I consider myself very lucky to work with coworkers who are extremely good at the jobs that they perform on a daily basis. Each person on our client services team takes pride in the final projects we are able to produce for the client on an annual basis. My coworkers are so good, in fact, that over the past few months we realized that no one was able to do our jobs as well as we could do them ourselves, which is a big problem if someone wants to take a vacation or has to go home with the flu! We each found ourselves knowing something about our team members’ jobs, but no one really felt equipped to fully handle the scope of projects for another person. In an attempt to become a true powerhouse client services team, we collectively decided that this structure needed to change.

Our team was fortunate enough to have an extra set of hands on our account for a few months, so the first step was to utilize that extra bandwidth to document our processes. Over several weeks we were able to gather information, tweak our processes, and put nearly two dozen projects into step-by-step standard operating procedures. Not only was this process helpful to other team members, but it forced each of us to stop and re-evaluate the way we handle things project by project. It forced each of us to reflect on whether or not what we were “used to doing” was, indeed, the most efficient way to do it.

Just a few weeks after documenting these processes, one of our team members was on vacation for an entire week. Her jobs were not that type that could wait until she got back, but luckily she was able to leave us all with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions on some of her more difficult processes. The remainder of the team stepped up to the plate and completed all of her jobs while she was gone; no balls were dropped, and the client’s expectations were met.

While it is great to be able to read instructions from a piece of paper, what can truly set a team apart from all others is the ability to understand all jobs inside and out. The next step in our team-driven cross-training process is to “trade” jobs for a job cycle. This will allow us to understand the drivers behind the jobs we are executing, rather than just checking off tasks. By completing this phase with all original team members present, we have room to fall back and ask questions of the original project leaders while still maintaining a certain level of accountability on all team members. Our number one priority is client satisfaction, and we never want to compromise that outcome; we do, however, realize the value in cross-training, and we would like to take full advantage of the opportunity given to us.

How about you? Do you have any cross-training success (or horror) stories to share from your workplace? Utilizing best practices industry-wide is the way to go!