We all enjoy getting those Friday funny emails to break up the end of the working week, although sometimes they can be total garbage! Today I received one that was wonderfully thought provoking and inspiring and backs up a long established work / life balance practice that I have long been an advocate of. The link is below... but the story it reminded me of goes something a little like this:
Many years ago as a Team Leader and Foreman on building and construction sites, working on a particularly large and difficult house slab revealed an interesting reality... people are much more productive when they are having fun. "What absolute rubbish!" scream the old school managers of yesteryear! More emotional intelligent leaders of today will be thinking "Ok, tell me more... I'm listening"
Let me explain what occurred. In building a house slab, there is nothing more critical than setting the foundations correctly. One component of this is building a large base of compacted sand that is intersected by beams throughout and deeper foundation trenches around the perimeter. In this particular slab we had a huge amount of sand to shift, but we couldn't do it with the usual assistance of excavation machinery. This meant that all of the sand had to be moved by wheelbarrow and shovel. I can't remember the exact figures but it was approximately 30 cubic metres of sand... a hell of a lot to do by hand over a very large slab!!
On the first day, the negative attitude of the difficult, laborious and tedious task ahead permeated the crew. They worked slowly, moaning the entire time. We were falling behind schedule with every minute passing. I started to push them, growl at them in the same way I had been taught by my former team leaders. A couple of the guys didn't take kindly to being pushed and if I had gone harder on them I have a strong suspicion I would have ended up with a shovel in my head. We struggled to get about 10-12 cubic metres moved after a very long day. We were all exhausted and frustrated, bickering with each other as we packed the truck and departed for home
The next day I spoke to the team as we got to site and said "Alright, we had a tough one yesterday and no one particularly enjoyed it... bad news is, we've still got plenty more to go... any suggestions?". "Yeah" said one of the guys, "Stop hassling us so much".... I was about to tell him a few home truths about his own work ethic and the pressures the boss was putting on me to get the job done. I paused and breathed before responding. "Ok... how about this... you two take the right side of the slab, we'll take the left. First crew to get eight sand beds done gets an extra 15 minutes for morning tea and I'll shout a drink or pie or something."
One of the guys was about to object that there was no way to get that much done before morning tea when the other ran and grabbed a wheelbarrow and started filling it up with sand to get moving... it set the scene. Suddenly there was urgency in everything they did. There was wheelbarrow races, attempts at sabotage, heckling, etc... but most of all, a lot of laughter and a lot of work getting done!! The end result was the remaining 18-20 metres was completed so quickly we all got to head home early. We had moved twice as much sand in half the time and left the site laughing and joking with energy left to spare.
That experience has stayed with me over the years and when I'm faced with a tough working day / week or an insurmountable task... I remember it. I also remember it when I saw the short video below.
This is a great initiative of Volkswagen. It's purely about making the world a better place, proving that the slightest thing can totally change peoples perception... but most of all, that a little bit of fun goes a long way to very easily getting people to do things they wouldn't normally consider... simply put, a little fun makes life so much simpler!
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