Role Sculpting for Mutual Benefit

Reframe your Work

Are you a lawyer or other professional frustrated a little or more in your current role? Thinking about moving on, not meeting your stretch goals? A recent study by Deloittes found that 63% of our professional work tasks are not included in our formal job description. Quite a stunning percentage.

Re-engineer your Current Role

Before you leave why not investigate how to stay put in your current role and tweak it, even re-engineer it to suit your interests and strengths. Of course there are some implications regarding how your workplace will view this. But consider it from your employer's viewpoint. They don't want to lose a valuable member of their team because you are bored and their current business environment does not offer you sufficient stretch goals.

Why don't you meet them halfway and look for mutual benefit opportunities.

The concept of Role Sculpting evolved from my consulting work which built on my findings of Legal Working Culture and Leaderwork. These terms are explained in further articles and in my PhD. The principles are widely applicable. The examples provided in this article relates to lawyers.

It enhances the well established notion of Job Crafting developed within the Positive Organisational Development movement. This term explains self-initiated change and the motivations behind why some people make real changes to the way they work by altering tasks (increasing or reducing), initiating changes to their working relationships or thirdly reframing their mindset and understanding towards their work.

Start with Job Crafting

Job Crafting occurs on a daily basis, with or without any direct training intervention, such as attending a workshop.

Core EQ offers Job Crafting Workshops to guide people in how to interrogate their current job features and to consider the benefits (and downfalls) of self-initiated changes. The benefit of attending a formal workshop in Job Crafting is that you will be guided through a structured approach. You will be encouraged to explore whether you have already made self-initiated changes, to consider possible additional change and to also be aware of the implications vis a vis your employer. In other words you will be more informed about the benefits and disadvantages of such issues.

It may be valuable to your employer, also, for you to share a job crafting initiative. Because it could be used by other colleagues, for example, to achieve a better outcome or increase efficiency. We can assist you to present your case by facilitating a structured reflection exercise.

You will find several articles on this website that provide more information about Job Crafting including a scenario which sets out the stages of job crafting within the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) model.

Progress to Role Sculpting

The diagram 'Best Case - Mutual Benefit" depicts 3 progressive steps from Job Crafting to Role Sculpting. As explained, Job Crafting occurs when an individual worker self-initiates changes to a task, relational or cognitive work type. At this stage the employer (organisation) is inactive.

Core EQ Role Sculpting Workshops and Consulting

The second step is when the worker crafts their job to achieve better practice and satisfaction. Here, employer interest can be activated. Notably it is not until the goals and objectives of the worker and their employer converge that they move jointly to Role Sculpting when organisational goals are enhanced.

The third step is when it is decided to effect change in the formal processes and procedures. A change to the organisation's culture may be necessary to achieve the best case - mutual benefit. Here work leaders undertaking professional leadership (leaderwork) may be instrumental in navigating the cultural change piece required.

Core EQ has the expertise to deliver Role Sculpting Workshops, underpinned by Respectful Consulting techniques, to facilitate joint efforts in achieving 'Mutual Benefit', for both the Job Crafter and the organisation itself.

What we learned from Covid

Our Federal and State Governments and Statutory appointed Medical Officers exercised extensive powers in limiting the daily activities of Australians. With their stated purpose being to protect the very fabric of our society and ensure that the most vulnerable, elderly, sick and young were not unnecessarily exposed to the virus.

A unique aspect of the Covid pandemic was the amount of goodwill demonstrated by both employers and employees in making significant changes to the way people undertook their work and where they performed this work. In effect some of these changes amounted to Role Sculpting. This will now be discussed.

A Seismic Shift - How, When and Where Work was performed

The Covid pandemic led to a seismic shift in the way work is done and how negotiations about working conditions are raised and resolved in Australian workplaces.

Millions of Australians, predominantly knowledge workers, got on with their work and keeping our economy rolling by making considered individual decisions about how best to keep on delivering their tasks, in their particular home environment, remotely via technology. They sourced the necessary equipment and other resources to produce their work at home. And for the most part our economy kept going.

Role Sculpting on an Industrial level

A population wide upskilling took place in how we go about designing and delivering our work output. Role Sculpting.

Many of us were asked to stay at home and work from home if at all possible during the Covid pandemic crisis. Most health professionals and other essential workers continued to go to work and perform their duties. Even for these essential workers there was a major shakeup of their tasks as the risk of covid infection required working under onerous conditions and undertaking a significant amount of extra tasks such as putting on, wearing and removing full protective clothing.

In effect these changes were imposed by the formal management and leadership structures within the health and other essential work organisations. For example the

strict infection control measures. These measures were mostly within the professional values and skills of the doctors, nurses and others.

However there were many occasions when people were asked to step up beyond their professional training because of a covid outbreak in the workforce and work beyond their usual hours of work. Role Sculpting.

We have changed. We cannot go back. We are more

Celebrating the Resourcefulness of our People

What a collective achievement. What an upskill in the emotional intelligence and even technical skills of our people. To create work arounds, to negotiate new ways of doing tasks, to prioritise what was really important, to ensure that communication channels stayed open and effective.

Millions of people in Australia, including teachers, engineers, lawyers, public servants, even radio announcers, worked out how to continue to perform their duties at home at the kitchen table, or spare room or bedroom. With the use of available technology teachers remained in contact with their classroom students, law courts ran remotely, even some medical appointments were handled remotely.

Working parents juggled their formal work day along with supervising and assisting their primary aged children study remotely. Parents of babies and pre-schoolers somehow got through the day, often by working late into the night. Role Sculpting

Strategic Issues in Role Improvement

To retain top-performers for the long-term and also to remain an employer of choice it is important for organisations to implement strategies that balance the pros and cons of Job Crafting whilst promoting employee freedom and fulfillment. 

There are some key aspects in achieving this balance. Firstly, empowering people to customise their roles to suit their strengths and interests, must be balanced with a necessary alignment to organisational goals. Establishing clear expectations and employing Productive Reflection techniques also contributes to this objective. As does collaborative co-operation.

Such an approach will enhance the likelihood of achieving mutual benefit.

While there are upsides and downsides to Job Crafting, understanding the benefits is crucial for developing effective strategies for long-term organisational success.

The organisations that do this well will learn to Role Sculpt with their people to achieve mutual benefit by integrating the intrinsic motivation of their people with the values and strategic direction of the organisation.

Progressive Steps

This are a sequence of steps, as we move from a person self-initiating a change to a job task (Job Crafting) to the Mutual Benefit Objective where the individual professional worker is able to self-initiate meaningful task changes which are then embraced by their organisational leaders.

Job Crafting

Is about the interplay between individuals and their workplace environments when people are active job-designers and problem-solvers.

Job Sculpting

Job sculpting is like shaping a sculpture—carving out tasks to fit each person’s unique contours.

Role Sculpting

Role sculpting embraces the cultural dimensions of the workplace. There are 3 relevant cultural dimensions:

1. Organisational (workplace) culture refers to the values guiding the behavior of team members in a workspace.

2. Professional culture refers to the values guiding the behavior of colleagues in a profession such as law, medicine, accounting, engineering.

3. Corporate culture is a collection of practices that reflects the company’s philosophy and expectations.
   

By empowering practice leaders (master practitioners) to guide their colleagues in navigating self-initiated changes in their organisation it is possible to embed the benefits and reduce the pitfalls of self-initiated Job Crafting.

The integration of Job Crafting initiatives into an organisation's processes and culture can be conceptualised as Role Sculpting.

Here, the role of the Leaderworker is central to success. We will explore this aspect in future articles.

The Equine (EQ) Link

Equine Experiential Education programs can significantly assist people to draw on their unique strengths and attributes. Equine assisted Team building and Leadership exercises can enhance this work.

Deborah Hann

2 March 24