2020 has been a huge year so far. Out of necessity we have all had to change long-established habits, which has been very challenging – and at times overwhelming.
Recently, our team have been examining the impacts and our response to our workplace and behaviours – what we’ve done that works and what we’ve learned is most important.
Here’s what we’ve learnt:
- Going forward there needs to be a blend of digital and physical work practices. While we have made a successful transition to a flexible and remote workforce, physical meetings remain important for creativity and innovation. The future of face to face work is coming together for purpose – sharing ideas, having tough conversations, exploring complex problems, and engaging in strategy and visioning.
- Wellbeing and resilience needs to be actively supported. We have promoted wellbeing through out our organisation. Regular events such as stand-ups keep us on track, and also allow us to closely engage with colleagues in a way we didn’t do before. We also keep time protected in our diaries for explicitly for socialising.
- Setting the right mental modes and behaviours to facilitate effective online collaboration needs careful deliberation. We are engaging more online and this can mean missing other cues and interactions we had when face to face to run out collaboration effectively. Putting some effort upfront in setting a shared mindset and required behaviours for everyone will elevate your next meeting whatever the format.
- Workplace culture remains crucial. Changes can be made in a virtual workplace for both your team and clients to thrive. We have upskilled quickly on facilitating virtual events. We’ve also made sure that there is time for really engaging with our team mates, and make space to share our milestones, successes and challenges.