The Relationship Between Sleep and Productivity

Our relationship to tiredness is paradoxical, a source of shame, indicating our inability to cope; but also a badge of honour, signifying the importance of our work. For some its become an ‘affordable’ status symbol. In reality, tiredness leads to irritability, either bad decision-making or worse, procrastination and low productivity, poor concentration and reduced creativity. Fatigue also reduces our immunity, leading very quickly to ill health.

The dilemma of sleep today

In our 24/7 world, time spent sleeping is in decline, so it’s little wonder that some of us find it hard to wake up in the morning.  It’s reported that we sleep at least one hour less each night than we did a half century ago.

An American study found that during a two-week period, 40% of workers reported fatigue. Of those, 65% reported health-related lost productive time. According to the researchers, workers with fatigue cost US employers $136.4 billion annually in health-related lost productive time.

Two-thirds of adults report frequent sleep problems; however, only one in eight say those problems have been diagnosed.  The ‘sleep deprived’ are also more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, psychiatric and gastrointestinal disease, and impaired immunity.

Sleep quality and quantity matter

So it’s not just the quantity of our sleep that matters but also the quality; snoring loudly, daytime dozing, trouble falling asleep or waking unrefreshed are just a few of the signs that a person could be ‘sleep deprived’

“Sleep is sort of like food,” says Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School.  He adds, there’s one important difference: “You can be quite starved and still alive. But many of us live on the edge of sleep starvation and just accept it.”…

The History of Team Buildin

The theories behind team building could be much older than originally thought.  In fact, Plato may have been the first ever team building expert!

Is team building over 2000 years old?

For some years we’ve been saying “teams that play together, work together” and it seems that although team building is thought to be a comparatively new addition to business training Plato, one of the world’s most influential philosophers, had a similar view over 2000 years ago; “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” Plato

So we’d encourage you to make time to play with your colleagues this week, take a ball to the park, eat ice cream in the afternoon or play darts at lunchtime – whatever you think would be fun.  We spend most of our waking lives with our colleagues so let’s enjoy it.

The relationship between competiton and productivity

We all try harder when there’s a prize at stake, no matter how small.  The desire to win is in all of us to a greater or lesser extent, and even those who wouldn’t be described as ‘competitive’ still enjoy playing. Here, we look at the potential benefits of adding a bit of friendly competition within your team.

How can competition improve productivity?

By adding an element of productivity, like giving a prize to the person who has performed the best on a certain task, or praising people who have achieved a particular outcome, you might be helping create a motivated workforce. Having an element of competition can:

• Boost motivation
• Provide clear milestones
• Encourage communication between peers to reach a certain goal
• Break down set barriers in an organisation
• Prompt creativity

Example 1: Sales

In business, sales teams have included competitive measurement and reward to drive productivity for generations with such great effect that very few sales roles exist that don’t have some form of prize built into the remuneration package.  So it’s strange that other departments haven’t created their own ways to combine play with productive working….

Volunteering: team building from a different angle

We often call volunteers in a team ‘volunteam’. We know it isn’t a real word, but the principle of it is an interesting one, and can often be a good alternative way of looking at team building.

What is the value in volunteering in a group?

Volunteering in a team can often leave you with higher energy levels, whether you are volunteering with your colleagues or some people outside of work. When you volunteer, you aren’t getting paid; you’re giving back to the community and are helping to achieve something good.

Working towards this end goal with other individuals who want the same outcome can make you feel part of something bigger, which is a positive feeling. Working in a team also means you have to communicate to others about what role each person has, and how they contribute.

What are the benefits of corporate volunteering?

For corporate teams, volunteering as a team on a project outside of work can help bring the team together and improve communication skills. It can help increase motivation and develop a cohesive team.

In addition, you are having a positive social and environmental impact, so you are contributing to these values and targets.

What can we learn from Moroccan builders?

A while ago, we visited a relief project in Morocco that was building new homes for widows and the very poor, following the earthquake in 2004.  Incredibly, over 5 years later, 12,000 homes had been destroyed, and an enormous number of people were still trying to survive without a home in the hills around Al Hoceima….

A guide to Belbin team roles

Fresh Tracks often uses ‘Belbin Team Roles’ to help develop teams and allow them to learn about one another’s strengths and weaknesses. But what are they and what do they do? Keep reading as we delve deeper.

What is a Belbin team role?

A Belbin team role, as defined by Dr Meredith Belbin, is: “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.”

What Belbin team roles are there?

There are nine different Belbin team roles that you will be scored against. These are

1. Resource Investigator – likes researching and finding ideas to share with the team
2. Teamworker – is a key team player and identifies ways to support the team
3. Co-ordinator – is able to play on the team’s strengths and delegate work if necessary
4. Plant – is very creative and is one of the ‘ideas’ people in the team
5. Monitor Evaluator – someone who is quite logical and can weigh up different sides and views
6. Specialist – has more detailed knowledge about specific areas that can be valuable to the team
7. Shaper – can maintain momentum and drive change within a team
8. Implementer – likes to work efficiently and create the necessary plan of action
9. Completer Finisher – gets satisfaction out of completing and finishing tasks to a high quality

Check out the Belbin website for more information about the strengths and weaknesses of each role.

How do you find out your Belbin team role?

When we run team development days and events, we ususally request that teams fill out a Belbin test on the Belbin website, and then once this data has been collected, each person will be sent a report. It is often useful to print this out so you can easily turn between pages and discuss it with your team.

At our team days, we usually take the team through the report, explaining what it is, what each role is, and how you can start to make use of these. You can split off into different teams depending on who you work more closely with, to see how you can play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

What are the benefits of Belbin roles?

If you understand the different roles within the team, you know who likes doing what kind of work. For example, if someone scores higher in Plant, but doesn’t like actioning their ideas, another person in the team who is an implementer and a co-ordinator will help make that idea happen. Knowing this allows you to work most efficiently in a team.

Ten reasons why meetings fail

Meetings can take up a large portion of anyone’s working day, and for many of us, demands on time in the office are already high. So in an ideal world, every meeting should count, with specific objectives and results making the time invested worthwhile.

All too often though, meetings – even during and afterwards – are perceived as a waste of time by those invited. This can usually be attributed to a lack of understanding about what the meeting was for. To avoid the sense that it was all worthless, here is a list of ten reasons why meetings can fail for you to use as a checklist when planning your next meeting:

1.      No agenda = no purpose

Ensure you are creating an agenda for each of your meetings. This will help ensure that you are discussing the points you need and want to.

2.      No advance communication = surprising behaviours/responses

If you have created an agenda before the meeting, share this with the team members who are on the meeting invite. This will allow the other team to prepare for the meeting and collect all the information needed. It helps the meeting be smoother and more productive.

3.      Not encouraging participation = no interaction

You want team members to be engaged in the meeting and contribute the ideas they have to make the most out of the meeting. Try to prompt other people to share their ideas and take part by asking them questions.

4.      No time management = cost to organisation – time is money

If you aren’t prepared for a meeting and don’t have a clear agenda, it may take more time than is needed, which could otherwise be spent on more proactive tasks.

5.      Allowing conflict to get out of control = chaos

In a meeting, it is important to have a relatively clear structure and spot conflicts early in a meeting and ahead of a meeting. Try to bring people together and work as one team.

6.      Not reaching consensus = waste of time and company resources

If the aim of the meeting was to discuss a specific point and come to a conclusion or consensus, try to steer the conversation so each person shares their views and compromis if necessary.

7.      Allowing sub meetings = no focus or direction

If you have a meeting and decide sub-meetings are needed, this may slow down progress. If those conversations could be had in that initial meeting, try to keep them there to maintain focus.

8.      Not controlling difficult behaviour = everyone becoming difficult

This is something you should try to observe and be mindful of in a meeting. You want to ensure nobody becomes too difficult and set on one idea, rather than listening to other people, because this may cause conflicts.

9.      Not summarising actions = misunderstanding of next steps

After a meeting, it can often be useful to send a summary email or message afterwards, setting out clear next steps, assigning them to the relevant team or person if necessary. This will ensure everybody is on the same page and understands their role.

10.  Not motivational = attendees leave feeling flat and despondent

Try to stay positive during the meeting. If the meeting ends on a bad note, this may affect productivity, so it is important to try to end on a positive note and leave team members feeling energised.

This list is based on an article written by Nuggets of Learning and Development.

Does “team building” work?

This is a common question people ask, and some are sceptical of the positive impacts of team building days and events. The impacts of a team day will depend very much on what the activity is, and it is important to remember that team building isn’t just about getting the team together.

Examples of bad team building scenarios

Paintballing

For example, sales executive Paul Garvey claimed that the most insightful team-building exercise he ever participated in involved paintball, which in no way helped to resolve the relationship issues back at the office. Speaking of his former company, he said that colleagues would poach each other’s deals while their manager played favourites. Someone decided a paintball exercise would help. It didn’t, and merely reinforced the divisions and favouritism already present.

Role playing

Another instance of completely inappropriate team building involved the team from a contractor on an Apollo space project. They were asked by their HR department to participate in a role-playing exercise where they had to return safely from the North Pole. Their day-to-day job involved helping astronauts return safely from space. What additional insights into teamwork did HR think this role play could teach them?…

Can teamwork save lives?

When individuals know how to work together as a team, it makes all the difference in the world. Here, we take a closer look at an example where teamwork saved lives.

Example: US Airways Flight 1549

US Airways Flight 1549 was a scheduled commercial passenger flight from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina, that, on January 15, 2009, ditched in the Hudson River adjacent to Manhattan six minutes after departing from LaGuardia Airport.

While on its initial climb out, the Airbus A320 struck a flock of Canada Geese which resulted in an immediate almost complete loss of thrust from both engines. When the aircrew realised that the plane would be unable to safely reach any airport from its location just northeast of the George Washington Bridge, they turned it southbound and glided over the river, then ditched the airplane virtually intact near the USS Intrepid Museum in midtown Manhattan. After the 155 occupants safely evacuated the partially submerged and sinking plane they were all rescued by nearby watercraft.

The Outcome of the flight crew working together

Recently after a thorough review of the incident the National Transportation Safety Board official adamantly explained how the crew and passengers survived a near catastrophe in the incredible forced water landing on the Hudson River. “The crew worked as a team, not as individuals—and that saved the lives of all 155 people aboard”.

The message was clear: when individuals know how to work together as a team, it makes all the difference in the world.

The Power of Place

Yesterday, I co-facilitated a leaders’ conference in a woodland.  

Not a hotel with a few trees around it, this was an actual woodland, with trees, leaves, knobbly roots and floral scents.

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Five tips for giving better feedback

Employee engagement is undoubtedly one of the key management phrases of the moment, with home working becoming more frequent it is important that employees are feeling engaged and motivated during their working hours.

Recent research has found that 65% of employees want more feedback from their employers, the research also found that 4 out of 10 employees that receive no feedback are actively disengaged from their work. Disengaged employees can cause a whole host of problems for employers including performance based and also financial. So how can you ensure that you are effectively providing feedback?

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