Ask your team which part of the work they dread

Ask anybody in your office which part of their week they dislike most and they will answer at once.

Notice what they do not say. They do not name the hardest task. People are usually proud of the difficult parts of their job.

What they name is the pointless part. Filling the same thing twice. Preparing a report nobody discusses. Chasing an approval that is always given anyway. Explaining to a customer why something is late, when the reason is internal and the same reason as last month.

Why frustration is better information than efficiency

You could measure where the hours go, and that is useful. Frustration tells you something different and often more valuable.

It points at work that feels unnecessary to the person doing it, and the person doing it is usually right. They are closer to it than anybody.

It also tells you where you are losing people, slowly. Nobody resigns because the work is hard. People resign because they spend their days doing things that do not seem to matter and nobody asked them about it.

How to ask so that you get a real answer

Not in a meeting, and not as part of a review. Walk over, one person, and ask what is the most irritating part of your week, and make it clear you are asking because you intend to remove it.

Then remove one. Actually remove it, visibly, within a month.

The first removal is what makes the second question worth answering. Ask twice without acting and you will never get a straight answer again, which is how most businesses end up believing their team has no complaints.

Ask one person tomorrow what the most irritating part of their week is. Then remove it.

Removing the work a team dreads, rather than asking them to do more of it faster, is usually where the quickest wins are. Tell us what your people name and we will tell you what can go.