STOP RELYING ON THE SAME FEW PEOPLE

Lu Pillar: Strengthen Teams

Toolbox time: About 5 minutes

Use this if: The same experienced people keep getting the difficult jobs, fixing the problems or holding all the important knowledge.

THE POINT

Don’t always give the job to the person who can do it fastest. Look for safe chances to build skills across the crew.

The quickest option today can leave you with nobody else ready tomorrow.

WHAT IT CAN LOOK LIKE

• The same person gets every difficult job.

• One person knows how everything works.

• Newer crew members only get the basic work.

• Your experienced person spends half the shift helping everyone else while still doing their own job.

• Work slows down whenever one person is away.

• You keep saying, “It’s just quicker if they do it.”

TALK ABOUT IT

Before automatically giving a suitable job to your usual person, ask yourself:

“Who can do this now, and who could learn it with the right support?”

This doesn’t mean putting someone onto work they are not trained, licensed, competent or authorised to do. It means using safe opportunities to build skills through real work.

USE THESE WORDS

When giving someone a job that will build their skills:

“I’d like you to take this one on. You haven’t done all of it before, so let’s be clear about what you can do yourself, where you’ll need support and when we’ll check in.”

Then agree who will support them and when.

Don’t wait until they are stuck.

DO THIS

Look at the next suitable job before giving it to your usual person. Ask whether someone else could safely take it on with support.

CHECK NEXT TIME

Look at the difficult or higher skill jobs from the last week. Whose names keep coming up?

If the same few people are doing most of them, look for a good opportunities to give someone else experience.

A strong crew doesn’t rely on a few people to save the day.

NEED MORE SUPPORT?

Lu offers two next step options.

Run It gives your crew practical tools to work through the issue.

Embed It provides independent support to understand what is driving the problem, tailor the response and help the change stick.