Our Staff will "Work Around" our Actions or our Inactions as Leaders

I remember working with a group of employees on the manufacturing floor (many years ago) to improve efficiency through a better layout and organization of the workspace. I made a very interesting observation that illustrates the significance of our responsibility to our staff and organizations as leaders.

I spent a week "observing" a small group of production employees doing assembly and testing of one of our products. Some "operations" were involved in the assembly and test, all located in a small area we had defined as a "work cell." Anyway, during the week, I observed all the employees walking around this small table that was centrally located in the work cell. Can you picture it? I never saw anyone use the table for anything, though. It was just there. In fact, it was in the way, causing everyone to have to walk around it. I even witnessed 1 or 2 of them accidentally bump into the table.

At the end of the week, I got all of the employees together to discuss my observations. During the meeting, I asked, "Can anyone tell me why that table is there?" They all looked at each other and me and finally concluded that nobody knew. "It's just always been there," they said. I told them what I had observed, and they all agreed it was in the way. I then said, "I have an idea ... let's move it out of the way." They all agreed, and we made it so.

What's the moral of the story? As a leader, I've seen it over and over. The people "in our charge" will work around any obstacle we put in their path to get the job done. No matter how many "barriers" we place before them, they will find a way around them. Unfortunately, we often don't like the method they use to get it done, not realizing that something we did, didn't recognize, or otherwise are responsible for (as leaders) is the cause.

As leaders, we need to recognize this and empower our staff to decide what affects them. We must teach them this concept and ensure they can remove the obstacles/barriers to getting the job done.