Top Contributor Badge __This post is written by Rell DeShaw, manager, Government of Canada __

  • The problem: How to deliver under pressure is an issue that vexes us all like the winner of a reality competition.
  • Why it matters: Everyone has constraints to work within – you can still deliver excellent if not remarkable work.
  • The solution: Reality competitions teach us to keep our eyes on the prize, pivot when needed and manage our time demons – all good skills for employees at large.

Though guilty pleasures, reality TV competitions are also a form of “masterclass” which provide lessons in being a better employee.

When I have been deeply fatigued in the past year and half, I have taken pleasure in watching reality competition shows. When I watched the sleeper hit “Blown Away,” a glass-blowing competition show filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, I started to try to guess who would win and could often figure it out by treating the contestants as proxies for employees.

Notwithstanding that I will never be an art critic, observing the artists struggling with the process and seeing the feedback loop between the judges and the artists provided some clear lessons in being a solid employee.

Re-read the brief

Every competition starts with a brief – a set of criteria that give the context and parameters for the project to be executed. Contestants are often told the judging criteria as well – for instance, perhaps judges are looking for symmetry, good use of colour or a functional object.

I have said “re-read” the brief because I think that many employees, like contestants, hear part of the brief in the first pass but then get seduced by a jaunt into their ideas and forget that they were asked to do a specific job. Call it falling down a rabbit hole, losing the thread or going off on a tangent, but we have all done it. It is akin to what often goes wrong on “long haul” written exams that you are asked to write over several days. You get completely absorbed in what you are writing and then decide to re-read the exam question and realise that you have written a well-argued note, but that you have also lost your way.

At least once per project, re-read the brief or instructions and consider underlining the keywords. When you are working under stress, it may keep you laser-focused on your destination.

Listen to your own feedback (and that of others)

Though the brief provides important context, contestants are also working toward the preferences of a particular audience. In most shows, there are a couple of permanent judges so contestants can learn over time to create products that will meet their requirements more closely.

Recognising that feedback often reflects personal preferences and can be hard to hear and absorb (especially when being filmed), it can still represent a clearer path to creating future work that is nearer the mark from the start. Maybe you are being too conservative, or maybe you are overworking your project.

In the work world, feedback may not be as formal as you see on these shows, but carefully examining the comments from your boss and comparing how the finished product differs from what you presented will help you produce more polished products in the next round.

Understand your relationship with time and your craft

Some of the population will be able to finish the product they have envisaged in the time allowed and some will struggle to do so because:

  1. The project doesn’t align well with the time allocated and the effort appears insufficient;
  2. The project would have been better if the contestant had stopped in time to tie up loose ends in lieu of adding more gloss;
  3. The vision may have been clear but the contestant couldn’t execute in the time allowed. They have let their ambition strip the goal of a finished product.

You can fare better when you understand your relationship with time and get ahead of possible pitfalls with a self-imposed discipline congruent with your weaknesses. To quote a recent book on becoming an expert, know when to push a bit more into the “workmanship of risk” for a truly original product (versus workmanship of certainty) and know when to sit on your hands and assess next steps because you may be dealing with “thin materials on the verge of collapse.”

Recover from setbacks and improvise

Contestants on these shows bring a great base level of skill and have often practised key techniques in advance. That said, things will go wrong – materials don’t react the same in the studio, things break and cannot be replaced etc.

The pivot from a falter to a finished project is a marker of professionalism and sometimes ingenuity. The day you lose your draft text to a power outage may give way to a more streamlined second draft and the unexpected absence of a key partner on deadline day may give you a new, helpful perspective from their stand-in.

Earlier this year, I was preparing for an oral exam. It helped me to understand that a stumble cannot erase years of preparation that brought you to “game day”– things will go wrong, and you just have to get on with it.

Though reality competition shows are not going to be added to the curriculum of our public service school any time soon, they do provide good lessons in how to deliver on a specific set of instructions in a limited period of time – often the daily life of a public servant. – Rell DeShaw

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