To Engage or Not to Engage? – A Work Level 1 and 2 Distinction

By Michelle Malay Carter on January 7, 2009 

Assign the Right WorkHappy New Year!

Let’s start off with a concrete example of work levels and how understanding them can?help you as a manager?with employee engagement.? As we begin to work with clients, it takes a while for managers to fully grasp the distinctions between work levels, like a radiologist learning to distinguish the shades of gray.? But effective managerial leadership calls for an understanding of work levels.? Most effective managers have an intuitive sense of them, but they have no vocabulary to articulate this.? (Providing them that vocabulary is my job.)

Task Assignment
Yesterday, I was sending a client instructions on how to set up a training room for a class next week.? And it occurred to me that I could send either a Level 1 task or a Level 2.

Create to Spec or Create the Spec?
Level 1 work involves carrying out procedures to make something or deliver a service to specification.? The output is fully defined.

Level 2 work involves putting together pieces of information to draw a conclusion and deliver a work task that is not fully specified but requires some interpretation.

The Distinction
So, if I were to send a diagram and say, set the room up exactly as drawn, that would be?a level 1 task.? If I sent instructions to set the room up in a way that allows participants to both see the front of the room but also easily assemble into groups of 4 when needed, I would be sending a level 2 task.? See the difference?

The Managerial Leadership and Organizational Structure Elements
Now, I might not get exactly what I envision if I give a level 2 task assignment (and that shouldn’t matter if my specifications were met), but if I were a manager and my employee were capable at level 2, fully specifying the design would be stealing the “wow” out of the how (aka micromanagement).?

There might be times where I want to be that specific, but a level 2 capable employee’s role should have as much level 2 work embedded in it as possible.? Why?? Because it will keep the employee engaged, and that is what the organization is paying for.? The most effective way to get an employee to say, “I do”, is to assign them work that matches their capability.

Level 1 Work is not Discretionless
Note, there is still discretion in the level 1 task – the person will have to decide how to acquire the necessary furniture or move the furniture currently in the room to create the design, but the creation of the design, the specification, is not their task.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Where have you noticed the distinction between level 1 and 2 work?

Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Talent Management, Work Levels

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