Before You Add Another Thing, Ask What Can Be Removed

There is something that happens at the beginning of a new school year.

We add.

We add meetings.
We add trainings.
We add new procedures.
We add goals.
We add committees.
We add expectations.
We add another thing to the calendar.

And then, somewhere in the middle of all that adding, we start talking about wellness.

So what do we do?

Sometimes we add that too.

Another activity. Another challenge. Another meeting. Another thing staff are supposed to participate in.

But I have been thinking about this differently.

What if wellness isn't always about adding something?

What if one of the most supportive things a leader can do is ask:

What can I remove?

Sometimes Less Is the Wellness Strategy

Think about the beginning of the school year from an educator's perspective.

There is already a lot happening.

You're getting to know new children and families. You're learning routines. You're preparing your environment. You're figuring out schedules. You're responding to emails. You're completing paperwork. You're attending trainings and meetings.

And, of course, you're still expected to show up every day ready to teach, support, encourage, problem-solve, and connect.

Now imagine someone saying:

“We know everyone is overwhelmed, so we've added a mandatory wellness activity.”

Really?

Sometimes the person doesn't need another activity.

They need 30 minutes back.

That's the piece I think we sometimes miss.

Ask a Different Question

When staff appear overwhelmed, our first response is often:

“What can we do for them?”

That's a good question.

But I think there's another question that needs to come first:

“What are we doing to them?”

Not intentionally.

Most leaders aren't waking up thinking, How can I make someone's day more difficult?

But organizations accumulate things.

A meeting was created three years ago and nobody has questioned whether we still need it.

A form was added because of one situation and now everybody completes it forever.

An email gets sent to 20 people when three people actually need it.

A training takes an hour when the information could have been communicated in 15 minutes.

One new initiative gets added without anything old being removed.

Eventually, staff aren't overwhelmed by one enormous thing.

They're overwhelmed by 100 little things.

Do a “What Can Go?” Check

Here's something different I would challenge leaders and teams to try.

Before adding a new expectation, activity, meeting, initiative, or wellness strategy, identify one thing that can go.

Ask:

Does this still serve a purpose?

Does everyone actually need to be here?

Could this meeting be shorter?

Are we collecting information nobody is using?

Can this wait?

Are we doing this because it is necessary, or because we've always done it?

And here's one I really want leaders to think about:

If I remove this, what would actually happen?

Sometimes the answer will be, Something important would be lost.

Okay. Keep it.

But sometimes the answer is:

Nothing.

And there's your opportunity.

Give People Something They Rarely Get Back

Time.

Imagine telling your staff:

“We were scheduled for an hour today, but we finished what we needed in 35 minutes. The remaining 25 minutes belong to you.”

Not:

“Since we have extra time, let's go ahead and talk about…”

No.

Give it back.

That's wellness.

Cancel a meeting that doesn't need to happen.

That's wellness.

Tell people they don't need to respond to an email tonight.

That's wellness.

Simplify a process that has become unnecessarily complicated.

That's wellness.

Allow someone to decline an optional activity without making them explain themselves.

That's wellness too.

None of those things require yoga mats, gift bags, wellness challenges, or motivational quotes.

They require us to look honestly at the way we work.

Wellness Shouldn't Become More Work

I believe wellness initiatives can be wonderful.

I believe in wellness activities. I believe in connection. I believe in creating opportunities for staff to pause, breathe, laugh, reflect, and spend time together.

That's part of what SILWELL-C is about.

But wellness loses its purpose when participating in wellness becomes another source of pressure.

If someone is overwhelmed, we shouldn't automatically hand them another strategy to manage being overwhelmed.

Sometimes we need to ask why they are overwhelmed in the first place.

And sometimes the answer is sitting right there on the calendar.

Try This With Your Team

At your next staff meeting, don't begin by asking:

“What should we add this year?”

Give everyone a few minutes and ask three different questions:

What should we KEEP?
What is working and worth protecting?

What should we CHANGE?
What still matters but could be done differently?

What should we RELEASE?
What are we continuing to do that no longer serves our staff, children, families, organization, or purpose?

And then here's the important part:

Actually listen to the answers.

Because asking staff what they need and then continuing exactly as before isn't staff wellness.

Staff voice has to lead somewhere.

Cultivating Calm Doesn't Always Mean Creating Something New

Sometimes cultivating calm means making room.

Room to think.

Room to finish the work already on someone's plate.

Room to breathe between one responsibility and the next.

Room for staff to have a voice in how their work gets done.

Room to go home without carrying an unnecessary list of things that could have waited.

So before we add the next great idea, maybe we should stop and ask:

What can we remove?

Because sometimes the most meaningful wellness initiative isn't what we give people.

It's what we stop asking them to carry.

Reflection

Take a look at your own workplace this week.

If you could remove, shorten, simplify, or release one thing that would give people back a little time or peace, what would it be?