Work that works

So says PepsiCo with their new flexible working model, ‘work that works’... in this article

80,000 staff will never work a standard 9-5 working week again. 

“Instead, the business has empowered its managers to determine which of their team members are needed in the office and when, and what work can be completed remotely, on a project-by-project basis.”

Wow! It’s pretty big isn’t it. And yes, plenty of companies have been working like this for awhile (some for years) but for most leaders, this is new. 

This strategy has been 8 months in the planning and is rolling out across 200 locations. 

2.5 days in the office and it’s now all about ‘outputs’. 

Leaders will need to step up to higher levels of communication, engagement … and leadership! 

Good for employees? Yes, and PepsiCo says hybrid working is good for business too. 

As each company expresses publicly its hybrid strategy - or its ‘forever work from home’ strategy (hello Atlassian Twitter  Facebook  Unilever  Spotify  Square Microsoft Slack Google … and many more) - the competition for talent increases. And this could be some of the talent that’s currently working for you, with you. 

Don’t be complacent. What’s your ‘work that works’ strategy, PesioCo-style? 

Are you making things easier

Today I’m working with a group of leaders on building their facilitation skills. 

Facilitation at its heart means ‘ease’, to make progress with ease. 

And ease is a great perspective to take. 

Ask yourself 
- are we making this harder than it needs to be? 
- what could we do that would make it easier? 
- how can I make it easier for them? 
- what does the team think would make it easier?

Easy doesn’t mean it’s not good or not valuable. 

It’s about being able to manage and juggle a mix of things happening in teams :
🌕 Engagement - that we are connected to this work
🌕 Involvement - that we are doing something with the work
🌕 Contribution - that we bring our ideas and efforts to the work. 
🌕 Productivity - that we are getting the work that needs to be done, done. 

The skills of getting people aligned, engaged, inspired and participating doesn’t happen automatically. 

You’ll have to do something. Many things. Many micro things that together make great progress. 

Does your team need these faciliation skills, to help make the day-to-day work easier? 

Facilitation skills apply in-person, online and in the new world of hybrid work. 

Let’s talk. I’ll tailor a session, a series of sessions or a longer term program for the team. 

Warmer and more human please

Along with everything else they’re juggling, leaders are on notice to up their humanity and reality. 

With remote work and online meetings creating a wierd kind of ‘digital disconnect’ between many leaders and their teams, it’s a good time for some newer ways of connecting. 

Some recent data reported 32% of people said communications from their leadership team during these difficult times felt ‘cold and impersonal’. Ooooh the chill!

And 31% felt leadership showed a lack of empathy for people’s personal lives. Oh the burn! 

Some businesses are trying new ways of connecting. Rather than expecting everyone online at once for a synchronous ‘town hall’ or ‘all hands’ presentation, internal podcasts are being added to the comms list. 

And 39% of those researched said they want their leaders to ‘explore more personal means of communication, like video’. 

Explore. 

That’s a nice way of saying ‘have a go’, ‘try it out’, ‘see what might work for us here.’ 

The fear of failing, looking foolish or crashing and burning can be a big turnoff for leaders who have kept their game face on, stilted, straight and ... are they frozen? Is their camera frozen? 

No. They’re just cold, still, impersonal. 

Ouch! 

Warm up. Open up. More humanity please. 

Better engagement from the leader first... before expecting engagement from the team. 

Read more in this article by Jessica Davies at Digiday.

The foolish economy of not taking a break

“We don’t need a morning tea break, let’s keep working.”
“We will have a working lunch.“ 
“This is really important, so let’s keep going.”

There they are. The statements of overload and worry that ‘we won’t get through this’ so ‘we have to push on’. 

As a participant and team member I’ve experienced leaders who won’t take a break. 

And as a speaker and facilitator, I’ve had clients not want their team to take a break. I often have to fight for, advocate for or at worst, implore leaders to give people a break. 

The science is well documented: We need breaks. 

Not just to recover physically, but mentally ... to synthesise information, consolidate information and even ... go to the bathroom! 

A lot of good stuff happens in the break from the talking, thinking, listening and pushing of information. 

Connections, reflections and important thought processes are being executed. Brain actions that may not be possible during the intensity of the never-ending workshop or meeting need to happen, and a break is when it occurs. 

To think we ‘can’t afford’ to take a break is foolish. 

What are you worried will happen? 
Disengagement? Loss of momentum? Slower progress? It’s already happened because there wasn’t a break. 

At the least, break so people can empty their ‘cognitive load’ - the information they’re holding in their brain, and just like a truck we can’t carry more when it’s full. We must empty and ‘unload’ before we expect people to ‘reload’. 

Breaks are mandated in fields like aviation, healthcare, transportation, building and construction ... even retail. 

The consequences are disastrous when breaks are ignored or deemed less important than pushing on through. 

🌕 Break during a meeting or workshop 
🌕 Break between meetings and workshops
🌕 Break during intense and heavy work
🌕 And break for longer than you think. 

You don’t need a complicated well-being program. Just take more breaks.

The extroverts will take care of themselves

How are you engaging, connecting and facilitating interactions among a diverse team? 

Winging it doesn’t work. 
Letting things flow can cause problems later. 
Denying you need to do something deliberate can also be fraught. 

Introverts
Extroverts. 
Ambiverts. 

All belong. 
All have much to bring, give and contribute. 

But if you’re waiting for them, you’re missing the point of leadership. 

You can set up a process, a constraint, an activity or use deliberate techniques that will get the best out of everyone. 

This article on how ambiverts - who have both introvert and extrovert qualities - benefit the workplace is a good one. It reminds us that there are people different to us. 

And as the world of work evolves to the next phase of hybrid, returning to offices and working from anywhere, maintaining connections across difference and diversity is a necessary and powerful leadership capability. 

What are you:
- Introvert?
- Extrovert?
- Ambivert?