Kākou work is “just more enjoyable.”

“They have more fun when they aren’t working alone, and fun is good.”

Carrie is one of those managers with the marvelous ability to look at work with beautiful common sense. She is a mid-level manager at a local company I visit at least once a month in the executive coaching program I have with her boss. I love running into Carrie, for simply saying aloha, and asking her, “How are things going?” is enough to get the greatest stories from her. She is a manager very proud of her staff, and she loves tooting their horn, and telling me about the last great thing they did.

I love listening to her music.

Like many businesses in Hawai‘i, this one finds hiring challenging. They have a great reputation and workplace morale is good; the problem is simply that we have virtually no unemployment here, and not enough people to fill the jobs which are available.

Now before you think “Cool! Opportunity knocks, and I’m coming!” know that the problem is slightly more complicated… for instance, come with deep pockets and a lodging plan; you probably won’t find an affordable place to live no matter what a job will pay you.

So like many others, Carrie’s company is reengineering jobs so that fewer people can get the work done. During my last visit, Carrie told me her strategy could be described in one word: “teaming.” She said that she was doing away with work that people used to do alone, or she was redesigning it, and she explained why “getting 2 people to do the work of 3, or even 4, is way, way better than getting 1 to do the work of 2.”

The way Carrie looks at, they have worked hard to assemble a group of people who genuinely like and admire each other, and so it’s a natural for them that Kākou work is “just more enjoyable. When they do it alone, they feel lonely and get stressed out. They keep watching the clock, and they worry. When they do the work side by side, they talk to each other and enjoy the company. There’s still the pressure to finish, but the stress is missing. Lotsa times they get pretty creative with assembly-lining stuff in ways I never would have thought of. More gets done in a happier kind of way. Pretty simple really.”

Not simple to everyone Carrie, but thankfully it is to you!