25 Jul 2023
Office politics are one of many things that can hamper a work environment. The constant distractions and office chit chat can lead to a lack of productivity and performance, which in turn can stop a business moving forward.
Furthermore, if there’s tension in the office, this can create a negative working environment and this can affect everyone around regardless if they’re actively involved in the office politics or not.
How to combat office politics
Unfortunately, controlling the situation as a manager can make it worse as your staff can also turn against you. So how do you remove these distractions?
One trick that can help many businesses is a morning team building challenge. Have a rota where staff members can take turns to create or choose a team building exercise each day. If you’re stuck for ideas, a Google search will bring up many different exercises that are 30 minutes or less.
Why does this help?
A short team building exercise first thing not only wakes your staff up, but also allows them to have a bit of fun first thing. This sets them off for a positive start to the day and helps build any motivation they may have been missing out on.
In addition, it allows them to get their creative juices flowing without actually realizing it. Which means, when it comes to doing some work, they will have less of a mental block.
The team building exercises can also be crafted to get staff to work in pairs or teams, this is particularly important if you have certain staff members that don’t get on.
Let’s face it, we can’t like everyone and sometimes personalities clash. With a team building exercise, you can pair staff together that don’t particularly like each other, not as a punishment, but to help them realise that it’s OK if they don’t get on as long as they can work well together - this is a big step in building bridges.
Does it work?
From experience of working in an office that did this every morning, it really does work. It’s great for new starters as it helps break the ice.
It also makes your job more enjoyable as an employee is less likely to dread going into work as the mornings are actually fun. Happy staff create a better work environment as a whole.
Does it result in less productivity?
Despite popular belief, the 30 minutes-1 hour you set aside in the morning actually doesn’t compare to the amount of time basic office distractions results in.
As it results in increased productivity, job satisfaction and performance, you’ll actually find that your staff unknowingly gives time back by actually working to the best of their ability. Meaning you don’t have to choose between quality and quantity as they will be in the right frame of mind to achieve both.
Give it a try!
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