There’s a major road overhaul happening in my neighbourhood, meaning I spend a good few minutes in my car every morning, sitting and waiting for the red lollipop to flip over to green. This delay gives me plenty of time to observe and think. I idly watch the excavator scraping the road, the little bobcat zooming in and out and the big lorries slowly backing up to take away excess topsoil. It’s kind of like watching a gruntier version of ballet, seeing this choreography of earthworks in motion. And today it hit me what a great lesson the stop/go worker has to share with business.
I’m always telling my business coaching clients that they need to work on their workplace engagement. Engaged employees are twice as productive and profitable as dis-engaged employees. Engaged employees pick up the ball and run with it, they use initiative, they go the extra mile. They want to improve the business in whatever form they can and they’re always thinking of new ways to do that.
I could talk for days about improving workplace engagement and the tried and true strategies I have to do this, but today I want to just concentrate on one aspect of it, illustrated by the stop/go worker.
Employees feel valued in a business if they know what they are doing makes a difference. Each of your team members, no matter how trivial or far-removed their role is, need to know that they are playing a part in the success of your business.
It can be very disheartening to be the guy packing boxes or the person in charge of data entry. There’s no real glamour in those jobs, especially compared to the front-line staff member who perhaps brings on new business or signs up big deals.
But you need to make it clear to every single one of your employees how their role fits into your overall business. Let them understand how what they are doing impacts on the next cog in the wheel. How it helps other areas of the business. How it moves things forward in the process.
Let them know that it’s not all about the big wheel, but about the little cogs that drive that wheel. Let them know they are important and what they are doing matters. That their cog is helping the big wheel of business spin.
Like the stop/go worker.
At first glance, it might seem like the stop/go worker has got the short end of the stick. In the heat of the day or the thick of a rain shower, they have to be out there, holding up that sign. They’re on the periphery of the job, not contributing to the grunt work. They’re often the junior of the job and spend hours at a time standing there, alone, but for their comms on the walkie talkie with their other stop/go friend at the other end.
But think about it: without the stop/go worker the job wouldn’t happen. Without them there to signal when cars can and can’t proceed, traffic would be constantly snarled up. Nose to tails would happen, drivers would experience road rage – it would be chaos.
Without the help of the stop/go worker in choreographing the movements of the site, those big lorries wouldn’t be able to get in when they needed to. The small bulldozer wouldn’t be safe to motor in and out. Residents trying to leave their properties wouldn’t have a show at being let in by passing motorists.
The stop/go worker is a small cog in the overall roadworks picture. But without them, the site would be far less efficient and safe. In fact, without that worker and his green and red lollipop, the project would never get completed.
Always make it clear to your employees what part their role plays in the big picture. It will go a long way in making them feel valuable and part of the team. All of which leads to more engaged employees and a more productive and profitable workplace.
If you need help with communicating this to your team or for creating a more engaged workplace, get in touch for some business coaching and business consulting. zac@businesschanging.com
PS The best stop/go worker I’ve come across was certainly engaged in his job. Every movement he made was a “robot” dance move – it was entertaining and made waiting for our turn fun, rather than frustrating! It probably also helped make time fly for the worker.
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