Refocusing Interrupters

As a manager of people and processes there are always problems to solve and questions to answer.  Here is one question that comes up frequently.

Q:  I have a team of people working with me and we are all in the same open workspace.  One member of the team comes to my desk frequently, to chit chat.  I want to listen to the person, but need them to keep focused on the work and stop this habit of interrupting team members.  What can I do to help this person without causing a scene?

A:  I once had a team member like this.  We'll call him Jack.  It was several years ago when I was leading a team of Customer Service agents.  We worked in an common area where there were short cubical walls that separated each workspace.  The team of agents handled phone calls as well as answered customer correspondence.  Each time Jack would finish a call or a letter, he would stand up and hang over the wall that separated our workstations and chit chat.  I had to find a way to keep Jack focused on the work so that I could get my work done.  So, each morning when I came into the office, I would stop by the mail room and pick up a stack of letters that our team would need to handle that day.  Each time Jack would stand up, I'd smile and listen to him for about 30 seconds.  Then I'd say something like, "Jack, since I have your attention, can you please handle these letters for me?"  Then I'd hand him a number of correspondence that I'd picked up at the beginning of the day.  After about a week of this, I overheard him saying to his other neighbor, "I had to stop trying to chat with Nancy except at break or lunch.  Every time I did, she'd give me some work to handle!  I like that she depends on me, but gee wiz!"  So, he was kept more busy and I was relieved of his constant interruptions.  I didn't have to retrain him, he retrained himself!

Try keeping handy some work you can easily delegate to others at a moments notice.  Maybe it's research, maybe a problem that could use some ideas or solutions, but keep a list of things you can use to "busy up" those who seem to have little to do.  You'll keep the work flowing and your space free of troublesome interrupters and you'll have handled a problem without anyone ever knowing there was one.

If you have a question or problem to solve, why not leave a comment and let me take a crack at it?