Job Crafting Exercise FAQ

Using the exercise on your own:
Administering the exercise in a workshop setting:
Administering the exercise in one-on-one coaching situations:
Administering the exercise in the classroom:

Using the exercise on your own

What can I gain from doing the exercise?

The Job Crafting Exercise can help you uncover ways to make the most of your current job. To do this, the exercise challenges you to take a step back and think about your job in a new, visual way — as a flexible set of building blocks rather than a fixed list of duties. The visual and creative nature of the exercise enables you to ask and answer a number of questions about your job in a clear, concise, and enjoyable way.

In particular, the exercise helps you identify opportunities for creating a better fit between the tasks you do on a day-to-day basis and your:
  • Motives (the outcomes you want to get out of work)
  • Strengths (your strongest personal assets)
  • Passions (the activities and topics that deeply interest you)
  • As a result, the exercise can help you:
    • Discover innovative ideas for how to improve your life at work
    • Develop a more positive attitude about your job
    • Reveal resourceful solutions to problems
    • Unlock new insights about yourself and your job

How can the exercise help me through these hard economic times?

In the current economic climate, switching to a new job or retiring in the near future may not be realistic options for you. So you may be in your job for longer than you would like or had previously planned. If this is the case, your best option is to make the most of your current job for the time being. The exercise is designed to help you do so by uncovering opportunities for using existing elements of your job in ways that make your life at work more engaging and fulfilling.

As layoffs leave behind work that must be taken on by remaining employees, organizations are increasingly asking employees to do more work with fewer resources at hand. If this is the case for you, the exercise can help by providing a concrete framework that encourages you to think positively about how you can add tasks into your job in beneficial ways.

How much time will it take me to complete the exercise?

45-70 minutes

What should I know about the exercise before I start?

Although the instruction booklet is self-explanatory, you may find it helpful to know the following breakdown of the two parts of the exercise:
Before Sketch (Part 1):
  • Time, energy, and attention are scarce resources at work. People often get stuck in the day-to-day grind of their jobs and lose sight of how they are spending these precious resources.
  • Creating a Before Sketch forces you to take a step back and gauge how you are allocating your time, energy, and attention at work.
  • It also eases you into thinking about your job in a visual way so that you are prepared to do much more visual thinking during the After Diagram part.
After Diagram (Part 2):
  • Creating your After Diagram helps you identify ways to create a better fit between your day-to-day tasks and your motives, strengths, and passions.
  • Your After Diagram serves as a visual image of opportunities for how you can craft your job to be more engaging and fulfilling.
  • Your After Diagram should depict a more ideal version of your job than your Before Sketch. But it should be realistic and include all the responsibilities you need to uphold in your job. The goal is to create a version of your job that you can actually make into a reality. So you may have tasks in your After Diagram that you do not like or want in there, but the exercise might help you look at or approach these tasks in a new, more positive way.
A quick pointer — the perforation on both pages of stickers is easier to tear if you remove the whole page from the booklet first.

Is there any prep work I should do before starting the exercise?

The instruction booklet contains all the supplies needed to do the exercise except for a writing instrument — if possible, use an ultra fine-point permanent marker (like a Sharpie) to avoid smearing on the stickers.
No prep work is required. But to create an accurate Before Sketch, some people find it helpful to start thinking about how they typically spend their time, energy, and attention at work for a few days prior to doing the exercise.

If you'd like more background information on job crafting, you can read What Is Job Crafting and Why Does It Matter?, which is a theory-to-practice briefing that summarizes job crafting theory and research.

What should I do if I feel overwhelmed or have trouble getting started on my After Diagram?

Creating an After Diagram requires you to think about a number of things at the same time. If you feel overwhelmed or do not know where to start, try taking this 'one-by-one' approach:
  • Lay your green task stickers and your Crafting Element (motive, strength, and passion) stickers out in columns next to each other.
  • Start assessing, one-by-one, which tasks enable you to achieve a motive, utilize a strength, or fulfill a passion and which do not.
  • Once you have split your tasks into two groups — one group of tasks that does not fit with any motive, strength, or passion and one group of tasks that does fit at least one — you can set the tasks that do fit next to their corresponding Crafting Element(s) and begin to figure out ways of making the other group of tasks fit.
  • After you find a place for all these tasks, you can revisit the tasks that initially fit in and try to figure out ways of creating an even better fit.

What are "Role Frames" and how should I use them in my After Diagram?

Role Frames are a tool within the exercise to help you mentally re-vision, re-group, or re-label tasks in a meaningful or strategic way. In other words, Role Frames are a way to infuse a task or groups of tasks with a new meaning or purpose. A common approach to Role Frames is illustrated in Example 2 on page 11 of the instruction booklet. This involves separating the tasks you dislike from the tasks you like, and then reframing the tasks you dislike in a way that reminds you that you must do these tasks in order to be able to pursue the tasks you like.

Also, your After Diagram does not have to be a neat and tidy 'Venn Diagram' like the examples in the booklet. If you wish, you can have some tasks that are not in any Role Frame.

How can I address work/life balance in my After Diagram?

Although the exercise does not directly address this, you can approach the exercise as a tool to help you manage your work/life balance in two different ways:
  • First, you can simply keep your work/life balance in mind throughout the exercise and use your After Diagram as a means to limit the tasks and amount of work that you'd like to include in your job (to avoid work spilling over into your family or leisure time). Also, if applicable, the exercise can help you prioritize which tasks you're willing to do at home and which tasks you're only willing to do at work.
  • The second option is including your family and leisure activities as 'tasks' in your After Diagram. This approach can help you see connections between your job and your life outside of work. And if you wish, you can use Role Frames to define boundaries between work and life or to integrate aspects of work and life into the same role.

I've created my After Diagram, now what should I do with it?

Once you have pondered the Reflection Questions on page 13 of the instruction booklet, you may benefit from discussing your After Diagram with a friend, colleague, or family member. Talking with someone can help you sort out your thoughts and make your job crafting plans feel more 'real.' If you feel comfortable, many people have reported that discussing their After Diagram with their supervisor shortly after doing the exercise helped them implement their job crafting plans. In general, the key is to not let your After Diagram collect dust. To get the most benefit from the exercise, you must be proactive about making your After Diagram a reality.

Administering the exercise in a workshop setting

What makes the exercise valuable to people?

The Job Crafting Exercise helps people find ways to make the most of their current job. To do this, the exercise challenges people to take a step back and think about their job in a new, visual way — as a flexible set of building blocks rather than a fixed list of duties. The visual and creative nature of the exercise enables people to ask and answer a number of questions about their job in a clear, concise, and enjoyable way.

In particular, the exercise helps people identify opportunities for creating a better fit between the tasks they do on a day-to-day basis and their:
  • Motives (the outcomes they want to get out of work)
  • Strengths (their strongest personal assets)
  • Passions (the activities and topics that deeply interest them)

As a result, people find that the exercise helps them:
  • Discover innovative ideas for how to improve their lives at work
  • Develop a more positive attitude about their jobs
  • Reveal resourceful solutions to problems
  • Unlock new insights about themselves and their jobs

How can the exercise help individuals and organizations through these hard economic times?

In the current economic climate, switching to a new job or retiring in the near future are unrealistic options for many people. Since they will be in their jobs for longer than they might want, their best option is to make the most of their current jobs for the time being. The exercise is designed to help them do so by uncovering opportunities for using existing elements of their jobs in ways that make their lives at work more engaging and fulfilling.

As layoffs leave behind work that must be taken on by remaining employees, organizations are increasingly asking employees to do more work with fewer resources at hand. The exercise can help with these difficult transitions by providing employees with a concrete framework that encourages them to think positively about how they can add tasks into their jobs in ways that benefit them and the organization.

Especially in the current economic conditions, many managers do not have the time or resources to be customizing job designs for each individual employee. The exercise can help managers by placing the responsibility of customizing jobs into employees' own hands and encouraging them to actively seek and seize opportunities to change their own jobs in ways that benefit them and the organization.

What is the value of administering the exercise in a workshop setting versus just having people do it on their own time?

Although the instruction booklet is self-explanatory so that people can do the exercise on their own, people are usually eager to discuss their thoughts and findings with others during and after the exercise. People find that sharing with others sparks creative thinking, helps them sort out their thoughts, and makes their job crafting plans feel more "real." So even though the exercise is an individual activity, a group workshop is an ideal setting for it.

How much time is required for a workshop on the exercise?

At a minimum, the workshop should be two hours. But the ideal length is around three hours, as this allows for more group discussion before, during, and after participants do the exercise.

How should I structure the workshop?

Refer to Outline of a 2-Hour Job Crafting Exercise Workshop (free PDF download).

What should I do to prepare for the workshop? Do I need to assign prep work to the participants?

  • Each instruction booklet contains all the supplies needed for one person to complete the exercise except for a writing instrument — if possible, use an ultra fine-point permanent marker (like a Sharpie) to avoid smearing on the stickers.
  • To help structure the workshop, you may want to prepare a set of slides with the information described in Outline of a 2-Hour Job Crafting Exercise Workshop (free PDF download).
  • You do not need to assign participants any prep work, but some people find it helpful to start thinking about their Before Sketch for a few days prior to the workshop.
  • If possible, it works well to arrange the desks/tables in the room into groups of four, as it enables participants to easily discuss in pairs as well as with the other pair at their table.
  • If you'd like more background information on job crafting, you can read What Is Job Crafting and Why Does It Matter?, which is a theory-to-practice briefing that summarizes job crafting theory and research.

How can I use the exercise to help achieve specific organizational goals?

Before participants start the exercise, explain the organizational goal you would like them to address and ask them to keep this in mind throughout the exercise. In particular, encourage them to try to identify opportunities for win-win connections between their motives, strengths, and passions and tasks that are important to achieving the organizational goal. During the whole group discussion at the end of the workshop, you can discuss the win-win opportunities that participants identified.

How can I help participants who feel overwhelmed or have trouble getting started on their After Diagram?

If participants feel overwhelmed and/or have trouble getting started, suggest that they take this 'one-by-one' approach:
  • Lay their Task Block and Crafting Element (motive, strength, and passion) stickers out in columns next to each other.
  • Then start assessing, one-by-one, which tasks enable them to achieve a motive, utilize a strength, or fulfill a passion and which do not.
  • Once they have split their tasks into two groups—one group of tasks that does not fit with any Crafting Element and one group of tasks that does fit at least one—they can set the tasks that do fit next to their corresponding Crafting Element(s) and begin to figure out ways of making the other group of tasks fit.
  • After they find a place for all these tasks, they can revisit the tasks that initially fit in and try to figure out ways of creating an even better fit.

What should I tell participants who ask about addressing work/life balance in their After Diagram?

Although the exercise does not directly address this, if participants want, they can approach the exercise as a tool to help them manage their work/life balance in two different ways:
  • First, they can simply keep their work/life balance in mind throughout the exercise and use their After Diagram as a means to limit the tasks and amount of work that they'd like to include in their job (to avoid work spilling over into their family or leisure time). Also, if applicable, the exercise can help them prioritize which tasks they're willing to do at home and which tasks they're only willing to do at work.
  • The second option is including their family and leisure activities as 'tasks' in their After Diagram. This approach can help them see connections between their job and their life outside of work. And if they wish, they can use Role Frames to define boundaries between work and life or to integrate aspects of work and life into the same role.

Administering the exercise in one-on-one coaching situations:

What makes the exercise valuable to people?

The Job Crafting Exercise helps people find ways to make the most of their current job. To do this, the exercise challenges people to take a step back and think about their job in a new, visual way — as a flexible set of building blocks rather than a fixed list of duties. The visual and creative nature of the exercise enables people to ask and answer a number of questions about their job in a clear, concise, and enjoyable way.

In particular, the exercise helps people identify opportunities for creating a better fit between the tasks they do on a day-to-day basis and their:
  • Motives (the outcomes they want to get out of work)
  • Strengths (their strongest personal assets)
  • Passions (the activities and topics that deeply interest them)

As a result, people find that the exercise helps them:
  • Discover innovative ideas for how to improve their lives at work
  • Develop a more positive attitude about their jobs
  • Reveal resourceful solutions to problems
  • Unlock new insights about themselves and their jobs

How can the exercise help individuals and organizations through these hard economic times?

In the current economic climate, switching to a new job or retiring in the near future are unrealistic options for many people. Since they will be in their jobs for longer than they might want, their best option is to make the most of their current jobs for the time being. The exercise is designed to help them do so by uncovering opportunities for using existing elements of their jobs in ways that make their lives at work more engaging and fulfilling.

As layoffs leave behind work that must be taken on by remaining employees, organizations are increasingly asking employees to do more work with fewer resources at hand. The exercise can help employees with these difficult transitions by providing a concrete framework that encourages them to think positively about how they can add tasks into their jobs in beneficial ways.

Especially in the current economic conditions, many managers do not have the time or resources to be customizing job designs for each individual employee. The exercise can help managers by placing the responsibility of customizing jobs into employees' own hands and encouraging them to actively seek and seize opportunities to change their own jobs in ways that benefit them and the organization.

How is the exercise helpful in one-on-one coaching situations?

The exercise provides a useful framework and language for talking about and analyzing one's life at work. This gives coaches (or managers) a concrete and engaging way to communicate with clients (or employees) about how they can make positive changes to their jobs.

How long does the exercise typically take someone to complete?

45-70 minutes

What should I tell the participant before he/she does the exercise?

Here are several key points to convey before the participant does the exercise:
  • Key Aspects of the Job Crafting Exercise:
    • Focuses you on resourcefully using and altering elements in your job that make your life at work more engaging and fulfilling.
    • Challenges you to think about and experience your job in a new way.
    • Visual nature unlocks insights.
  • Summary of the Job Crafting Exercise:
    • Part 1: Before Sketch (20 minutes)
      • Helps you take a step back and gauge how you spend your time, energy, and attention at work.
      • Eases you into thinking about your job in a visual way.
    • Part 2: After Diagram (50 minutes)
      • Helps you create a diagram of a more ideal (but still realistic) version of your job.
      • Provides an image of possibilities that you can work toward in the future.
  • The instruction booklet contains all the supplies needed to do the exercise except for a writing instrument — if possible, use an ultra fine-point permanent marker (like a Sharpie) to avoid smearing on the stickers. No prep work is required, but to create an accurate Before Sketch, some people find it helpful to start thinking about how they typically spend their time, energy, and attention at work for a few days prior to doing the exercise.
  • Your After Diagram should depict a more ideal version of your job than your Before Sketch, but it should be realistic and include all the responsibilities you need to uphold in your job — the goal is to create a version of your job that you can actually make into a reality. So you may have tasks in your After Diagram that you do not like or want in there, but the exercise might help you look at or approach these tasks in a new, more positive way.
  • It's important to read all the instructions on creating your After Diagram (p. 5-9) before going back and doing each step.
  • The perforation on both pages of stickers is easier to tear if you remove the whole page from the booklet first.
  • Role Frames are a tool within the exercise to help you mentally re-vision, re-group, or re-label tasks in a meaningful or strategic way. In other words, Role Frames are a way to infuse a task or groups of tasks with a new meaning or purpose. A common approach to Role Frames is illustrated in Example 2 on page 11 of the instruction booklet — this involves separating the tasks you dislike from the tasks you like, and reframing the tasks you dislike in a way that reminds you that you must do these tasks in order to be able to pursue the tasks you like. Also, your After Diagram does not have to be a neat and tidy 'Venn Diagram' like the examples in the booklet. If you wish, you can have some tasks that are not in any Role Frame.

What should be my role in helping the participant with the exercise?

You can provide two main sources of help:
  • First, you should try to be a sounding board for the participant during and after the exercise. You do not need to be present while he/she does the exercise. But you should try to be available to discuss after he/she finishes the Before Sketch, and then again when he/she finishes the After Diagram. Communicating about the exercise, especially about the After Diagram part, is important for sparking creative thinking, helping people sort out their thoughts, and making their job crafting plans feel more "real."
  • Second, you can help the participant implement the job crafting plans that he/she identified in the exercise. You can work together on setting some tangible goals for how to make his/her After Diagram a reality, and make sure that he/she follows through.

How can I help a participant who feels overwhelmed or is having trouble getting started on his/her After Diagram?

If participants feel overwhelmed and/or have trouble getting started, suggest that they take this 'one-by-one' approach:
  • Lay their Task Block and Crafting Element (motive, strength, and passion) stickers out in columns next to each other.
  • Then start assessing, one-by-one, which tasks enable them to achieve a motive, utilize a strength, or fulfill a passion and which do not.
  • Once they have split their tasks into two groups—one group of tasks that does not fit with any Crafting Element and one group of tasks that does fit at least one—they can set the tasks that do fit next to their corresponding Crafting Element(s) and begin to figure out ways of making the other group of tasks fit.
  • After they find a place for all these tasks, they can revisit the tasks that initially fit in and try to figure out ways of creating an even better fit.

How can a participant address work/life balance in his/her After Diagram?

Although the exercise does not directly address this, participants can approach the exercise as a tool to help them manage their work/life balance in two different ways:
  • First, they can simply keep their work/life balance in mind throughout the exercise and use their After Diagram as a means to limit the tasks and amount of work that they'd like to include in their job (to avoid work spilling over into their family or leisure time). Also, if applicable, the exercise can help them prioritize which tasks they're willing to do at home and which tasks they're only willing to do at work.
  • The second option is including their family and leisure activities as 'tasks' in their After Diagram. This approach can help them see connections between their job and their life outside of work. And if they wish, they can use Role Frames to define boundaries between work and life or to integrate aspects of work and life into the same role.

Administering the exercise in the classroom:

What course topics can I use the exercise to teach?

The exercise is an excellent tool for teaching a bottom-up perspective on job design to students with or without full-time jobs. In particular, the exercise is an engaging way to teach how employees can and do actively change their own jobs to better fit their motives, strengths, and passions, which provides a complimentary perspective to traditional, top-down views of job design.

How should I design a class period around the exercise?

A teaching note is available to instructors at no cost that gives guidance on administering the Job Crafting Exercise and outlines a class period using the suite of materials on job crafting offered by the Center for POS, which includes: In the class period outlined in the teaching note, you use the briefing to define job crafting, then either of the cases to illustrate job crafting, and finally the exercise to apply job crafting to students' own lives. For a copy of the teaching note, please contact Janet Max at (734) 647-8154 or jmax@umich.edu.

How can I use the exercise with full-time students who do not currently have jobs?

Although the instruction booklet is written to help people craft their current jobs, you can use it with full-time students by having them approach the exercise as a way to analyze a past job, plan for a future job, or craft their life as a student.

To help students approach the exercise as a tool for crafting their lives as students, this supplementary document provides examples of each step of the exercise using a student's perspective:

How much class time does the exercise require?

The exercise takes people 45-70 minutes to complete. But everyone is usually far enough along after an hour to have a productive discussion about the exercise, and those who aren't quite done can finish at home.

You can save 20 minutes of class time by assigning the Before Sketch part as prep work.