# Work people grow in > Variety, a whole piece of work, meaning, autonomy and feedback; ask first whether the person wants more, and remember that too much is overload. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Delegation and the design of work - Lesson 11/32, ~24 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/work-people-grow-in ## The same ticket, all day **Alex Tutor:** Mid-March. The queue is full of schedule changes and payment questions. At her one-to-one Maryna says something worth hearing. **Sofia:** She said: "I answer the same three questions forty times a day. I don't even know if the families' lessons went well after." **Alex Tutor:** What kind of problem is that? > **Exercise:** Maryna says: “I answer the same three questions forty times a day. I don't even know if the families' lessons went well after.” What is the best first reading? **Alex Tutor:** That's a design problem, not a motivation problem. **Job design** means shaping what a role contains, so people can do it well and grow in it. **Alex Tutor:** Research links five features of work to motivation: a variety of skills; a whole piece of work rather than a fragment; work that matters to someone; autonomy; and feedback from the work itself. **Sofia:** Maryna's week has almost none of them right now. > **Exercise:** Which of these are among the five features of work that research links to motivation? Select all that apply. ## Small changes, real effect **Alex Tutor:** You can't remove the routine tickets in a peak. You can change how the work around them is cut. **Alex Tutor:** A whole piece: when a family's problem needs three replies, one person follows it to the end instead of whoever is on shift. Matters to someone: the ticket says "exam in 12 days", not just "package question". **Alex Tutor:** Feedback from the work: once a week, each person sees their own resolved cases where the family wrote back, and their own reopens by cause. Their own numbers, in their own one-to-one, never a league table. **Olha:** And variety: let people take one hour a day off the queue for something else. The guide, a playbook, the pilot. Even an hour changes the day. > **Exercise:** Match each change in the Support team's work with the feature it adds. **Alex Tutor:** A quick check on that feedback idea. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a weekly league table of everyone's resolved cases and reopens, posted in the team chat, is a good way to give feedback from the work. ## Ask before you add **Sofia:** Then I'll give everyone a project. Bohdan could lead the AI pilot! **Alex Tutor:** Ask first. Not everyone wants more. At his one-to-one Bohdan said what he wants is fewer interruptions: two calm hours a day for the video tickets. **Alex Tutor:** For him, good design is protecting depth, not adding scope. For Maryna, it may be the refund work from last lesson. **Alex Tutor:** That's a **stretch assignment**: a task slightly beyond what she has done, given on purpose, with support and a safe way to fail. Olha approving her proposals for a month is exactly that support. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** offering more responsibility is always motivating, so a lead should give every team member a new project in the peak. ## When more is too much **Sofia:** So Maryna gets refunds on top of her queue. **Alex Tutor:** Not on top. In a peak, a stretch added to a full week is overload, and overload teaches the opposite of growth. When something goes in, something comes out. **Alex Tutor:** For Maryna: fewer schedule-change tickets, which the AI drafts will speed up anyway, and the hour off the queue goes to refunds. **Alex Tutor:** And watch for signs: replies at midnight, "I'll finish it at the weekend". Ask about load in the one-to-one. If it sounds like exhaustion, reduce the load, and point to a professional for health. > **Exercise:** Maryna takes refunds as a stretch assignment in the peak. What makes it growth rather than overload? **Alex Tutor:** Which signs should make you ask about load? > **Exercise:** Which of these are signs that a coordinator's week may be tipping into overload, worth asking about in the one-to-one? Select all that apply. ## The new two **Sofia:** And Dmytro and Sofiia? They're here for four months. Do they just get the routine tickets? **Alex Tutor:** Mostly routine, since that's their level for now. But give each a whole small piece too: following one family's case from first message to resolution, with a named person to ask. **Alex Tutor:** Seasonal people who learn something real tend to work better and come back next spring. People who only feed the queue tend to leave early. **Iryna:** Coming back next spring would save me two hiring rounds. I like this. > **Exercise:** Put the steps of offering a stretch assignment in order. ## Your turn: Maryna's April week **Alex Tutor:** Last step: sketch Maryna's week for April, the second month of the peak. **Sofia:** At least three of the five features, and what comes off her plate. **Alex Tutor:** Yes, and how you'll find out if it's working. Her view, not your guess. **Olha:** Keep her one hour sacred. In a peak, the first thing a lead cancels is the thing that isn't the queue. > **Exercise:** Sketch Maryna's April week in 4–6 short lines. Use **at least three** of the five features (variety, a whole piece of work, work that matters, autonomy, feedback from the work), say **what comes off her plate**, and how you'll find out from her whether it's working. > **Key ideas** > > - **Job design** shapes what a role contains. Research links five features to motivation: variety of skills, a whole piece of work, work that matters to someone, autonomy, and feedback from the work itself. > - Small changes count in a peak: one person follows a family's case to the end, tickets show why they matter, people see their own outcomes, an hour a day off the queue. > - Ask before you add. Not everyone wants more: for some, good design protects depth and calm hours. > - A **stretch assignment** is slightly beyond what the person has done, with support and a safe way to fail. When something goes in, something comes out; a stretch on top of a full week is overload. > - Seasonal hires get routine work at their level, plus one whole small piece they can learn from. **Alex Tutor:** Next: the month's case. The whole spring peak, four people, two seasonal hires and an AI draft assistant, and you have to split it. - Previous lesson: [Levels of freedom: matching person and task](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/levels-of-freedom.md) - Next lesson: [Case: splitting the spring peak](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/spring-peak-split-case.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.