Cross Training for a More Productive Workforce

I grew up playing a lot of sports, and when I wasn't in the middle of a sports season (and even sometimes when I was), I was always playing some sort of sport or doing some sort of physical activity in my spare time.  We were always encouraged to practice other sports, lift weights, etc. (I even had a friend who's father made him join ballet to gain balance and strength for football) in order to become better athletes in whichever respective sport we played.  I actually started playing football, at that time I didn't play anything in the fall, because I was told that 'real athletes' never had an off-season.   

I think that growing up that way has made it difficult for me to pick one career that I want to do for the rest of my life, because I get bored at work if I'm not constantly challenged.  I've had a lot of different jobs thus far, and one of the things that I've noticed about each of them is that people aren't cross-trained enough in business environments.  It's not like when we were kids and a teacher took a day off and the school district would just call in a sub for the day.  When a member of a team in an organization isn't there for a day of work, the strain can be huge (especially if they are gone for extended periods of time).  If other employees are trained to handle multiple responsibilities, however, the organization can continue to function like it should, and employees can feel like they are more of a central part of its success.

Here is an article about the idea of cross training within organizations, and some of the benefits that can result from it.  It talks a bit about the difference between job enlargement and job enrichment, and, while I'm mainly for job enrichment, I think that job enlargement can go a long way with making each day of work a bit more fun and interesting as I eluded to earlier.  If you're constantly giving people a chance to improve at work, even if it is just to cover for or help out a co-worker from time to time, it can go a long way to making their experiences within the organization more meaningful.