Task Cards, what are they, how can you use them?

Growing up I am sure all of you knew what flash cards were. And I am sure your teachers or even parents used them with you. These days classrooms call these same types of cards and others “Task Cards” and they have evolved to cover more than just spelling and math problems.

Task Cards are now being used to help kids with social problem-solving. These same ideas of using Task Cards are now moving into the adult workplace as well. So when and where could Task Cards ever help your business?

Task Cards can be made and used for team building, for OSHA and office training, to reinforce or teach a task to an employee, to allow an employee to confidentially bring up an issue to be discussed, to set or correct the moral climate in the workplace, and many others.

Here are some examples of Task Cards;

You can make your Task Cards to fit your business and employees’ specific needs. You can also choose when to use them; to start off your daily work meeting, only for training classes, or just when a situation comes up you want to address non-confrontationally. I feel the more you use Task Cards the easier and more open your employees will be when answering the questions or discussing the situation with the group that the card brings up. You could start with only using them for training, for how to use a product, how to handle job situations only, and later move on to the more difficult to discuss moral situation question cards.

You might ask why do the moral cards at all? It is strange to me how those who work in a group can all know what sports teams each of them pulls for but not know who they feel they can trust or who in the group will support them. Members of a workgroup need to feel they are thought to be competent, valued, and trusted by the ones they work with in order to get the work done quickly and well. Discontentment between employees can quickly slow down and bring down the performance level of the group as a whole. I am sure you have noticed when a team has worked for a while together and has a certain report then a new person is added or someone is replaced it will take a while for that group to be up to the same performance level they had as the former team. Of course, it may prove that the new group works even better than the original but it will always take a little time to get there. Using a pre-set pack of Task Cards with the newly formed group before they go out together can allow the old members to learn what the new person knows or can bring to the team or can clue them into what they will have to teach or show the new member to get work up to the business standard of the company. I hope some of you will consider and try to use Task Cards with your employees this year. And if you do, let us know how it worked out.