Tailwinds and support

I participated recently in the AIDS/LifeCycle San Francisco to Los Angeles fundraiser ride. It was a fantastic experience offering many lessons. Among them, tailwinds and rest stops!

On the first day, tailwinds literally pushed us UP hills over the 82 miles from Daly City to Santa Cruz. The next day on 110 miles to King City we got superhuman speeds on gorgeous descents overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was a thrill.

But eventually, you don’t even feel it as your capability is massively enhanced. Tailwinds, combined with graham cracker crunch bars and electrolyte drinks roughly every 20 miles, made the whole 550 miles to Los Angeles about as effortless as a long ride could be.

Tailwinds and support are incredibly effective indirect ways to accomplish more with less effort and lower stress. That’s the whole point of workplace strategies, by the way. 

So, how can we produce tailwinds in the workplace? 
Well, remove the headwinds. Get rid of useless barriers to productivity --  legacy systems, bureaucratic policies and procedures, convoluted decision-making. This typically means making changes in the virtual workplace; file management, communications and record-keeping.

Then, add a little push to get people up the hills in their day – mentoring, knowledge-sharing, encouragement and recognition for a job well done, or even just done. This typically means making changes in the physical workplace. New configurations and occupancy policies can promote social and professional connections that give people a lift. Along with connection and collaboration, don’t overlook privacy for focus and individual renewal.

As for support, that’s easy. Make it okay to take regular breaks within the normal flow of work. Drink before you’re thirsty and get back on the bike. 

Finding Meaning: Why Workplace will Converge with Hospitality

Since the 2016 presidential election I’ve been uncharacteristically disengaged from my consulting practice. The rejection of widely-held values consistent with my own sucked energy out of the operation. In the aftermath, it turns out that finding meaning in work is critical for motivation and performance.
 
In January I wrote about how workplace interaction contributes to “development of rich relationships, meaningful impact, and personal growth that define professional success today.” (Workplace Distraction: The Upside.) This theme continues to resonate. Think about what’s most meaningful in your own career. You may agree that relationships, challenge, and contribution are the real source of value regardless of the type of work you do.

Now, more than ever, we need the workplace to support deeper relationships, help us learn from each other and develop our skills, and highlight contributions to a greater whole. Furthermore, as we only need a brain and a laptop to get work done anywhere, the physical workplace darn well better deliver more than a mere place to perch our tools.

This is where hospitality design can show the way. The best hotels create a feeling of belonging, with lobby spaces that give us permission to connect, or not. They provide creature comforts and functional support as needed. They maintain a public side for connection and a private realm for production and renewal. The best hotels are attractive; they make it worth the trouble to put on pants and show up.

Workplace can learn from that model. Start with the prospect of interaction with actual humans, wrap it with a feeling of inclusion, take care of functional requirements that support learning and individual contribution, sprinkle in a recognition of something larger than our own selves. Add food and beverage.

...sounds like a great hotel, doesn't it?

Workplace Distraction: The Upside

I recently posted a blog entitled Expect 143% From Remote Workers. The premise is that people working interactively contribute a lot more than just deliverables; they provide social motivation, knowledge transfer, and shared experience that builds trust. So, if someone is working remotely they ought to compensate for NOT contributing these qualities by producing more deliverables. How much more? 143% more to be exact. See for yourself here.

Furthermore, as appealing as remote work may be for some, it is rarely the cornerstone of a successful career. On the contrary, remote work can quickly undermine development of rich relationships, meaningful impact, and personal growth that define professional success today. (ref. Aaron Hurst, The Purpose Economy.)

But Workplace1080 is not about dictating individual preferences and priorities. It’s about managing organizational implications of workplace change. The impact on organizations of non-strategic remote work is the issue today.

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One of my valued readers pointed out that no amount of additional output from remote employees can replace the loss of interaction in the office. It's hard to grow in a vacuum. Friction and connection are catalysts for innovation.

Instead of looking at all those quick gotta-minute-questions and whad’ya-thinks and meandering-coffee-chats and overheard-one-sided-phone-calls as distractions from our “real work,” we might recognize them as building blocks in the foundation of corporate capability.

The sample table below shows generic advantages and disadvantages of remote work for both individuals and organizations. To capture the benefits and avoid pitfalls in all quadrants, get strategic about remote work policy. Put social motivation, knowledge transfer, and trust on the same page with freedom, privacy, and access to talent.

Get started with a strategic assessment. Complete a table like the one above for your specific group or situation. Ask questions:

What jobs are best suited for remote work?
Is remote work a privilege or a requirement?
If it's a privilege, what criteria apply?
Can a flexible schedule include regular face-time to build relationships and trust?
What is the minimum expectation for on-site presence, if any?

Pay attention to physical and virtual workplace design too. There’s no point in bringing your whole workforce into the office if they don’t interact while they’re there. Poorly integrated technology tools and procedures in the virtual workplace will exacerbate isolation and reduce teamwork regardless of geographic location. 

Interaction is not merely a distraction from so-called real work. It IS the real work.

(Wherever you are in your workplace evolution, Workplace1080 can help frame the issues, explore options and model likely outcomes. Like any interaction, another perspective may be just the spark you need to stimulate and clarify your thinking.)