How efficient is your team? Don’t be the pingle who lets people down!

Have you ever worked with someone who makes your team less efficient? You know who we mean, right? Whether it’s a delegator who does no real work of their own, a collaborator who does things “their way”, or a dependant that needs help on every small task, it’s more than likely you’ve come across them. Maybe you’re one of them yourself? 

Either way, an inefficient team in the workplace can frustrate everyone, so here’s Doug to share some ideas on how you could improve things - and to introduce you to our new favourite word, ‘pingle’.

Inefficient pingles

Inefficient team members can be affectionately known as pingles.

“But what’s a pingle?” we hear you ask. 

Pingle is a word picked up from Susie Dent (the clever words lady from Countdown) a few years ago. Susie tweeted the definition – “to work in such a useless, unhelpful way such that everyone else actually has to do more work”.

Since that fateful day, it’s been my word of choice to describe my wife when doing housework. I’m sure many of you can relate – most relationships have a pingle. If you don’t think your partner is a pingle, I’d politely suggest looking closer to home!

When I call my wife a pingle, the intent is mainly humorous (maybe 10-20% anger and hatred). However, you can’t go around calling your people pingles. Firstly, everyone will think you’ve lost your mind, and it’s a made-up word. But secondly, it’s probably not a great way to raise issues in the workplace.

But what if there’s a pingle in my workplace?

There’s a multi-faceted answer to this, but the most important solution will centre around communication. Effective communication results in motivation.

The first thing you’ll need to do is try to understand the pingle. It’s probably fair to assume the pingle doesn’t want to be a pingle. So what is causing them to be one?

From my experience, there’s one of three reasons:

1. They’re out of their depth. Untrained or has insufficient resources.
2. Ego. Hierarchical and believes themselves to be above menial tasks.
3. Stiff-neckedness. Doing things “their way” and being closed to new ideas.

Unfortunately, the pingle may be more than one type of pingle; they could be a mix of the above. Maybe an egotistical and stiff-necked pingle that not only gives you the work to do but tells you how to do it.

I work with a pingle; what can be done?

Firstly, I love a good vent. It helps me release all the frustration, anger and tension. I’m not condoning being a b***h, but an appropriately timed whine to a loved one is sometimes just what the doctor ordered. Of course, a whine with wine is even better!

However, this isn’t appropriate in the workplace - even at Laughology, where the banter is taken up a notch compared to most other workplaces. So here’s some advice:

Out of their depth

When someone on your team struggles to keep their head above the water, offer support, training or guidance. Build their confidence so they see their value.

Moreover, someone out of their depth will fear being seen as the weak link. This often causes them to take on more work or volunteer for tasks, as they feel they need to contribute more.

If managing someone in this situation, positive and open communication is fundamental. Understanding your people will let you know what they need, whether it’s lots of little, informal check-ins, frequent praise, or perhaps being left alone but letting them know you’re confident in their abilities. If my boss is reading this, cash also works!

Ego

An egotistical-pingle thinks they’re above the menial tasks needed to complete the collective goal and, therefore, delegate or hide away from taking on responsibilities. This can cause social friction due to perceived hierarchies that might not actually exist.

Setting clear roles, responsibilities, and boundaries for new teams can prevent potential issues. However, it’s often tricky for existing teams to break the mould.

When I’ve joined teams with an egotistical pingle, I’ve found they often see themselves as the leader and subsequently take charge. This has led to me taking on “lesser” roles within the group and a sense of feeling burdened or taken advantage of.

Difficult conversations can be scary, but they are essential to avoid rifts. From my experience, discussing the past causes more tension, so I look to feed-forward. We can’t change the past, but we can help form the future.

Avoid phrases looking back like, “you always”, “in the past you have”, and “I’ve seen you”. Instead, use phrases looking forward like, “in the next four weeks”, “moving forward”, or “thinking about next time.”

Stiff-Neckedness

Simply put, stiff-neckedness is when the fear of change causes someone to work inefficiently. It’s easy to think of lovely new processes or effective changes to a role, but when work gets tough and hours get long, everyone always reverts to what they know – it’s the path of least resistance. We all do it. This is where a growth mindset and resilience skills are essential. Helping your stiff-necked pingle see the benefits of change can be tricky, though.

Building trust in each other takes time, but the sooner teams achieve this, the sooner they start improving together. Therefore, we’d recommend new and existing teams regularly discuss their ways of working as they progress and change. By understanding your people’s dependencies within a project or process, you can alter and amend your ways of working to ease their workload and improve efficiency.

When we say ways of working, we don’t just mean step-by-step processes for each job but understanding each other as humans and our behaviours. If you know Trevor likes to do invoicing on a Friday, you can ensure he has all the information he needs by the close of play Thursday. You’re welcome, Trevor!

Teams should be greater than the sum of their parts

Pingles will be a negative influence in the workplace. But healthy conversations during catch-ups, one-to-ones and team meets will ensure people do not become pingles. This comes from understanding your people, how they tick, what motivates them, and where they see progression and a sense of belonging.

At Laughology, two of our core values are “People Power” and “Knowledgeable Together”.

Others may argue otherwise, but we see these two as linked. If we share each other’s knowledge and move forward together, we are more powerful than the sum of our parts.

We can ensure effective communication and boundary setting by celebrating each other’s wins, laughing at each other’s failures, and sometimes saying no and having difficult conversations.

You can learn more about how we do this in our positive communication and relationship building workshop.

P.S. Please don’t send this to my pingle of a wife. I might go missing.