Be hoomans!

So this is going to be a bit of a rant with a bit of science thrown in.
Consider yourself warned.

When COVID-19 smacked us all in the face and sent us scurrying off to try to work from home without destroying our families or losing our jobs, we went through a massive adjustment. Even the least tech-savvy of us found ourselves playing with Zoom bunny ears and pretend lifestyle shots. We all introduced our furry coworkers and had the occasional chuckle as partners and children (in varying states of undress) hopped in and out of shot. It was very humanising, very personal and very humbling as we welcomed relative strangers into our homes in a way more intimate than a ‘normal’ situation would ever have demanded.

As we hybrid our workforce between home and the office and start to experience the BIG RESET, we have to make some choices about what we do and don’t want! We are remaking our social contract with our teams, our families and our employers. I’m here to suggest that we do it with a considered approach and here are a few things that I want to share about my personal experiences, reflections and emerging non-negotiables!

1
Some work is great virtually, and some are most definitely not. Work out yours and reflect on that as you decide on your version of hybrid.

For me, I have found that I really struggle with value creation virtually. Designing solutions, thinking through frameworks and building new teams - all of these things require the bounce and sparkle of creative sharing - I call it ‘getting a sniff of someone’, sounds a bit gross but what I mean is that we are wired like dogs to pick up on all the micro-expressions, the emotional contagion, the level of hormones and the physical contact of a hug or a handshake to make us build trust and psychological safety with people. With that safety in place, we can challenge each other’s ideas, build on them to spark new and divergent concepts and thoughts that strengthen the core of the output. For me, this work should only be attempted face-to-face - the quality of the output can still be good when done virtually but the freeflow of ideas is always stilted by the ‘oh no you go’, ‘can you hear me ok’, ‘Pippa, you’re still on mute’ - our lived experience!

2
Sit down with your family and verbally negotiate your new family contract

Very few of us planned to have an integration of family and work that was so enmeshed. I have been very lucky because after my son moved out of home, I could turn his bedroom into a home office - I can shut the door and my partner doesn’t have to listen to me on Zoom/Meet/Webex/telephone all day - and at the end of the day I can walk out of the office and leave the space behind. Before that, I did have one day, “Please don’t speak to me - I have had to listen to your voice for nine hours solid and I just really need some quiet time” (when introverts and extroverts fall in love!)

For most of us, our relationships with our partners are incredibly different from our professional relationships - I quote a dear friend “I don’t know who work John [the name changed to protect the guilty!] is, he is charming to everyone, polite, stops the other blokes talking over the women on the call - I wish he was more like that with me and the kids!”.

As we lean into this new hybrid working reset the rules of engagement.

• Be clear when the office is shut (the amount of emails I get at 9 and 10 at night has definitely increased!),

• Create space for connecting with your family by breaking the work/home transition with a family walk or at least a change of space (you’ll get serotonin for the sense of safety, dopamine for creating a positive experience, adrenaline for achieving your steps and oxytocin as you relax and remember why you're in a relationship in the first place! All the good neurochemicals)

• Make sure that you break from the computer regularly to go and look at something green, give your eyes the chance to focus for 20 seconds on the distant horizon

• Book in virtual coffees - the time between meetings is when the trust builds in teams and your interpersonal connection gets strong enough to be able to weather any storm that may come later. Don’t feel like this is ‘unproductive time’, productivity is measured on the quality of the outcomes your team create - not the number of Zoom meetings you had in a week.

• If you can, stopping together with your home-based co-workers to have a coffee break - will do you both good!

3
Organisations are reviewing employment contracts and re-evaluating their contractual obligations with increased flexibility

The pendulum is going to swing a bit as HR and Risk wrangle their way through this one. If you are part of a shared employment agreement, keep an eye out for ways to contribute and be involved - actively participate in any chance you have to help your organisation make considered and sensible decisions that don’t just force everyone back to a status quo that they already know how to manage.

4
Be hooman!

In our team, I am truly blessed to work with a whole team of incredible humans - they are smart, challenging, creative, fun and intensely hard-working. We check in as a team every Monday morning - how was your weekend, what did you get up to, what are your work priorities this week? Do you need help with anything? Do you have the capacity to jump in to help out someone else?

On Tuesdays, we have a 5.00pm virtual drinks, on Friday we have a 4.30pm check out - how was the week, did you achieve everything you set out to do, do you need help with anything?

This level of human connection is invaluable. We have a number of our team who live alone, with fur babies as their primary companions (while my partner is working interstate I can go a whole week where the only hug I get is four-legged and hairy - hugging strangers at the supermarket or gym is most definitely frowned upon).

For me, I now recognise when I need to connect with other humans and so we have taken a co-working space in Barangaroo in Sydney. In my next piece, I’m going to talk a bit about emotional contagion and the power to spiral each other up! I think the whole co-working space concept is amazing for small business teams - or in our case teams where no-one is actually based in the office - but either on client site or working from home. A great place to foster new professional relationships and roll around in the entrepreneurial energy of start-ups.