Fall 2020 INSIGHTS
One of the many consequences of the current pandemic is how many of us are now Working From Home (WFH). A number of leaders that I coach have personally spotlighted what recent polls are telling us. Over 50% of people surveyed have indicated a strong preference to work from home and have the power to choose when and if they will spend scheduled time in the company office.
WFH has the benefits of being closer to our family’s day-to-day activities (including lunch and dinner time) as well as time spent commuting. On the flip side, WFH creates all sorts of barriers to collaboration and social connection as well as accelerating the need to clearly separating work from our personal needs.
Over the past pandemic months, I have been keeping an eye on articles such as the ones noted below. This newsletter intentionally bundles 3 such articles that I hope serve you as a brief interlude into some of the ways of keeping you and others you work with connected and focused.
A brief overview is provided for each article along with a link to each article.
Give Your Remote Team Unstructured Time for Collaboration
https://hbr.org/2020/10/give-your-remote-team-unstructured-time-for-collaboration?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs
Creating opportunities for people to effectively deal with workplace isolation is critically important especially as we stumble through the 2nd wave of and who knows how many waves of COVID-19. This article identifies 3 such techniques – Virtual Coworking; Hotwalls; and Open Office Hours.
Regain a Sense of Control (When Everything Feels Out of Control)
https://hbr.org/2020/07/hbr-readers-on-juggling-work-and-kids-in-a-pandemic?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs
Among the suggestions captured in this impressive set of best practises (all of which involve life partners and family) are:
- Daily D3 reviews (What To-do items can be delayed, delegated (with the development of others in mind); or just don’t need to be done)
- Tapping grandparents to help as remote teachers for homework
- Setting time boundaries with colour cards (red – means to be interrupted only if it is an emergency; yellow – a brief interruption is okay; and green – it’s okay to work alongside me but not distract me)
- Making time to connect with your partner to share accomplishments and challenges as well as ways to overcome each challenge, cooperatively
Restore Your Sense of Control – Despite the Pandemic
https://hbr.org/2020/08/reframe-how-you-think-about-self-care?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs
Finding a balance between individual work and personal autonomy is fundamental to our wellbeing. The pandemic presents the most recent threat to autonomy. The research from this study suggests control can be gained over our personal and professional life during the COVID-19 by:
- Defining clear physical boundaries between our work and home environment;
- Embracing the perks of working from home;
- Reclaiming control over your mind and body; and
- Being part of redefining and setting an example of a healthy organizational culture
“Love. Live. Laugh. Lysol”
(Spotted on a church sign in Bracebridge, Ontario)
www.theholbrowgroup.com
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Readers may also choose to visit The Holbrow Group’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/The-Holbrow-Group-115361876819902) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=) to read a series of blogs penned by one of our younger readers. The blogs illustrate the gamut of feelings and thoughts of this individual moving through new and very challenging experiences – fear, uncertainty, social isolation, numerous distrations and optimism.
Feel free to check out our recent promotion for the virtual and highly interactive Leader as Coach program