This might be a bit controversial, but I thought I’d pass along this article about how achieve optimal workflow efficiency while relieving your team from overburden. The author asserts that “We don’t get paid for being 100% utilized. We get paid for delivering results and realizing business outcomes. So, we need to be striving for efficient delivery workflows.”
Too many managers believe in the myth of 100% utilization. That’s the belief that every single person must be fully utilized, for every single minute of every single day. But, this behavior doesn’t leave any space for innovation, serendipitous thinking, or exploration is almost beside the point. The bigger problem is that promoting 100% utilization of individuals actually contradicts the goal of workflow optimization.
100% utilization of our employee’s time comes with a high price. Enabling idle time for our teammates is the ultimate approach to delivering results faster, improving the quality of our work and making the most out of our investment.
There’s more details in the article as well as a link to another one called strategies of leveraging idle time which had some good information as well.