Redundant jobs suck. And often times they are VERY necessary. A hello to anyone powerwashing a trailer, barn, or farrowing room! Process or vaccinate pigs! Set up a barn or farrowing room! Boring…. maybe not your first time, but how about you 100th. However, this is all very important work in making sure pigs stay healthy. So… how can we help our team get the boring work done…. Daniel Pink offers three different thoughts.
- Offer a WHY
- Just like Simon Sinek talks about in his book Start with Why. Your business can be about something that motivates people and gets people to find a reason for the work. What is your reason for raising pigs? We are raising pigs to feed the world! Or even more personal, we are raising pigs to feed your family and neighbors! We are doing the right thing! We are improving the life and health of the animals. Whatever it is, what makes you do your job, express that reason with others.
- Acknowledge the task is boring
- Listen. Everyone knows that powerwashing is boring. Everyone knows that processing piglets can be redundant. Everyone knows that working the weekends is not great. Acknowledge that but again explain the big picture above or explain why the task is so important.
- Allow people to complete the task their own way
- Just like we talked about in the previous post about autonomy. What latitude can you give them on when or how the job gets done? Some jobs have to be done according to the SOP for safety and timeliness concerns, but what options do we have? More information on that in the previous post.
Redundant jobs suck. How can we make them better? Try some of these things to help your team get through them!
Pigs and People 