Author: collaborativity

Originally published in the Globe & Mail May 10, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-the-hybrid-workplace-is-here-to-stay-three-ways-to-make-the-most-of-it/

As more countries and companies start to prepare for a post-pandemic future, there are many questions surrounding what the workplace will look like. With such variability regarding readiness for, and openness to, co-locating with colleagues, there’s no doubt we will need to employ a remote-first and hybrid approach for quite some time – and for many, indefinitely.

The big question is how to enable a hybrid way of working – where workers have the choice to be co-located or remote – that maintains or increases productivity and engagement. As we continue to revise and refine return-to-office plans, we must all keep in mind that flexibility will need to be our mantra. While eyes are on HR departments for a silver-bullet solution, no policies will catch all scenarios. A leadership mindset that embraces the unknown and relinquishes control will be a differentiator in making or breaking organizations.

The good news is that 79 per cent of C-suite executives plan to implement or sustain a hybrid working model post-pandemic, according to a study conducted by WeWork in partnership with independent research firm Workplace Intelligence.

Here are a few principles to consider when implementing a hybrid workplace.

Flexibility is purposely flexible: While it may provide comfort to have set days in the office and rules around working time, employees want control over their schedules and location. Telling people they are allowed to work from home on Fridays and can’t send e-mails after five o’clock simply provides new rules. Instead, consider norms that encourage true flexibility. This way, colleagues – including those who don’t have the luxury of working remotely – can adapt to ways that work for their particular situations. For example, one company I work with encouraged everyone to include the following text above their e-mail signature: While it suits me to send an e-mail now, a response or action is not expected outside of your own flex work hours.

Implement digital-first in a more sustainable way: Once we are able to co-locate safely and comfortably, we will need to make more deliberate decisions about use of space (for what purpose or occasions) and digital tools. This requires a change in mindset and behaviour toward trusting and empowering employees, while leveraging options to keep connected in various scenarios. For example, including Teams or Zoom links in meeting invites or, better yet, replacing low-value meetings with asynchronous collaboration through digital tools.

Design with individual human, not just institutional, concerns in mind: In this month’s Harvard Business Review, Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School and founder of the Hot Spots Movement consultancy, suggests managers approach hybrid work with the following in mind.

1) Job and task: Consider the corresponding level of energy, focus, co-ordination and co-operation required to drive productivity on both fronts. For example, demands for each can vary significantly between strategic planning (where the primary productivity driver is focus) and team management (whose primary productivity driver is co-ordination).

2) Employee preferences: Factors such as proximity to the office, tenure (and learning curve) in role and extraversion versus introversion contribute to overall productivity. As the article suggests, using a design-thinking approach based on personas, and interplay among them, is critical.

3) Projects and workflows: Consider how technology can be leveraged to better co-ordinate across teams and projects, in absence of co-location. Also take the opportunity to optimize processes that no longer work (or may never have) in a hybrid model.

4) Inclusion and fairness: Remote working has presented an opportunity to level the playing field. Everyone has the same amount of real estate on our Zoom screens, and no one is “in the room” or left out for being the only person to dial in (as opposed to video). However, as we move to a more hybrid model, all eyes will be on leadership buy-in and adoption. The moment it is perceived that flexibility leads to career and opportunity limitations, the model unravels and cultural ramifications ensue.

Each of these presents design considerations for hybrid work along “space” and “time” dimensions. Because organizations are comprised of individuals with diverse needs – who also manage many jobs and tasks concurrently – it’s clear that offering as much choice as possible, with leadership buy-in and adoption as a top priority, is key to optimizing productivity in a hybrid model.

Naomi Titleman Colla is founder of Collaborativity Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on driving progressive talent strategy in this new world of work. She is also a co-founder of Future FoHRward, a Josh Bersin Academy partner.

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Originally published in the Globe & Mail April 12, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-on-the-job-learning-more-important-than-ever/

Learning-agile, continuous learning, lifelong learning – however you want to frame it, professional learning has evolved significantly over the past two decades. We’ve gone from organizations telling employees what training courses are required for their job, to encouraging employees to take accountability for their own learning journey and career. Long gone are the days when employees went offsite to participate in days-long training sessions, returning a week later and considered “trained.” Particularly over the past year, we have all been forced to be creative in our learning approach: both from an organizational and from an individual perspective. This is in part because skills and business needs continue to change so rapidly, and in part because an abruptly forced digital and remote work force has made some of our go-to learning methods obsolete (at least for now).

In a recent Future FoHRward workshop with Canadian senior human resources executives, it was found that some of the biggest obstacles to enabling a learning culture were the lack of agility and effectiveness of traditional programs, an overwhelming amount of content and the leadership mindset. In order to address these challenges, the following three aspects of learning should be considered – as individuals, as leaders and at an enterprise level:

BROADENED DEFINITION OF LEARNING Like Simon Brown, chief learning officer at Novartis was quoted as saying, continuous learning organizations are “blurring the boundaries between what is learning and what is work and creating the environment, whether that is cultural environment, technological environment, mindset, so that people are actually constantly learning and that the work becomes learning.” Progressive organizations are launching initiatives such as internal “gigs” (short-term projects) designed not just to cover capacity gaps, but also primarily for employee development – learning becomes the work and work becomes the learning. Other learning initiatives, including mentoring and digital skills adoption, are being taken to the next level, with the power of technology. For example, companies such as Together are helping organizations advance their mentoring programs through automation. Companies including Lemonade help make learning more engaging through gamification. Knowledge management and sharing is also an important component of learning – for example, many companies are encouraging sharing of user-generated videos and other content to bring colleagues up to speed more quickly and efficiently.

LEARNING IN THE FLOW In many organizations, there is no shortage of great learning content – the challenge is in deploying the content in ways in which employees want to consume it (that is, not by sifting through learning management system course catalogues). Learning in the flow requires that job-relevant content is served up at the time of user need. It seems impossible that until about a decade ago, we were able to get anything done without Google, YouTube and TikTok. And what would Netflix be without its automated recommendations (in addition to those suggested by our human trusted contacts)? Similarly, in a professional context, the power of technology enables an adaptive and curated learning journey, meeting employees where they are. The key word here is curated – self-directed learning has been a big trend over the past few years; however, drawing a parallel to the Netflix example, without leadership guidance and prioritization, ideally coupled with intelligent tools to create personalized experiences or “learner journeys,” we end up with an overwhelming amount of undoubtedly great content without context – leading to lower uptake.

LEADERSHIP MINDSET AND SUPPORT When times get busy, learning is the first thing to drop from our to-do lists – which is ironic since, according to an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, it can be one of the most important ways to advance the chief executive officer’s agenda, by intervening in the places that matter most. In order to enable a learning agile organization, employees need to trust that learning is a priority. Leaders can enable this by:

• Articulating a focused set of business priorities requiring skill development.
• Protecting teams’ learning time, like they would other high-priority commitments.
• Supporting to-learn lists, in addition to to-do lists.
• Mandating time to learn, synchronously as a team (for example, lunch and learns) and asynchronously, based on how and when individuals learn best.
• Having regular and open conversations about development plans, focused on current job, as well as career aspirations.
• Encouraging on-the-job development, including “gigs” within other departments.
• Treating all work activities as learning moments, and coaching employees to view them as such.

In this rapidly changing business landscape, learning is not a nice-to-have, but a critical part of business execution. Enabling the right mindset and ensuring employees are given, and take advantage of, the space to learn (not necessarily more, but better) is essential to build the agility we need for our organizations to survive.

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Originally published in the Globe & Mail March 15, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-fear-not-young-leaders-tumultuous-times-build-skills-for-life/

No leadership case studies or textbooks could have prepared young leaders for 2020: They have been thrown into the deep end and have been asked to navigate uncharted waters, blindfolded and handcuffed, without a manual.

But these challenging times also provide an opportunity to find one’s authentic leadership voice. While doing so may feel painful in the moment, it is invaluable in these times and for the rest of your career.

On my first anniversary in the working world, I was in New York and leading my first team when terrorists flew two planes into my office’s neighboring buildings, changing the world forever. The devastation and emotional trauma caused by the acts of Sept. 11, 2001, were seemingly insurmountable. And as a young leader, I felt incredibly ill-equipped to lead my team through such uncertain and volatile times.

Thankfully, I was under the wings of some incredible role models who demonstrated a balance of confidence and vulnerability – and I knew they had my back. I took their cues and through the hardest of days knew it was my duty to lead, despite my lack of experience in doing so. By the time we finally returned to our offices nine months later, my fellow young leaders and I resurfaced with a renewed sense of gratitude and resilience, having navigated very troubled waters.

Drawing a parallel to the present day, as difficult as it may be to get your footing as a young leader in pandemic times, we have the choice to blame circumstance for stunting our growth as leaders, or we can focus on what is in our control and embrace the opportunity afforded by the tumult.

As Chuck Saia, a senior partner at Deloitte, explores in his new book You Got This, Kid, we have a lot to learn from the animal world when it comes to leadership. Here are a few simple tips as you embark on your leadership journey:

Be the mandarin duck: Protect what makes you special: In 2018, a beautiful mandarin duck, typically not found outside of Asia, appeared in New York’s Central Park. The duck became quite the celebrity for his uniqueness and was the subject of many blog posts and news stories. But then one year later, he disappeared – no one knows why. Perhaps he tired of the attention, realizing that what made him uncompromisingly different was not a fit for the urban oasis of Central Park. Don’t compromise what makes you special as a leader: Seek out environments that will best leverage and nurture your unique attributes, as opposed to those that force you to conform.

Be the butterfly: Embrace a growth mindset and evolve: Only 10 per cent of caterpillar eggs make it through metamorphosis to the butterfly stage – with the ultimate reward of flight. At certain points in your leadership journey, it may feel as though your growth is stunted – but be patient. Like the chrysalis stage of metamorphosis, there is a lot of development “on the inside,” not apparent to outsiders, and not measured by promotion and accolades. Be open to opportunities – even the ones that appear not to contribute to your longer-term plan. A lattice (versus ladder) career path broadens leadership capability and allows you to build skills and relationships that become invaluable in the long run.

Be the armadillo: Develop a thick skin and a soft heart: Armadillos are the only living mammals with a hard shell. An attack too early in a young armadillo’s life is perilous, as the animal’s armor is not yet thick enough to protect its soft underbelly. As you develop as a young leader, many people will offer (sometimes unsolicited) opinions. It is important to quickly decipher and triage helpful constructive feedback from unproductive attacks. Balancing vulnerability and confidence is critical so that you can learn and grow, while focusing on what matters most for your own development as a leader.

Most of all, be human. If nothing else, this pandemic has taught us to be empathetic leaders, something which should not be taken for granted. We have been humbled by the amount of uncertainty we have had to navigate over the past year – even the most senior leaders do not have all of the answers. While some leadership rites of passage have been victims of the pandemic, a generation of leaders is currently experiencing the leadership training of a lifetime. Not only are they learning to lead with with curiosity and empathy – they will also set the foundation for more human leaders that genuinely care about their teams’ well-being and success in the future.

Naomi Titleman Colla is founder of Collaborativity Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on driving progressive talent strategy in this new world of work. She is also a co-founder of Future FoHRward, a Josh Bersin Academy partner.

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Originally published in the Globe & Mail February 18, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-optimizing-the-next-gen-employee-experience-via-smarter-online-tools/

Employee experience has been a hot topic for HR and executive teams for years, coined as a term to capture all that employees encounter in their tenure at an organization. Just as marketing teams focus on deepening relationships by creating excellent, seamless experiences for customers, so too have HR and executive teams for employees.

The result is the emergence of Employee Experience platforms (EXP) – the next-generation incarnation of “employee portals” designed to help employees manage all work-related and HR tasks. Looking back, we could never have anticipated how critical this piece of technology would be for what was to come in 2020, a year that was all about getting everyone online safely and quickly.

Now in 2021, these platforms can help break us out of the tendency to carry out our days online in the same way we used to in person. Instead of the same, often unproductive lengthy meetings, we should aim to create workdays that reduce burnout and enhance engagement, performance and productivity in a hybrid working world.

The challenge is in integrating a multitude of HR and workflow-related technologies in a frictionless way. Providers like ServiceNow and Workday have offered solutions for HR and IT to more seamlessly manage information and processes (Workday also recently announced that it would acquire Peakon, an employee survey platform). The launch of Microsoft’s Viva platform earlier this month is also notable, as it’s the first such platform to bring tools for collaboration, learning and well-being into one central place. As EXPs continue to evolve, employees will be able to take more ownership of their experience along three important dimensions:

Collaboration: In the shift from analog to digital, many of us have developed a love/hate relationship with virtual meeting tools. On one hand, they are our best option to simulate face-to-face meetings. But on the other, countless hours staring at screens is causing extreme fatigue. According to a recent study by McKinsey, 60 per cent of respondents indicated they are struggling with connectivity and belonging through the pandemic (with racialized employees struggling more). This number is shocking but not surprising, given the social interactions that cannot be replicated online. We need to find creative ways to collaborate outside of traditionally defined meetings: 2021 is the year to optimize features such as virtual whiteboarding, shared drives, microsites and more. The goal is to enable a more productive and inclusive working environment whereby we are not exclusively relying on meeting recordings and late-night calls to keep our global colleagues in the loop.

Learning: 2020 taught us that learning successfully is not measured by the number of hours spent in an instructor-led training session. “Learning in the flow” is increasingly important as employees have less time and patience to access seemingly endless content which is not immediately useful. They need access not just to training content, but to just-in-time practical knowledge. This happens formally through traditionally defined learning assets and also informally through person-to-person interactions. The next generation of employee experience more seamlessly enables user-generated content sharing (as we are already accustomed to via social-media platforms like YouTube and TikTok) to promote a culture of continuous learning. To activate this broader approach to learning, we need to reframe each activity, task, meeting or moment as a learning or teaching opportunity. Then, by leveraging tools like learning platforms and knowledge portals (ideally integrated into an EXP to reduce user friction), knowledge can be captured and shared at scale, in the flow of work.

Well-being: We’ve recognized for years that healthy employees are more engaged and more productive – and that an enterprise-wide focus on holistic well-being leads to lower absenteeism and presenteeism. However, as well-being is so deeply personal, how can organizations provide offerings that address all employees’ unique needs? One way is through data – in this dimension, companies are only just starting to explore the possibilities of integrating wellness data directly into productivity tools. For example, Microsoft’s Viva allows users to access personalized analytics such as how many “long and large” meetings they have (which have been shown to result in lower productivity) and how much “quiet time” they’ve had. Based on this data, employees can create “virtual commutes” to mentally bookend remote workdays. Another example is Toronto-based health care benefits app League, which provides real-time health data as part of their platform to enable better decision-making at an enterprise level.

As companies continue to refine the next-gen employee experience for a hybrid working world, a few things are becoming clear: Using data to create personalized experiences that prioritize well-being, collaboration and learning are more important than ever – a responsibility shared by enterprises, managers and employees alike.

Naomi Titleman Colla is the founder of Collaborativity Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on driving progressive talent strategy in the new world of work. She is also a co-founder of Future FoHRward, a Josh Bersin Academy partner.

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Originally published in the Globe & Mail January 18, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-how-do-we-think-about-objectives-and-performance-in-2021/

Welcome to 2021, which is feeling a lot like 2020 so far. Many of us were hoping for a magic switch to make things better as the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1. However, while the beginning of COVID-19 vaccination programs provides a glimmer of light, we are still in the tunnel and we need to pace ourselves, proceeding with cautious optimism.

January is, for many organizations, a time for reflection on the previous year’s performance and a call to set objectives for the year ahead. As we continue to experience the trials and tribulations (and resulting uncertainty) of the pandemic, as well as the continuing global social unrest, how can we think about objectives and managing expectations for ourselves and for our organizations for 2021? Five suggestions:

Align to purpose

To keep ourselves and our teams focused on the right things, it is critical to have a well-articulated North Star – so that even if tactics, projects, metrics and measures change over the course of the year, everyone is still rowing in the same direction. Having a well-articulated purpose provides the guidance necessary to motivate colleagues to focus on what matters.

Rethink objective-setting

Personally and professionally, setting long-term (even year-long) objectives when there is so much uncertainty is very challenging. This January, different from last, one thing we know for certain is that this will not be a “normal” year (at least not a full one).

For example, as many of us were cautiously relieved in sending children back to class last September, school closings are now a reality again in many jurisdictions, causing further disruption to any “normal” work flow. Typical business planning cycles may need to be scrapped entirely, in favour of shorter-term, more agile goal-setting.

It is important to set SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based – goals (perhaps with a few tweaks to the traditional meaning, per career coach Michelle Cederberg) to keep colleagues motivated, while taking into consideration all of the uncertainty we are facing. Prioritization is a priority this year, so that there’s a maniacal focus on objectives that most significantly and positively affect the organization’s purpose.

Back to the concept of “tight-loose-tight” (tight on goals, loose on how to get things done, and tight on follow-up and accountability), allowing flexibility for how work gets done, while being clear on goals and accountabilities, provides the agility needed to set and revisit objectives under these ever-changing extenuating circumstances.

Restructure performance management, now

Many organizations still rely on an annual review cycle to drive and evaluate individual and organizational performance. In 2020, when we set goals and started managing performance against them, we did not know what was ahead of us. Therefore, organizations were required to improvise reconciling actual performance within a process and expectation framework that was largely irrelevant.

Some progressive companies decided to abandon traditional performance management processes altogether, in favour of regular check-ins and recalibration. In anticipation of another anomaly of a year, it is important for companies to redefine success, in order to reduce the burden and stress of factors completely outside of colleagues’ control.

Hedge

Everything from staffing models to inventory and investment decisions should be carefully managed to ensure adequate protection from extreme fluctuations and downside scenarios. For example, staffing models are facing a lot of pressure and uncertainty: The capacity built into teams to handle workflow in a “normal” year may be excessive or insufficient this year.

Think about flexible ways to handle increased (or reduced) volumes so that teams are not scrambling to handle workload when individual circumstances change. Plan for scenarios such as full lockdowns, children at home, unexpected or sudden absences and so on – because these are all highly likely (if not already existing) in 2021.

Leverage technology

Individually and as organizations, there is no time like the present to automate tasks and leverage collaboration tools (including cloud storage and shared drives) wherever possible. This reduces risk when team members are unexpectedly unavailable because of unforeseen circumstances, improves efficiency, and frees up capacity to focus on higher-value activities.

While we proceed with cautious optimism into 2021, we need to constantly reframe and refresh how we work and our definitions of success, in order to combat fatigue and keep ourselves and our colleagues engaged. Challenging one another to “shake things up” (Zoom happy hours are so 2020) both in business and social activities inspires the creativity needed to weather the rest of this storm – however long it will be.

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Originally published in the Globe & Mail December 21, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-understanding-our-stress-drivers-name-it-to-tame-it/

Stress: Probably one of the top words used in 2020. While this time of year can conjure a wide range of emotions in a normal year, for many, this holiday season in particular will be riddled with feelings of isolation, loneliness and uncertainty, all on top of the stress we have already felt throughout 2020.

During a recent wellbeing-in-the-workplace event organized by HR community platform future foHRward, Bailey Parnell, founder of Toronto-based skills-training organizations SkillsCamp and SafeSocial, led a workshop to uncover and better understand our own stress drivers (e.g. unconscious internal pressures that make us do things quickly or emotionally). It became evident that once we could become more self-aware about the implications of our primary stress drivers, we could better tame them by communicating our needs and managing our actions accordingly.

Research cited by SkillsCamp identified five stress drivers, which can have both positive and negative impacts. In times of stress, most people tend to be driven primarily by one that, if not appropriately managed, can compromise work quality and team dynamics:

1. Be perfect: Individuals driven to be perfect produce high-quality work, but sometimes at the expense of delivering on time.
2. Please others: Individuals driven to please others tend to get along with everyone but can rely too heavily on consensus and avoid conflict in an effort to keep the peace. This can lead to suboptimal results if there is not enough healthy debate and divergent thinking among teams.
3. Hurry up: Individuals driven to hurry up tend to be very efficient and productive, coming up with solutions quickly; however, they can risk not having enough buy-in and support for their ideas.
4. Try hard: Individuals driven to try hard are enthusiastic and relied-upon volunteers – even for the tasks no one else wants to take on. However, they can overextend themselves and risk overpromising and underdelivering.
5. Be strong: Individuals driven to be strong are able to stay calm under any circumstance; they give teams a sense that they can tackle anything, that everything is under control. However, especially in challenging times, they can come across as unapproachable or not empathetic.

Understanding our stress drivers, as well as those of our team members, can lead to a higher degree of empathy and an ability to better manage friction. For example, if a team is under a tight deadline, and one colleague’s primary stress driver is to hurry up, and another’s is to be perfect, you can see how they would be at odds. Without understanding one another’s stress drivers, there can be assumptions made about conflicting agendas or a lack of commitment to delivery.

Once we are aware of and understand the implications of our stress drivers, Ms. Parnell offers 12 tips for managing stress to improve our own resilience. Some of my favourites include:

• Take care of the basics: Often when we are stressed, exercise, eating, sleep and hydration are the first things to take a back seat. Ironically, a five-minute walk or glass of water can be just what your pre-frontal cortex needs to shift from “survive” to “thrive” mode.
• Breathe: Breathing changes our heartbeat and helps create the space we need to thoughtfully respond instead of emotionally react.
• Define your coping strategies: Taking time to reflect on how you would like to react in times of stress helps create a blueprint for when things do go amiss. Thinking about coping strategies for when you’re alone and when you’re with others, both during the day and at night, is a great exercise to practise in moments of calm.

Finally, once we take care of our own mental health, we are better equipped to support others, which starts with empathy. As Ms. Parnell reminds us, “empathy does not mean that you’d feel the same thing if you were in the same situation – they might be feeling anger, but in the same situation, you would feel calm.” Rather, it is the “awareness and understanding of others’ needs, feelings and concerns from within their frame of reference.” Ms. Parnell shares five ways to support someone with mental health struggles, not requiring any special skills:

1. Make your openness known to reduce stigma around mental-health challenges;
2. Just ask – ask “how are you really doing?” before getting to business;
3. Practise active listening – giving your full attention – so that people feel heard;
4. Don’t make assumptions with regard to how someone with mental-health struggles can or can’t perform;
5. Encourage seeking supports from the workplace through health benefits and other programs.

Originally published in the Globe & Mail November 23, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-no-vember-how-to-say-no-to-things-that-dont-serve-your-purpose/

As if workers were not stretched enough, the added stresses brought about by the pandemic and social unrest, coupled with the precarity of employment because of business closings and layoffs, are causing many to reach a breaking point.

This year, more than ever, it has been critical for organizations to prioritize what matters, so that workers can focus their relatively depleted energy on things that drive the most value. But we also must take accountability for our own well-being, which includes simplifying our lives by saying “no” to things that do not serve us.

Once again, this November, Liane Davey, author of The Good Fight, highlights 30 productivity drains you can start saying “no” to, perfect timing before the holiday rush adds to our stress. Here are some of my favourites:

1. Working non-stop: It is so easy to send just one more e-mail from the comfort of our beds. But studies are showing that many workers are working more since the pandemic started. Practising rituals that force us to “shut off” is critical for our well-being and our long-term productivity. Bringing me to the next “no.”
2. Going straight from work to home, or home to work, without a transition between roles: While many of us appreciate the time saved by not commuting, working where we live and living where we work means that our personal and professional roles are bleeding into one another more than ever. Simple rituals such as meditation, getting dressed and not looking at our phones right before we go to bed (and right after we wake up) signal to our brains that we are transitioning from one role to another.
3. The torrent of communication: As many of us are using a plethora of communication channels (text, e-mail, collaboration platform chats and threads, and social media platforms, to name a few), in absence of good old face-to-face options, it is easy for important information to fall through the cracks. Instead, try directing your communication into one primary channel to decrease the likelihood of missing that critical message.
4. Fretting over things you can’t control: Obsessing over things that are not in our control is not only unproductive, but also self-destructive. With so much seemingly out of our control these days, it is difficult to avoid feeling helpless and giving in to our anxieties. But focusing on opportunities in the things we can control is a way to stay positive and productive for now, and to set us up to emerge from the crisis stronger than before.
5. Meeting invitations when the meetings aren’t set up for success: Since we don’t have serendipitous hallway conversations to stay connected and updated, we are seeing our calendars swarmed with meetings. Before setting up or accepting that next meeting, make sure that it has an objective and outcome, and that the right people are included. Also, pressure-test whether a different or more efficient communication channel would be better suited. This would create space for the next “no.”
6. Overburdened calendar: Best-selling author Dan Pontefract reminds us that Kawhi Leonard played just 60 of the 92 regular-season games the year the Toronto Raptors won the championship, partly so he could preserve his energy and prevent further injury. Similarly, we need to balance our loads for ourselves and for our teams for optimal performance, which includes creating adequate space for thinking and rejuvenating.
7. Reinventing the wheel: A great way to regain control over the seemingly endless stream of to-dos is to look for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. Sometimes amplifying (but not stealing) someone else’s work, or taking a new spin on something you’ve already produced, can be more effective and efficient than always starting from scratch.
8. Agreeing to disagree: Diversity of thought is critical to creative problem-solving. However, once a decision is made, it is important for teams to align to one path forward without passive aggressive “agree to disagree” behaviour. Otherwise, hidden agendas emerge and team productivity is sacrificed.
9. Your untrustworthy narrator: As Ms. Davey suggests, “Your narrator often does a terrible job of presenting the true story.” Since we are relying much more on written communication (and two-dimensional meeting screens), it is easy to misinterpret others’ intentions. Instead, assume positive intent and address misunderstandings head-on and in a timely manner, so as to not let things fester.
10. Screens: Those of us with children constantly ruminate about how much screen time is too much. However, this worry is not just for younger people – we as adults are also becoming addicted to our screens. To counter this, schedule daily or weekly time to be screen-free and go for a walking conference call, listen to a podcast or brainstorm with a pen and paper.

Originally published in the Globe & Mail October 26, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-workplace-wellbeing-is-as-critical-as-ever-even-if-what-that-looks/

Well-being in the workplace has been top of mind for most executives and HR teams for years. From free yoga to gym memberships, mental health programs and innovative benefits offerings, companies had already been grappling with how to create healthier workplaces where their workers could thrive. Then came March, 2020. While the definition of “the workplace” has changed significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the need to focus on our own and our colleagues’ well-being has only increased in importance and expanded in scope over the past few months.

According to a research report just released by Josh Bersin Academy, health and well-being became one of the top four issues on human resources departments’ minds in May this year (41 per cent of respondents) and burnout became the top issue on employees’ minds (74 per cent of respondents) in July. No doubt these numbers are only increasing with prolonged time spent in isolation (or endless online meetings) and recurring waves of the virus around the globe.

As we have been navigating through the various phases of this pandemic, companies have progressed from reacting, where focus was mostly on colleagues’ physical well-being, to responding, where focus broadened to include mental well-being, and perhaps financial well-being, as precarity of employment became an increasing concern. Today, progressive companies are dialling up a strategic and holistic approach to well-being, which considers the interconnection among all three of these pillars, and implications not just for pandemic times but for the future.

These companies are seeing results, not just from an employee perspective but from a business resilience perspective as well. The research shows that companies that focus on all forms of well-being not only have the most engaged employees but also have better business outcomes. Companies that help workers take care of their families are 5.1 times more likely to achieve the best business, organizational and work force outcomes (financial performance, customer retention, etc.) and those that expand well-being programs to help employees deal with uncertainty are 5.2 times more likely to achieve the best outcomes.

The research found that 10 practices (out of 53 studied) have the highest business impact in areas such as financial performance, customer satisfaction, work force engagement and retention, and societal impact. Perhaps unsurprisingly, three of the 10 practices with greatest impact fall into the category of “health and well-being” and include: focus on employee health and safety, aggressively listening to the work force to define return-to-work plans, and creating integrated support for families and the entire worker’s life.

While these may seem obvious, they are not easy to execute well – they require a mindset shift in how we view well-being and how it relates to the ways in which work gets done. For example, moving beyond installing Plexiglas dividers and revising sick day policies to really listening to employees’ fears and preferences for how they want to work in the future requires an agile working approach and open-minded leaders who create an environment of psychological safety. These are new capabilities that many organizations need to build to truly adopt a holistic approach to well-being that drives business performance.

Based on this and an abundance of other research, organizations certainly have a role to play, and vested interest in, supporting employee well-being, but we need to be responsible for our own well-being at an individual level as well. Through difficult times, ironically, it is easy to deprioritize the practices that keep us healthy. These three practices can help us commit to and hold ourselves accountable for our own well-being, which also benefits that of our family, teams and organizations:

Adopt healthy habits: Whether it be eating healthier, getting more sleep or moving more, it is critical to build healthy practices throughout our seemingly monotonous days. I, for one, have committed to getting outside and exercising on most days, which improves not only my physical but mental well-being.

Connect with community: As Samara Zelniker states in her latest blog post: Community is not cancelled. Find a (virtual) community that resonates with you and commit to connecting on a regular basis. While nothing replaces in-person connections, and it can take more energy to connect virtually, the benefits to our mental health are significant.

Know when to seek professional help: While companies are paying more attention, and committing more resources, to supporting employee well-being, it is important to recognize that it’s okay not to be okay, and sometimes professional help (for mental, physical or financial well-being) is what’s needed.

Originally published in the Globe & Mail September 28, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-how-do-you-feel-at-work-post-summer-refreshed-fatigued-or-depleted/

We are entering what may be a tougher phase of this pandemic. The summer gave us some relief, both in COVID-19 case numbers and in the ability to get outside and socialize (following appropriate distancing and mask-wearing protocols, of course). Now as we’ve begun sending kids back to school, marking the transition from long summer days to cooler and shorter ones, and have started to see an uptick in cases, many of us are daunted by the question of how to work productively through the winter, especially with so much uncertainty.

To get ourselves into a mindset that will enable us to thrive through the undoubtedly challenging months ahead, it’s worthwhile reflecting on how we’re feeling post-summer holidays. While they may seem like a distant memory at this point, how did you feel when you returned? Refreshed? Or seemingly just as fatigued?

Interestingly, though we may think we are fatigued, many of us may actually be depleted – which, as described in a recent blog post by David Lapin of Lapin International, is completely different, requiring different interventions.

“Fatigue is when a muscle or the mind has been used almost to the point of failure and it requires rest to recuperate. Contrastingly, depletion is when our inner resources of energy have been drained – and this may have no connection to exertion,” he writes. “Because fatigue and depletion can feel the same, we often misdiagnose our condition. We think we are fatigued, so we rest. But in fact, we might be depleted, in which case no amount of rest will restore our inner resources. When we are depleted, we need restoration rather than rest or relaxation.”

Under the circumstances to which we have had to adapt over the past six months, one can appreciate how our energy stores have become depleted: with minimal in-person social, spiritual and physical connectedness, we have all done our best with technology to fill the void; however, there’s no doubt many of us are feeling drained at a deeper and perhaps subconscious level. As online meetings seem to take up all of our energy and time, how can we focus on re-energizing ourselves and our teams to prepare, with a renewed sense of focus, for the winter ahead?

Lead with purpose: It has never been more important to focus on what matters for our organizations and for ourselves, which comes from clarity of purpose. While this can include corporate social responsibility, it is broader: it is why the company is in business other than for shareholder return. When we lead with purpose, priorities become clearer, and team members spend less energy worrying about where to invest their time and spinning their wheels on tasks that do not contribute to (or that even detract from) the bigger picture. Further, as team members make connections between their own individual purpose and that of the team and company, a sense of fulfilment brings about renewed energy.

Create space: Both for ourselves and for our teams, we need to create space in our calendars to engage in energy-adding activities, as well as space to approach and tackle business challenges without being micromanaged. For the former, encourage team members to spend some time (and do so ourselves) walking in nature, having non-work-related discourse, journaling, listening to music, meditating … whatever gives you/them energy. Let’s not confine ourselves to any rigid ideas of when we should be engaging in energy-adding activities: as the lines between personal and working time have become increasingly blurred, we need to give ourselves and our team members the space to balance getting work done and restoration in a way that works best for each of us. It is important to empower colleagues both in their jobs and perhaps in pursuing additional projects and initiatives that tap into their passions. For example, volunteering to join an employee resource group or an enterprisewide project can be great ways to connect with personal passions and purpose and to rejuvenate.

Openly communicate: Simply recognizing the difference between fatigue and depletion can be restorative. Having open dialogue provides the psychological safety teams need to speak up and take steps they need to restore. As we become more aware of and deliberate about the signs and antidotes of each, we can better manage energy levels within ourselves and our teams.

Naomi Titleman Colla is founder of Collaborativity Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on driving progressive talent strategy in this new world of work. She is also a co-founder of Future FoHRward, a Josh Bersin Academy partner.

Originally published in the Globe & Mail August 31, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-three-questions-to-ask-as-we-head-into-a-decidedly-different-back-to/

September can be an emotional time of year. Even for those not sending children back to school (or this year, back to classrooms), it conjures memories of heading back to school ourselves, and changes like new classrooms, new classmates, new subjects, new teachers … and the passage of time. This year, we are entering the upcoming school year with more hesitation and unknowns and hence, potentially more jitters than ever before.

In parallel, as many of us are slowly returning to offices in varying capacities, how can we use this transitional time to take stock, reflect and keep our anxieties at bay as we “go back to school?” Viewing upcoming changes as progress and learning opportunities – rather than focusing on all that is outside of our control – can make a world of difference in returning not to “normal,” but to better:

How can I optimize my “new classroom” (workspace)?

As companies continue to contemplate their post-pandemic workplace strategies, more are considering at least a partial return to office space, phased over the next few months. No doubt, corporate spaces will look different between physical distancing measures and plexiglass cladding. The way we think about “workspace” now more permanently extends to and encapsulates our home or remote workspace as well. This can be a significant change from the workplace set-ups we left behind in March. In a recent presentation in partnership with future foHRward, Ann Harten, VP of HR for Haworth, noted, “People become attached to things, spaces and adjacencies. The more value we have placed on these, the more tightly people hold onto them.” As we navigate through our repatriation to office space, whatever it looks like, keep in mind that we will experience varying emotions associated with these changes. Thinking about the increasingly broad array of workspace options as an enabler of work, as opposed to something we have or that we have lost, helps us more rationally select the space that enables us to work most productively, depending on what needs to be achieved in a given day.

How can I best work with my “new classmates” teams?

The way we work with colleagues and teams has evolved over time and has shifted significantly through this pandemic. Since we removed the physical barriers of collaborating with colleagues in different locations in favour of virtual meetings, we have been able to think more broadly and deliberately about how we define our teams. Many organizations have developed ad hoc or agile teams to achieve short-term goals (i.e. COVID-19 task forces) or accelerate longer-term objectives (i.e. digital transformation). As we go “back to school,” it is important to continue to assemble teams in an agile way, bringing together requisite skills across departments and geographies to achieve the organization’s top priorities.

How can I learn “new subjects” (skills) and how can my “new teachers” (leaders and mentors) support me?

Now is a great time to reflect on our own development – both in terms of skills we need to develop and/or acquire, and in terms of people who can help. Through this pandemic, capabilities like empathy and adaptability have taken a front seat. These and other “soft” skills (now often called “power” or “human” skills), touted as critical through the pandemic, are consistent with those identified over the past several years as necessary for a world of increasing automation. The pandemic has simply highlighted the burning need to prioritize them. The way we go about developing these skills relies less and less on a traditional training approach and more on practice, self-reflection and coaching. Identifying and engaging role models, leaders and mentors who exemplify these skills and can help with your development journey is a key part of the lifelong learning required to drive businesses forward in these increasingly uncertain times.

Back-to-school season is also a great time to start or recommit to a mindfulness practice. By focusing on the present, we eliminate noise or “busy brain,” which causes unproductive and often irrational and negative thoughts about what we “should have done” or things that “may happen.” That’s not to say that we shouldn’t learn from the past and plan for the future. However, by taking time to focus on the present, we prepare our brains as a clean slate to better process past learnings and handle future events – and perhaps even alleviate some of those back-to-school jitters.