The evolution of flexible work: part two
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Here's part two of how businesses can use my JOINT framework to evolve their flexible work/life design and create a platform for long-term innovation and growth. You can read part one HERE.
It’s a long one, so hold on tight…normal service resumes next week.
Insights:
There's nothing less human in many people's minds than data. However, the most creative companies and individuals understand the importance of clear outcomes and a short feedback loop that helps them learn quickly. Data and insights help us make better, faster decisions, particularly in understanding how we use our time (more on that shortly).
Steven Kotler, author and founder of the Flow Research Collective, has shown that if we increase our opportunities for Flow by only 20%, our productivity doubles. With that comes, not only increased engagement and happiness but, crucially, dramatically improved creativity and problem-solving.
You don't have to extrapolate much further to see the benefits this brings to business outcomes like increasing customer loyalty and business profitability.
Put another way; as McKinsey has proven, creative leaders deliver a 70% increase in average revenue and EBITDA.
Convinced yet?
Data and the insights it brings positively impact business performance, but to fully realise the benefits you need to ask the following questions:
What do we need to measure and how do we collect this consistently?
Can we access the information when and where we need it?
The answers to these questions look different for every company, of course, but here are a couple of initial suggestions.
An excellent starting point for measuring the outcomes I suggested in FWL#29 is using a Net Promoter Score - the percentage of people likely to recommend the company to a friend or colleague can help judge customer experience (NPS) and employee experience (eNPS).
NPS can be a useful leading indicator of longer-term financial metrics, at least the direction of travel. Consistent improvements tend to correlate with improved business performance. While it's simplicity is a benefit (it's straightforward to track), the logical next step is to consider which variables affect changes in the score.
To that end, OKR's (objectives and key results) can help track and align a broader range of objectives and work best when managed collaboratively at each level (employee, team, leadership) and not cascaded from above. You can find plenty written about OKRs online, but the best place to start is John Doerr's book, Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth.
Trust is vital in creating the perfect conditions for flexible work to become a competitive advantage. To achieve this, we need to create a positive accountability culture, which depends upon making expectations, measurement, and feedback crystal clear.
Nudges:
Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, talks a lot about 'modelling behaviour'. What he's getting at is the idea that just saying something isn't enough. You have to live it, and that starts with leadership.
I'm sure we've all experienced a boss who sends messages at 8pm on a Sunday evening. How do you feel when that same person starts talking about creating a culture, which encourages a healthy work/life balance? "You're full of shit", would be a reasonable response.
Similarly, if you recognise the value of building in times for focused work and downtime, for example, then everyone in the organisation needs to stick to it.
There's one more issue, though.
With the best intentions and the insights to support us, we all still require help to continually make the right decisions and practice habits that enable high-performance over a sustained period, which is where behavioural science can help.
Nudges can provide positive reinforcement and suggestions to influence decision-making, helping achieve two objectives.
Once you establish norms - such as limitations on meeting lengths or period in which you switch off all notifications – nudges take potentially difficult decisions out of peoples hands. For example, a countdown timer on meetings and a hard stop (the meeting auto-closing) or interruption blockers (stopping emails, instant message or calls coming through) discourages inefficient use of time.
The simple fact that nudges are in place to follow-through on agreed systems demonstrates leadership's commitment to flexible work and wellbeing, which creates a system of trust and support.
Nudges can come from people or technology. What's critical here is delivering positive interventions while avoiding interruptions during focused work periods.
Some have concerns that this approach sniffs of social engineering. However, combining an intentional approach to 'nudging' with 'modelling' from leadership fosters a culture of autonomous decision-making.
For over ten years, Laszlo Bock built and led human resources for Google, during which time he revolutionised recruitment and 'people analytics'. The author of Work Rules! is now CEO of Humu, a behavioural change tech company that's demonstrated that nudging can be highly effective at encouraging autonomy, while improving business performance, as he outlines in this example.
"We send nudges to the managers encouraging them to talk to the employees about how their work is actually making a difference in people's lives. The combination of those things caused people to feel they had more autonomy and freedom in their jobs. We saw an 8 per cent productivity improvement in this group, which translated into a $200 million net income improvement for the company. So, that's the kind of things you can do when you start from the premise of what's actually going to drive human performance, and it's treating people better, not worse."
The objective should be to demonstrate through actions that work/life design is not a nice-to-have; it's a business imperative.
Time:
The point of all the above is to emphasise the value of our time and create a framework to guide how we use it. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said:
“Time in an attention economy is the only scarce commodity,”
I was chatting with the CEO of a fast-growing SaaS business the other day who told me that his PA is now scheduling blocks of time throughout the week for him to get some exercise. "Brilliant", I said, "I'm certain you'll see the benefit". After all, there's plenty of evidence showing the link between the benefits of an active body and mind.
It raised a question for me, though. In the absence of a PA, how does the rest of the company approach scheduling their week? How can they ensure they allow time for exercise and, for that matter, any of the other pressing things in life?
Flexible work/life design is the answer.
In the case above, the CEO in question does a great job of 'modelling' the need for breaks and taking opportunities to stay healthy and active, which is the crucial point. If we get this bit right, the work/life design flywheel starts rolling. We experience the complementary benefits of rest, exercise, focused time and collaboration. All of which results in better decision making and an increased probability of delivering results.
As we reimagine what work looks like, we must take the opportunity to change our expectations of how people use their time, not to squeeze more out of them and run the risk of burnout - manifest through physical exhaustion, cynicism and, ultimately, diminished performance.
At its best, flexible work increases employee happiness and reduces churn, while creating innovative, long-lasting businesses.
I'd love to hear how your organisation has approached the evolution of flexible work, so please get in touch if you'd like to discuss this or any of the themes in this newsletter.
Have a lovely weekend.
Ollie
Any Other Business:
Here are a few things related to things I’ve written about this week.
Where’s the spark? How lockdown caused a creativity crisis by Emma Jacobs in the FT. This is an interesting, long read about the challenges of fostering creativity and innovation when we’re never in the same room as colleagues. There are some great ideas, and examples from companies that have found new ways to make it work.
The Future of Work is Through Workforce Ecosystems in MIT Sloan Management Review. Technological, social, and economic changes are fundamentally shifting and changing the nature of work.
3 Compensation Strategies for Your Remote Workforce by Laura Hilgers on LinkedIn.
A conversation between my first guest on Take My Advice (I’m Not Using It), Christopher Lochhead and the aforementioned Steven Kotler, on Follow Your Different. Kotler’s new book The Art of the Impossible is out soon.
And finally, this month I’ve been recording the world’s first-ever work/life podstorm - a new podcast episode released every day throughout January, in which I recall every Future Work/Life newsletter since I started writing it back in May 2020. Please check it out and subscribe. I hope you enjoy it!