational and HR life.

More recently, as I’ve been more actively exploring the psychology, practices and processes of what makes people healthy, happy and highly productive at work, I’ve realised how destructive and damaging our reliance on job descriptions can be.

We’ve developed a form of “learned helplessness” when it comes to job descriptions – widely recognising their limitations, but using them as the only approach to capturing how and what people should do in their jobs. 

You could think of them like a blister on the foot of organisations caused by ill fitting footwear, yet despite wincing, we’ve never thought to change the shoes we are wearing.

Why Job Descriptions don’t deliver

The first job descriptions were developed over a hundred years ago to bring order and rigour to organisational structures, yet we have not developed this tool to keep pace with modern working practices.

The job description has failed to keep pace with changes in how we think about, describe and do work. Consequently, there are a number of ways in which they can bring more harm than help to organisations.

Here are 7 key reasons why I think job descriptions don’t deliver:

1. They are static documents which box people in - they don’t encourage innovation or personalisation

2. They are out of date as soon as they are written

3. They are often works of fiction - they don’t describe how a job is actually done

4. They take time to complete and are not easy to update

5. They don’t capture the true value or purpose of a role

6. They get lost across the organisation

7. They don’t provide organisational or people insight

1) They are fixed and box people in

One big barrier that stops people from being fully engaged and energised by their work is that they feel restricted and constrained in how they are able to perform their jobs.

Many of us are familiar with the concept of glass ceilings as an invisible (and corrosive) barrier that stops people – particularly women and people from ethnic minorities – from progressing within organisations.

I believe that traditional job descriptions can have the unfortunate impact of creating glass walls. These are invisible barriers on people which stop them from adapting, improving and shaping themselves and their jobs.

The consequence:

The hidden cost of rigid and homogenous job descriptions is huge. They can limit a sense of personalisation, development and growth which are the very things that makes people come and feel alive at work [1].

2) They are out of date as soon as they are written

Job descriptions by their nature reflect a snapshot in time. The consequence of this is that they are out of date as soon as they are written and their value and usefulness diminishes once they have been created.

As Alex Killick, Director at Leading Kind, once put it to me:

“Job Descriptions are like a brand new car, as soon as they drive off the forecourt they lose their value.”

The consequence:

The fact that documents are out of date as soon as they are written means that people don’t regularly refer to them. They derive no value or benefit in doing so. And any relevance a descriptions might have diminishes the longer that someone has been in their role.

3) They are often works of fiction

When they are created job descriptions often describe a wish-list of all the task and responsibilities that we expect (or perhaps hope) someone will complete in their job.

The reality is that job descriptions and role profiles don’t accurate capture what people actually do in their day-to-day work.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who - if they have had a job description produced for them - feels that it wholly captures, or gets to the heart or true DNA, of what they do or why they do it.

The consequence:

The impact of this is that employees don’t feel a sense of connection to their job description - rather than being something to be actively reviewed and discussed, it becomes something that is hidden in case it highlights gaps between the realities of what someone does and what - according to their role profile - they are expected to do.

4) They take time to complete and are not easy to update

One of my personal prejudices about job descriptions is that they are a massive time suck. Most of the job descriptions I’ve worked with are cumbersome documents which are not easy to update or amend.

Many organisations use fixed templates requiring generic text to be found, pasted into word documents and then re-formatted.

Getting to a final document often requires different versions being pinged to various stakeholders across the organisation.

The consequence:

The consequence of this is that people often disengage and detach from the process of completing job descriptions in the first instance, resulting in half-hearted and limp documents they don’t fully inspire or work for anyone.

5) They don’t capture the true value or purpose of a role

Whilst job descriptions regularly spill onto multiple pages they often fail to define or detail a core element of a job.

The purpose, or value of a job - the very reason that the job exists - is often missing or absent.

Most of us want to feel a sense of meaning in the work we do, yet we seldom design job descriptions in a way that fosters this.

We often don’t highlight the impact of the role, the people an employee helps or serves in their job, or an employee’s connection to the wider purpose of the organisation.

The consequence:

The potential impact of this is that people fail to see - or perhaps more importantly feel - how their work helps other people. Not only does a sense of meaning fuel people’s motivation but it can boost wellbeing and buffer stress and even burnout [2].

6) They get lost across organisations

A frequent frustration working in HR was trying to track down up-to-date job descriptions.

The reality is that most people didn’t update their job descriptions, and if they did they weren’t saved or easy to access or track centrally.

The consequence:

A consequence of this is that job descriptions are often documents that are hidden away on a hard drive gaining digital dust only brought out for new appointments, disciplinaries, promotions or the dreaded annual review or appraisal.

7) They don’t provide organisational or people insight

Despite most people - in theory at least - having a job description they are not easily analysed at an organisational level to gain insights into the roles that people do and the skills they need.

If you wanted to collate data about key skill and strengths or reporting lines in a specific function area then you would need to find (good luck) and analyse individual job descriptions.

Consequently, there is not a way to explore and gain insights from the vast amount of data that is included into a job description.

The consequence:

At a time where organisations are striving for data-driven and evidence-based practice it feels criminal waste that the rich data that we include in job descriptions cannot be usefully analysed.

Why technology has not improved the job description

Whilst there have been new technological development in the creation of job descriptions, to date most of the focus has been on making them easier and faster to complete.

Many HR systems offer generic checkboxes of skills, tasks and responsibilities and standardised text to enable person specifications to be quickly created. Whilst potentially saving time for the recruiting manager, innovations of this kind have not been used to improve the way we describe or define the work itself.

With the focus on making the production of job description faster we’ve missed the opportunity to make these documents better.

What’s the alternative to a job description?

If job descriptions aren’t fit for purpose and don’t reflect our modern ways of working what’s the alternative?

Rather than tethering someone to a fixed job description, proponents of more people-centred and self-managed approaches to working encourage us to trust people to take a different approach.

In Teal organisations jobs are defined by people rather than the organisation and in self managed structures such as Holocracy the job or more specifically role are defined by a collective team or circle rather than senior leaders.

The Corporate Rebels encourage us to forget fixed job descriptions and job titles, embrace job crafting and focus on Mastery and Talent instead.

At Tailored Thinking, we’ve been exploring and experimenting with a different approach we are calling the Job Canvas. This is digital tool designed to get to the value, purpose and DNA of a job and can be quickly and easily produced, updated and shared.

It’s time to take a different approach

I know at the end of these blogs I’m supposed to outline a clear call to action. I’m not expecting you to tear up or set fire to the job descriptions in your organisation or to dramatically delete them from your shared drive.

I know many organisations are reliant on job descriptions - particularly in the absence of a viable alternative. I therefore have humbler ambitions.

Next time you see, draft or review a job description ask yourself the following questions:

1) Is this adding value? - to the role holder, their colleagues or the organisation?

2) Does this create space for people to personalise or shape their roles?

3) Is this a realistic representation of the job?

And if the answer to any of these is no, then look to make a small change to make the document better.

If you have ideas to make job descriptions better then let us know. Perhaps you are a job description lover - I’d love to know why. And if there’s a different reason you have a distaste for descriptions please share.

Rob Baker

Rob Baker is the founder and Chief Positive Deviant of Tailored Thinking.

September 2021

Chloe's Tailored Thinking Journey Part 2

As I approach the end of my apprenticeship with the Juice Academy I thought now would be the perfect time to reflect on my last year at Tailored Thinking.

After graduating from Newcastle University in the summer of 2019, I really didn’t picture myself starting a new job in the spare room of my house and meeting my new manager (Rob) over video call. The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for everyone and I feel super grateful to have been in the position I am in.

The blog I wrote 9 months ago Chloe’s Tailored Thinking Journey Part 1 feels like a lifetime ago. I feel I have progressed and grown so much since then.

So what I have been up to?

If you read my previous blog, you’ll know that I finally ventured into the office after 7 months and met Rob in person! You can find out how it went here.

I also created a TikTok highlighting my time during the last 10 months you can watch it here.

What is my schedule like?

Tailored Thinking are a 4-day-week employer. We believe that this is a good way to bring and give energy to things that matter to us outside of work. So, I get Friday, Saturday and Sunday to recharge. Playing football, spending time with friends and family, walking the dogs are all ways I do this.

We’re currently testing out new ways of working. Rob is really flexible with when and where I want to work. Hybrid working; sometimes in the office, sometimes at home, is working well for us at the moment.

So, what do I get up to on a daily basis?

Day in the life of a content creator?

So, my day-to-day role would include:

• Scheduling content

• Creating graphics

• Emails

• Writing copy for blogs, guides, online etc

• Editing videos

• Workshops

• Meeting with clients

• Creating the newsletter

And lots more!

I also recently got an upgrade to Content and Communications. Communication is a strength of mine, so I was really happy with this.

Highs?

• Being fortunate enough to get an awesome job whilst learning a new trade during the pandemic.

• Having an awesome manager (Rob didn’t tell me to write that).

• Enjoying the work that I do and having the freedom to be as creative as I want.

Lows?

I always find it really hard to choose a negative. But I think it takes strength of character to do so.

• I enjoy working in a team, so sometimes during the pandemic I missed that human connection and collaboration.

• Catching covid.

Favourite day working for Tailored Thinking?

My first in person workshop at Gateshead College!

I’m a confident person, but walking in to this I felt nervous. After 5 minutes we all got chatting and I started to settle down and enjoy the experience. I loved talking to the employees about their experiences at work and how they wanted to improve.

I’m really looking forward to attending my next workshop and to continue to make work better for people.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to follow my Tailored Thinking journey.

Chloe.

Chloe Mark is Tailored Thinking’s resident content developer and formally employee number 2 of the business.

The history of the job description.

In the world of work most of us will have had to read, review or develop a job description or specification. They are ubiquitous across modern workplaces. And whilst they may differ slightly in style, most job descriptions follow a similar format and content. But where did this document come from?

This article will explore the early history and blueprints for modern-day job descriptions and examine why they haven’t changed or developed significantly in the last century despite the significant evolution in how we do our work.

What is a job description?

A Job Description or ‘JD’ is a written narrative that describes the general tasks, or other related duties, and responsibilities of a role at work.  A Job Description may include relationships with other people in the organisation: supervisory level, managerial requirements, and relationships with other colleagues. It may also include information about the grade or level of the role, working conditions, physical demands, health and safety requirements and other competencies for the job role, which in this regard, it is sometimes known as the ‘Role Description’.

Where do Job Descriptions Come from?

The very first job descriptions can be traced back over a 100 years. Created to bring order and rigour to organisational structures, a job description is a written narrative that describes the general tasks and responsibilities of a role at work.

The story of the humble job description has its roots in ‘Scientific Management’ or more commonly known as Taylorism and the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1911). Although scientific management as a distinct theory or school of thought has arguably been in decline since the 1930s, many of its themes have been indelibly inked into our thinking and practice within workplaces today.

It all started with Job Analysis

Unlike today, the earliest job descriptions were seldom developed independently or in isolation. They were originally produced as the end result of a process called job analysis.

Job analysis was a formal endeavour to identify the content of a job in terms of the activities it involves in addition to the attributes or requirements necessary to perform those activities. It considered the areas of knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAO) needed to perform the job.

The formal document capturing these details could be thought of as the first formal job descriptions. When they were first developed job descriptions were sometimes accompanied by a separate document (the personnel specification) which detailed the skills, abilities and knowledge of the job.

Job analysis can be traced to two of the founders of industrial-organisational (I-O) Psychology, Frederick Winslow Taylor and Lillian Moller Gilbreth in the early 20th century.

Taylor established standard times for specific jobs and tasks through time studies.

Through motion studies the Gilbreth’s identified techniques and technical definitions for describing the mechanical and physical elements of a job and its individual elements.

Time and Motion Study in action

The two techniques of time and motion became integrated and refined into a widely accepted and popular method of time and motion studies, applicable to the improvement and upgrading of work systems.

Time and motion studies led to the creation of the role of the Time and Motion Officer (the predecessor of a modern-day Personnel Officer).

One of the first I-0 psychologists to introduce job analysis was Morris Viteles (1922) where he used job analysis to select employees for a trolley company car. Viteles’ techniques could then be applied to any other area of employment using the same process.

Industrial Psychology - a seminal text by Morris Viteles

Evolutions of job analysis

Since Viteles’ first efforts work designers and theorists have developed many different systems approaches to accomplish job analysis.  Many forms of systems are no longer in use, but those that still exist have become increasingly detailed over the decades with a greater concentration on tasks and less concentration on human attributes. 

Moving beyond traditional job analysis

Formal job analysis and time and motion studies have now fallen out of favour in many organisations.

Part of the reason for this is that job analysis techniques makes the implicit assumption that core elements of jobs are fixed, static and repetitive.

The reality of many modern jobs is that they are made up of many elements, each of which are subject to change and evolution. Capturing all these components in a time and motion study is complicated and time consuming. And ultimately the data collected is quickly out of date as the job evolves and changes.

Whilst the limitations of job analysis to meaningfully capture modern working practices has led to a reduction in its use, this has not stopped organisations continuing to rely on job descriptions to define and specify the work people do in their jobs.

Whilst the job description used to be the end-product of a formalised and rigorous process, it is now relied upon and used as a product itself.

Rather than rely on formal processes to evaluate and assess jobs, many organisations now rely on line managers - with occasional input from HR professionals - to use their discretion to create job descriptions with the help of existing (often very detailed and specific) templates and pro-forma.

Without a viable alternative to a job description, organisations rely on this document for core processes including; recruitment, performance management, performance conversations and internal promotion cases.

Current Trends in Job Description Design

There has been a growing trend in recent years to broaden the responsibilities that people have in organisations and to encourage employees to have more autonomy and to look - and work - beyond what is simply stated on their job descriptions.

In part, this a response to an increased need for organisations to be more responsive and flexible. And this is something that became particularly pertinent during the Covid-19 pandemic where employees were challenged with doing their work in different ways - and for homeworkers particularly - often from different locations.

As HR professionals, we understand the need to continue to capture the core elements of peoples jobs. This is important for both legal (such as ensuring fair and equal pay) and performance (such as giving employees and their colleagues clarity on the focus of their work) reasons. But the reality is that many - arguably most - jobs aren’t static but are constantly evolving and could change daily. 

In this regard, there is a growing need to be more responsive to what employees do at an ‘individual’ level. Also, for the process of designing and defining jobs, and what we do to become more people centred rather than being fully defined by outdated management and HR practices.

What’s next? A personal job analysis.

At Tailored Thinking we’re exploring new ways of analysing our jobs and doing job descriptions.

We’ve created a multi-dimensional, adaptable and personalised job canvas. This is something that enables team leaders to support people to undertake their own personal job analysis - and get to the essence and details of the why and what of their work.

Trialled and tested by multiple organisations across various sectors, the job canvas is changing the way we work for the better by enabling employees to quickly, easily and digitally capture and define their job. And have better - coaching based - conversations with their line managers about the work they do.

Explore it yourself on our job canvas home page.

Thank you to Dean Horsman who kindly helped write and shape this blog bringing his knowledge and expertise alongside Rob Baker.

Dean is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University.

Rob is the Founder and Chief Positive Deviant of Tailored Thinking.

How to stimulate job crafting - an exercise for individuals and teams.

An exercise to stimulate job crafting.

Numerous people want to improve their work. A challenge for many is knowing where to start. This blog shares a simple exercise starting point. It is focused on encouraging you to identify the elements of your job that you want to change and improve.

We created this small, practical exercise to demonstrate how you can make small changes that can have a big impact.

Stage 1 - Identifying what you want to change.

We encourage people to consider 5 questions around 5 themes to identify opportunities and areas for change, personalisation and improvement (displayed on the image above).

• What do you want to grow / promote?

• What do you want to takeaway / reduce?

• What can you change / improve?

• What do you want to maintain / persist and keep doing?

• What do you want to pause / stop?

Stage 2 - Identifying the how.

Having identified the areas you want to change, the next step in the activity is to identify how you might do this.

To make the change sustainable and manageable we recommend you make one small change at a time. Approach any changes with curiosity and a mindset of experimentation.

The activity can be found here.

Why personalising work matters

Personalising your work around your personal strengths and preferences is called job crafting.

You can job craft by making small changes to your job to adapt and align your role with you as an individual.

Job crafting is a science backed concept. It helps you to thrive in your work, boosting engagement, wellbeing and overall happiness.

The idea is around boosting, growing and promoting the areas of your work that you enjoy and that give you energy.

For example, in Rob’s TED talk (5.45 - 6.48) he shared the example of a marketing director called Joanne. Having done this exercise, she identified that she wanted to grow and find more opportunities to informally connect with her colleagues. She did this (the How) by informally finding opportunities to connect with different members of her team each day.

Taking action

Three things you can do are:

• click this link to access the exercise

• identify what you want to change

• set a specific goal which captures the change you are going to make

Stay in touch

We’d love to hear about your experiences with this exercise so please connect with us and let us know.

If you found this exercise of value then you may also enjoy our ‘Love and Loathe’ exercise.

Job Crafting on Purpose.

A sense of purpose is a defining human need for us all. Yet, despite this universal personal requirement, the ‘why’ of work and the power of purpose is often overlooked when it comes to our jobs.

As lockdown eases and the way we work is transitioning, there has never been a better, or arguably more important, time to focus attention and discussions about the value and purpose of what we do.

How can organisations and HR leaders revive or recalibrate a sense of purpose and amplify engagement and performance along the way?

One evidence-based and practical way to do this is by purpose crafting. Purpose, or cognitive, crafting is a type of job crafting that involves shaping and reframing how we think about the value and purpose of our work.

The 4 key types of purpose crafting.

There are four key types of purpose crafting; broadening, narrowing, finding; and personalising purpose. 

Broadening

We can connect to the wider purpose of our work by looking at the bigger picture in terms of who benefits from the work that we’re doing.

An example of broadening is a customer service operator in a bank reframing their daily tasks from dealing with individual issues, to providing a key service to customers to support their financial welfare.

Narrowing

We can create a sense of purpose by focusing in on and recognising specific elements of our work which we find particularly meaningful and enjoyable.

Rather than broadening their focus, other employees may find value in focusing in on a specific aspect of their work they find particularly meaningful and enjoyable (narrowing purpose) – such as an HR business partner creating opportunities to contribute to wider business strategy.

Finding

We can connect to the purpose of our work by intentionally searching and creating opportunities to understand the impact of the work that we’re doing.

A project manager’s job crafting experiment to check in with projects they had delivered a year ago is an example of someone finding the purpose of their work. These check-ins allow them to not only hear stories about the benefits (and possible failings) of their work, but also give them other insights that will shape how they lead future projects.

Personalising

People can purpose craft by personalising elements of the work they do with the passions and interests that are important to them, which may traditionally only be displayed and showcased outside of work.

People can also ignite a sense of purpose by finding ways to connect their work with values, activities or beliefs that are meaningful and important to them on a personal rather than strictly professional basis. For example, getting involved in, or leading, sustainability or mental health initiatives or starting a weekly running group may allow people to bring outside interests into the organisation.

Bringing purpose crafting to life

Rather than giving or telling people what purpose is, leaders and HR should be concerned with creating opportunities for people to find and shape it for themselves. Here are three ways we’ve seen organisations help people find and join their personal purpose dots:

• Encourage people to connect with, and directly hear from, the benefactors of their work – through focus groups, testimonials, or simple feedback.

• Be explicit about discussing and defining the purpose and value of work – by defining purpose and value in job descriptions and in one-to-one discussions.

• Actively invite people to bring their passions to work – by introducing employee-led skill share workshops or encouraging people to involve.

Other case studies and examples of how organisations have brought job crafting to life can be found here.

We hope that we have inspired you to make a small change to your job that will make your work more tailored to you.

By writing this blog we (Tailored Thinking) are bringing our purpose to life by inspiring and enabling people to make positive changes to their work.

To learn more on the ‘why’ of work and connecting with the meaning and purpose then you can read more here.

Also, you can click here to learn more about job crafting.

3 ways to stop sleep working.

Ever find yourself mindlessly working your way through tasks and activities without engaging and thinking about them? If so you might be sleep working…

5 signs to spot sleep working:

• Not being excited by your work

• Feelings of dread

• No curiosity/creativity in your work

• Feeling you’re doing the same thing every day

• Unengaged

Without realising it, many of us spend much of our working day on auto pilot, not engaged in what we are doing, or why we are doing it.

Many of us will open our laptops or fire up our desktops and begin to scan through emails and before we know it’s lunch time and we have no record of half of the day.

We often give very little thought to how or what we want to achieve on a daily basis and just drift through our tasks.

Sleep working gives us less control over our day and makes us feel like someone else is in charge. Research uncovered that we spend over 84,000 hours at work during our lifetime [1]. That is a 1/3 of our waking hours during adulthood… unengaged and robotic almost.

Waking up your work

We wanted to share with you some tips to stop sleep working and start living! Work doesn’t have to be boring, it can be fun, energising and uplifting, we just need the right mindset and tips to do it.

1. Deliberately experiment

Experiment with elements of your job.

Try something different.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that shaking up the way we work can have positive outcomes. Change and adapt the methods that aren’t working for you and that are draining your energy. For example, if you dread the idea of sorting through emails at the end of the day, can you switch this task to first thing in the morning?

Can you grow or promote the elements you love doing and try and reduce or improve the elements that you don’t enjoy doing as much? We have a mapping exercise which enables you to reflect on, and see the interplay between your tasks and your energy load. The exercise is called love and loathe.

Think back to a time you felt energised by your work?

What were you doing?

Who were you working with?

What time of day was it?

Take into consideration all of these factors and try to adjust your working style to align with your individual needs.

2. Think about the why of work

We spend a lot of time doing work, without actually thinking about why we do it. Arguably, the why of work is the most important element yet it’s the least talked about. But why is the why missing from our current discussions at work?

Research has found that 8/10 people were willing to earn less money to do more meaningful work [2]. Meaning in our work gives us value, fulfilment and purpose. So it’s important to connect and engage with this.

Some questions to consider to engage with the purpose and value of the work we do are:

• Why does my job exist?

• Who benefits from the work I do?

• How can I see and hear about the impact of the work I do?

You can read more about connecting to the meaning and purpose of your work here.

3. Use your strengths / find a way to tap into your passions at work.

A scientifically proven way to use your strengths at work is job crafting. People who used strengths at work are 6x more likely to be engaged at work [3]. Job crafting is an approach that enables individuals and teams to actively shape and tailor their work around their passions, strengths and interests.

It enables people to personalise their work in order to boost engagement and to make people feel happier in the work that they do.

In order to create a more personalised approach to our work, individuals need to be more deliberate in the way they approach and carry out their tasks and responsibilities. Hence the importance of the the 3 tips we have provided you with in this blog.

To explore more around personalisation at work watch this epic ted talk.

Also, you can find out more about using your strengths at work and job crafting here.

Thanks for reading, we hoped you enjoyed this blog as much as we liked writing it.

Any questions, queries or just fancy a chat then please get in touch.

References

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/british-people-work-days-lifetime-overtime-quit-job-survey-study-a8556146.html

[2] https://hbr.org/2018/11/9-out-of-10-people-are-willing-to-earn-less-money-to-do-more-meaningful-work

[3] Rigoni, B and Asplund, G (2016) Developing employees’ strengths boosts sales, profit and engagement, Harvard Business Review, 1 September, available at: https://hbr.org/2016/09/developing-employees-strengths-boosts-sales-profit-and-engagement (archived at https://perma.cc/P284-TEXB)

What can Netflix and IKEA teach us about personalisation at work?

We live in a personalised world.

We can choose individualised playlists and podcasts instead of generic radio stations. We can choose where and when to source our news and and how to watch our favourite TV shows.

Beyond media, we can personalise the trainers we wear and the cars we drive in. Take Nike ID for example, enabling us to personalise the colour and style of our trainers, adding to the value of the shoe. Almost anything and everything is tailored just for us.

And then we have the world of work.

In this article, learning from TV streaming and DIY giants, we’ll explain why personalisation matters, how it can spark joy and how this is relevant to the world of work.

The Netflix Effect.

The Netflix effect - the power of personalisation on Netflix.

Netflix is the largest streaming service in the world.

Netflix now has around 208 million subscribers worldwide with an extra 16 million joining throughout the summer of the pandemic 2020 [1].

But why is it so popular?

It could be argued that Netflix’s personalised experience is a key factor.

Netflix stated that “Personalisation is one of the pillars of Netflix because it allows each member to have a different view of our content that adapts to their interests and can help expand their interest over time” [2].

It enables users to have their own profile, profile photo and nickname, creating a feeling of luxury and individuality rather than sharing with other users.

Netflix has homepage personalisation too. “Each experience is personalized across many dimensions: the suggested videos and their ranking, the way videos are organised into rows and pages, and even the artwork displayed” [2].

Page personalisation takes Netflix to the next level as it creates an experience for users. Each tailored homepage offers individuals tv shows and movies that comply with users taste and will fit the members mood and context in hope to bring out unexpected joy.

Chloe’s personalised Netflix homepage (don’t judge).

So rather than just searching for shows Netflix has created a personalised experience for their users, where they can form attachments and resonance with their accounts. Who knew picking a movie could be so fun?

IKEA.

The IKEA effect - Why we value the things we build.

Researchers, Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely were curious about whether building an item influenced peoples’ perceptions of its value.

To test this they ran a number of different ingenious investigations.

In a key study they randomly assigned people as either ‘inspectors’ or ‘builders’. The builders were asked to create a plain cardboard stationary box from IKEA using standard instructions [3]. Inspectors were given a ready-made box and had the opportunity to examine it.

At the end of the study, participants would have been holding identical boxes. The only difference being that for half the group, they would have played a part in putting the box together.

Before the study finished participants were asked to place a bid on the box. They were also asked to rate how much they liked the box.

Who do you think valued it more? The builders or the inspectors?

The researchers found builders bid significantly more than inspectors and their ratings of how much they liked the box were higher too.

The research team coined the term the “Ikea effect” to refer to the phenomenon of people placing additional value on items that they have played a part in constructing compared with ready-built goods and services.

You may resonate with this based on attachments you have formed with items that you have built or created yourself.

Or perhaps someone else has this attachment that you can’t quite see - a partner or family member might not bear to part with an item of furniture or clothing that you’ve been trying to throw out for years.

KEY PRINCIPLES.

We suggest that leaders consider 3 things principles when it comes to personalisation in the workplace:

1. People (may) like what you give them.

2. If you want people to value something, let them build it.

3. If you want people to love something then let them create and shape it.

It’s as simple as that. 

Often, with the best of intentions, organisationally, we build and create solutions for other people without allowing them to create and craft them for themselves.

We present people with decisions that have been made on behalf of them, or we place people in fully formed jobs which provide little or no opportunity for people to shape and personalise them.

So before you “gift” a decision to someone in your team, perhaps take a leaf from Netflix or Ikea and consider whether there are ways that they can help build or personalise the solution for themselves.

If you’re want to find out more about personalisation then click here.

Personalisation at work is a great book if you’re curious about how you can personalise your own work.

References

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/21/netflix-adds-whopping-16-million-subscribers-worldwide-coronavirus-keeps-people-home/

[2] https://research.netflix.com/business-area/personalization-and-search

[3] Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. (2012). The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love. Journal of consumer psychology, 22(3), 453-460..