Slow Down to Increase Efficiency

You know how it feels like to wake up and get to the office at 8:30 in the morning with very little or no sleep at all? Chances are that if you’re working in a frontier market, you go through this all too often. Just today, I heard 2 different reasons

1. No electricity all night, when daytime temperatures were searing at 42 C (107F)
2. Watching the news late at night because of the mind blowing Karachi Airport incident

Then there was someone who was blessed with a good night’s rest but was caught up getting polio drops due to the WHO travel restriction so they ended up coming in late as well. All in all, these examples may seem like the beginning of a bad work day – but I think slowing down can be the key to retrieving efficiency in situations such as this.

As an employer, there will be times where you won’t be able to and in fact shouldn’t expect 100% from your employees. Everyone’s only human and if your team is preoccupied by a lack of stability in their country or not comfortable because of security and infrastructure, they will not be able to function at 100%. Now there are two types of people in these situations – those who take advantage of the situation and those who don’t. To convert the former to the latter, there are a few things you could try such as:

• Letting it show that individuals will not be pushed too hard on “difficult days”
• Subtracting casual and/or annual leave if people don’t show up to work (Even though some may find this a harsh strategy)
• Creating a solid policy for days when the security situation in the country is questionable

How Slowing Down can Increase Productivity

As I write this post I know that much of the city was without power during the night and being without electricity is simply exhausting. If you expect someone to be at their optimal after this experience and accordingly give them a regular workload you’re not only going to have an unhappy employee, you’ll have someone who simply won’t do their best. As we all know, this results in mistakes, grievances, and in general just a real bad time for everyone around.

On the other hand, being sensitive to people’s limitations can cultivate the desire to work in the most difficult circumstances. Think about it – you’re exhausted and have a deadline at the close-of-business. Your boss comes around and either says:

• you can extend the deadline until tomorrow or,
• you don’t have to worry about the other stuff – just get this done.

Most likely, just the fact that your boss was considerate will be enough to encourage you to meet the deadline. Usually the employee has to approach the boss and request some leniency rather than the other way around.

In frontier markets, the characteristic of being unpredictable requires leaders to be empathetic to the needs of their team.

Things to Do on a Rough Day

In no way am I saying that people should be allowed to sit back, chat and waste time. What I do suggest is to continue to meet critical deadlines and focus on tasks that can be done at a mentally leisuely pace. You may want to consider:

1. Brainstorming new solutions with team members over coffee and donuts
2. Organizing and cleaning files/systems/drawers etc.
3. Having a backup team motivation activity to pull out on days where people just aren’t “mentally” at the office
4. Using the time for meaningful talk – sometime we get so caught up with day to day tasks that we forget to talk to the people we spend most of our time with

As a leader in a frontier market it’s important to understand, accept and act based on the challenges that the entire workforce can face. 

There’s a strong chance that many leaders in frontier markets are already doing all of the above without realizing the importance of it. As a leader in the region, you should make sure people don’t feel guilty about slowing down on tough days and encourage them to do so if necessary. The effects of the recent days, where images make it seem like the country’s at war have profound effects on people. It’s not only okay to slow down but doing so can actually improve your team’s efficiency in the long run. How have you handled such situations in your office? Would love to hear from you.

Photo Credit: Paul Williams www.IronAmmonitePhotography.com via Compfight cc