Do It Again
This is the newsletter I didn’t want to write.
Not because of what I have to say. It’s OK, I’m not about to deliver some terrible news or some devastating insight that shatters my worldview and drives me into an existential crisis. (Which is good, I’m still working my way out of the last one!).
I have just been massively procrastinating about getting around to writing it. Which is odd, because I’ve been thinking about it loads. It’s just actually sitting down and writing it, normally the bit I really enjoy, has seemed like the last thing I want to do this week. (The possibility that, by thinking about it so much, I have convinced my subconscious I’ve actually written it is … well, let’s not dwell on that!)
I’ve had some pretty good reasons to avoid it, to be fair. It’s been a really busy week, I’ve been a bit pressed for time and had other things to focus on. Thursday was our first time looking after our grandson for the day (it’s a regular gig from now on!), which proved mentally and physically quite tiring but great fun too. On Friday, we had lunch with some friends over from Australia who we haven’t seen for a few years. And then the weather was good over the weekend, not ‘sitting in my office and writing’ weather, more ‘going out and doing stuff’ weather.
I don’t apologise for prioritising these things over writing this, I know they are good for my mental health and they are precious moments of life that need to be enjoyed and savoured. I’ve spent too many occasions distracted by my thoughts and worries about other things and that feeling that I ‘should’ be somewhere else or doing something else. This is a step forward. It’s a good thing.
I also see procrastination as part of the creative process. I know that all the things I have been thinking about are bubbling away in my subconscious and will put in an appearance when they are properly ‘cooked’, In fact, I think there’s a couple of big topics that are bubbling away there and that might be what’s distracting me.
So what I have decided to do is not feel guilty about it because actually it shows I am getting my priorities right. I’m also tricking myself by saying I’ll write a short missive this week, just to get me started. We’ll see what happens now!
What Do You Want
Christine Armstrong’s vlog this week talked about some research they had done into what people really want from flexibility. (Her vlog’s are great, you should follow her on LinkedIN or sign up for her newsletter).
Whilst 90% of people say they want flexibility, what they actually want is a level of predictability that they can structure their life around with the latitude to make changes as needed to cope with events.
What that means is knowing which days they will be in the office and knowing the people they need to see will also be there, but also be able to make changes to cope with sick kids and other caring responsibilities, other unforeseen crises and, well, life.
They find complete flexibility - a ‘wild west’ approach, if you like - adds uncertainty and cognitive load that they would rather be without. They want some guide rails, some organising principles, to give a bit of stability to things and save them avoidable thinking effort (which is what we naturally do, as humans, because thinking is hard work).
Like much in life, it’s not ‘in office’ or ‘work from home’, it’s a balance. It’s not ‘my schedule’ or ‘office hours’ but a compromise that resolves the tension between the two. It’s a blend, a negotiation of competing needs and priorities.
It reminded me of a blog that I wrote some time ago, titled “Just enough process to succeed’ (Stereophonics fans will see where the inspiration came from!).
It was based on the observation that once you had figured out how to do things, you needed a bit of process so you weren’t re-inventing the wheel every time and could focus on other challenges - but not so much process that it became stifling and prevented further learning and innovation. Process has to be an enabler, not a constraint.
Getting the balance right is not easy and it’s not a ‘one and done’ action, which is why Return To Office mandates don’t work. They still end up with people sitting in empty offices doing stuff they could do as well, and probably better, at home. The point about balance is that it’s a continuous activity. Ask a tight-rope walker what happens if they lose concentration and stop balancing, even if only for a second.
In fact, we are rarely in balance, we are either moving into or out of balance. However, if we keep listening to what our body is telling us and making micro-adjustments, we will stay on the tightrope.
To jump to a different analogy, we are just learning how to ride the ‘flexibility’ bike and, understandably, we are rather wobbly. It’s also hard work and takes all our concentration to stay upright and moving forwards. But in no time, we’ll be zooming about and popping wheelies without even thinking about it.
(A)Synchronicity
I was intrigued to see in the recent research by FlexOS that, in answer to the question “What would improve your hybrid or remote policy?”, 18% said ‘Being able to work fully asynchronous (no common working hours)’.
I suspect that before COVID hardly anyone knew what working asynchronously meant. Now, enough people are aware that a significant number say they want it.
It’s not clear exactly what motivated people to tick this box (maybe they just never want to speak to their coworkers ever again), so I’m not going to draw a wider point from it. I just note that it was on the list and enough people understood it to tick it.
A 4-day workweek got 33% of the votes, another term that has recently entered the general consciousness after all the publicity the global trial garnered. I suspect a factor in it getting more votes is that it is a much more relatable and easily understood concept. It’s basically what you do now but less of it. A day less, to be precise.
Both of these point to an evolving understanding of what work is and what’s possible. To go back to our analogy, now we’ve learnt to ride the bike without falling off, we’re starting to understand what we can do with this skill, the places we could go, the tricks we could learn. We’re getting to understand that riding a bike can open up all sorts of previously unseen possibilities.
Hybrid or flexible or remote or whatever you want to call it isn’t new. People have been working out of the office, untethered from their desks, for decades. What’s new is that it’s jumped from early adopters to the mainstream in a very short space of time. That’s putting a lot of people through a very steep learning curve but as people get their heads around this new approach to work, then the conversation becomes more developed, mature and informed. Mass adoption also creates a lot of new problems to do with scale that haven’t been fully worked through yet. As we get to grips with those, they will disappear and new opportunities will emerge.
What we are hearing now is the prattling of children who have just learnt to ride their bikes and boasting to each other about what they are going to do and how many times they are going to cycle around the world on them, or up and down Everest; whilst the parents stand around talking about how these new-fangled riding machines will corrupt their children’s minds, make them idle wastrels and bring about the end of civilisation as we know it.
Hopefully, a more sensible and measured conversation will start soon.
(Yes, I am an optimist. What can I say?)
Start Me Up
So, once I got started, I found plenty to write about.
If I was a self-appointed productivity expert, I would turn my little trick into a ‘hack’, create a meme and vomit it across social media, inviting people to join my ‘productivity boot camp’ where, for the modest sum of $1500 dollars, you could find out how to get back an extra 8 days a week of lost productivity.
So just be grateful that I’m not. You get it for free.
I might organise a boot camp though. Just not now. Maybe tomorrow.
Procrastination rules!
P.S. If you want to get in touch for a chat or to tell me your tale of corporate woe, DM me on LinkedIN, email me colin@colinnewlyn.com or book a slot on Calendly.