Do try this at work #5: User Manual for Teams
User Manual for Teams 👩🏾🤝👩🏼🧑🏾🤝🧑🏻
If you don’t have one already, then your team would really benefit from a user manual. Why?
Because life at work is a lot easier when our colleagues know how we work best & when we know how our colleagues work best. So getting really clear about how you can best work together is a wonderful idea.
To this end, the idea of a ‘user manual for me’ has been doing the rounds on LinkedIn for a few years and I think that they’re almost a great idea… The problem is the template tends to be an uneditable PDF download, so not very user friendly. Some colleagues might print one, fill it out, scan it and save it somewhere or other. And others might not, because it’s a bit of a faff.
So I created a lovely editable User Manual for Teams template that you can use and share easily. Better still, the rest of your team can use the same template so that all of your manuals are in one place. Now just imagine if every team in your organisation had one 😍
We are all better off if we understand each other’s needs.
This is such a quick and easy way to get to know your team a little better and to understand what makes your colleagues tick and what triggers them - so give it a go, today!
The steps 🔢
Make a copy (click File > Make a copy) and name it ‘User Manual for [the name of your team]’.
Add your own and your colleagues’ names and role (e.g. Anna, CEO) in alphabetical order by first name and then add your team name.
Complete your own page.
Share the link to the manual with your colleagues and ask them to fill in their page - set a completion date and let them know you’re aiming for 100% participation.
Start by asking your work friends to complete their page to gain some momentum.
Be persistent with your team until the document is complete - you might need to be a little persuasive and to remind your team, often more than once.
Organise a lunch & learn to go through your team’s completed user manual, or make time in your next team meeting (20-30 minutes is plenty).
Set a date for when you’ll revisit and update it, maybe in 6 or 12 months time.
Ensure it is shared with other teams and new starters, and that new starters complete their page in their first week.
Encourage other teams to do this too.
Other news & non-work stuff
This week I returned from a whole month off! I hadn’t taken enough time out since I flew solo almost three years ago and I’m really feeling the benefit of a good break. I took the ferry to Spain with my partner to visit my family and have a little road trip and we had the best time 😃
And then, late on Sunday evening before my first day back, I made a decision - to try a four-day-week. This is week one of that experiment, I’m feeling excited and lucky to be able to give it a go! I’ll let you know how it works out after a month or three.
I hope you’re rested too as we begin to get going in 2022. And if not, do book some in 🤗 I’d forgotten how much we need it.
