To Ponder: It’s Time To Fight The Overwhelm of Monotony

Thinking back to just a month ago, one of the most common themes across my clients was one of burnout. In a year of never-ending COVID restrictions – the line that divided work, home and leisure had all but disappeared. However, it wasn’t just the hybrid or WFH arrangements that created this burnout (after all, many organisations have been successfully WFH for years) – but it was the lack of uniqueness and variety. Not only were we working from the same place as we were eating and sleeping – but we were forced to socialise and adventure there too.

It was burnout from monotony.

The worry, of course, is that your staff may come back semi-refreshed after the end of year break – straight back into that same monotony this year. It’ll take 2-3 days max for those neural highways to get straight back into that monotonous groove, especially as Omicron continues to keep health authorities and communities on their toes.

So what can we do?

Well, in my view – life is short. It’s a new year. You’re filled with new energy.

So it’s time to be bold. You can’t be all things to all people – but you can provide variety. Here’s a few ideas:

🔬Allocate personal R&D time (think 3M or Google)

🎤Book fresh new speakers, authors and experts to inform and advise your teams
(I can help here)

✍️Hire a digital scribe for your weekly meeting (I’ve got a couple I can recommend)

↪️Inject new blood and team dynamics through staff rotations

✔️Send people on courses

📗Start a weekly book club

🎙️Create a team internal podcast, interviewing key people across your organisation

🏃Start a team at-home physical challenge

🏖️Run an innovation sandbox

The point here is to break that monotony and provide new input. We all need it, and most of us are missing it.

So, what will you do this month to prevent that 2021 monotony from sneaking back in?