Give your team a mid-week opportunity to celebrate.
A poll carried out among British workers suggested that we are at our best at precisely 11.33 am on a Tuesday. Mondays are spent recovering from the weekend and coping with the realisation that there is a full working week ahead, but by Tuesday morning most of us are into our stride and raring to go. This can-do attitude reaches its peak at around 11.30am on Tuesday, by which time we’re enthusiastic, organised and feeling in control. Unfortunately this positive performance peak only lasts a day – come Wednesday afternoon the motivational heights have been scaled and we’re on the downward slope to the weekend with most of us easing off on the productivity and intensity of work so that by Friday, we’re ready for the weekend again.
If this sounds familiar, or explains working patterns in your own team throughout the week, there are two ways of dealing with it.
The first is to acknowledge this ebb and flow of energy and productivity as part of the working dynamic of any team, and to plan around it. Avoid scheduling important or lengthy meetings for Monday mornings and Friday afternoons and instead use this time for consolidating – planning for the week ahead or reviewing the week just gone; looking at what has gone well and what we could do more of both to contribute to the team and to help manage our workload. Use the Tuesday-to-Wednesday peak to tackle the more demanding tasks and for reducing the To Do list to more manageable proportions.
The second is to try to build on that Tuesday feeling by motivating the team and keeping energy levels higher for longer. Find an excuse or opportunity for a mid-week celebration and team get-together, whether it’s an informal chat, a review of success to date or a more formal acknowledgement of great performance. Or do something fun together – a picnic lunch, a fun team energiser or watching some comedy to share a laugh. We all know that not every day can be a Friday, but at least they shouldn’t all be Monday mornings.
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For more resources, see our Library topic Team Building.
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This blog is written by Fresh Tracks: Experts in running team building activities and events. For more information about their events click here.