Small Changes, Big Difference: Job Crafting for International Matrix Teams

Have you ever closed your laptop at 7 pm, after a day of calls across three time zones, and thought: something here has to change? Most of us can’t rewrite our job description. We can, however, change a surprising amount about how we do the job. Researchers call it job crafting, and I find it one of the most practical tools for people working in international, matrix teams.
In this article you’ll find a short introduction to the idea and a set of questions to work through on your own or with your team. Grab a notebook, or simply note your answers as you read.

What is job crafting?

Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton introduced the term in their 2001 article Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work. They describe three ways people reshape their work: what they do (task crafting), who they interact with (relational crafting) and how they think about their work (cognitive crafting). Maria Tims and Arnold Bakker later added a useful angle: crafting means balancing the demands that drain us with the resources that give us energy.

Why does this matter so much in a matrix organization? Two managers, colleagues on several continents, priorities shifting every quarter. Waiting for someone else to fix all of it can take years. A small experiment can start next Monday.

Ready? Let’s go through it step by step.

Start here: where does your energy go?

Before changing anything, it helps to notice. This first step often brings an aha moment: the drain usually comes from one specific meeting, task or email thread rather than from the whole job.

Ask yourself:

1. When in the last month did I feel most energized at work? What was I doing, and with whom?
2. When did I feel most drained? What specifically made it so?
3. If I could change one small thing about my week without asking anyone’s permission, what would it be?

Try this: For one week, mark each item in your calendar with a plus (energizing) or a minus (draining). Patterns appear faster than you’d expect.

Task crafting: what I do and how

Task crafting changes the content, order or format of your work. In a matrix, the biggest gains often hide in recurring tasks: the weekly report prepared for two managers, or the status call that could easily be an email.

Ask yourself:

1. Which recurring task costs me disproportionate energy? Could I do it differently, at another time of day, or in batches?
2. Which part of my work uses my strengths best? How could I do a little more of it?
3. Is there a task I could hand over, swap with a colleague, or stop doing without anyone noticing?
4. Where could I add a bit of structure (a template, a checklist, a standing agenda) to save mental effort?
5. Which meeting could become an email, a shorter call, or an asynchronous update?

Try this: Pick one recurring meeting and propose a shorter format. Fifteen minutes saved each week adds up to more than twelve hours a year.

Relational crafting: who I work with and how

How often do you talk to the colleague in another country whose work shapes half of your week? In distributed teams, relationships rarely build themselves. A few deliberate conversations can change how the whole job feels.

Ask yourself:

1. Who in the other locations do I rarely talk to, but whose work strongly affects mine? What would one 20-minute conversation with them change?
2. Which relationship at work gives me energy? How could I invest a little more in it?
3. Which interaction regularly causes friction? What small change in channel, timing or format might ease it?
4. Who could be my “translator” for a culture or function I find hard to read?
5. What would I like my colleagues to know about how I work best?

Try this: Book one 20-minute virtual coffee with someone from another location. The only agenda: getting to know how they work.

Cognitive crafting: how I see my work

The same task can feel like a burden or a contribution, depending on the meaning we give it. Cognitive crafting costs nothing and needs nobody’s approval, which makes it a great place to start.

Ask yourself:

1. Who benefits from my work, including people I never meet in other countries or functions?
2. How would I describe my role if I couldn’t use my job title?
3. Which part of my job do I see as a burden that could also be seen as a contribution or an investment?
4. What do I want to be known for in this team a year from now?

Try this: Write one sentence describing your role without your job title. Read it again on your next difficult day.

A shortcut for your Global DISC style

Different people reach for different kinds of change. If you know your Global DISC profile, start with the question for your primary style:

• D (Direction / Dominance): Where could I get more ownership over a decision by clarifying it upfront, rather than fighting for it later?
• I (Influence / Inspiration): Where could I build in more contact with people, and where would a little more structure free me up?
• S (Steadiness / Support): Which source of unpredictability could I reduce, for example by agreeing priorities in advance or protecting a routine?
• C (Competence / Conscientiousness): Where could I agree on clearer criteria or get information earlier, so I can deliver my best quality without overanalysing?

Crafting in a matrix: four questions for international teams

Dual reporting lines, time zones and cultural differences create friction points of their own.

Ask yourself:

1. Where do my two managers’ expectations pull in different directions? What one agreement with both of them would remove most of that tension?
2. Which time-zone arrangement costs me the most? What small adjustment would I propose to the team?
3. Which communication norm (response times, cameras on or off, email vs. chat) would make my days calmer if the team agreed on it?
4. Where do cultural differences in feedback or decision-making create friction for me, and what could I do to understand the other side better?

Try this: Bring one communication norm to your next team meeting, for example the expected response time on chat, and agree on it together.

Your two-week experiment

Reflection is a good start, and crafting happens in action. Pick one change from your notes and treat it as an experiment: small, reversible, with a clear end date. Small, reversible changes are also much easier to agree with both sides of the matrix.

Copy this plan into your notebook, or fill it in right here:

• What one small change will I try over the next two weeks?
• Which crafting lens is it (task, relational, cognitive)?
• Who needs to know about it or agree to it, given that I report to more than one person?
• How will I know if it made a difference?
• What might get in the way, and what will I do then?
• When will I review how it went?

What’s your next small step?

Job crafting won’t solve every challenge of a matrix organization. It does give each of us a way to shape our work instead of waiting for it to change. And when a whole team crafts together, small individual experiments often grow into new team habits.

For team leads and trainers: pair people up for the relational questions and the experiment plan. A colleague’s curious question often turns a vague idea into a concrete next step.

At ETTA. Go Global we support international leaders and teams in moments like these, working with Global DISC™, Growth Zone™ and practical tools like this one. If you’d like to try job crafting with your team, let’s talk.

Which question from this list hit home for you? Share it in the comments 😊

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash