Blog – imc

Are your Ready for the Future of Work?

While none of us know what the Future of Work will look like, we can safely assume that remote work will continue to be an important part of the workplace in the future. Organizations have quickly adopted many technologies that enable virtual meetings and collaboration, but they are still trying to figure out what the future workplace looks like and how they will lead people and manage results in a remote work environment.

A review of current best practices (and decades of experience) has shown me that it is increasingly important for organizations to:

– Enhance the way they communicate, collaborate and support people. Managers need to be more deliberate in creating connections and facilitating collaboration.

– Evaluate performance based on results – not time, attendance, or effort. Managers need to manage people differently when they are working remotely – setting clear and measurable expectations and holding people accountable.

– Design workplace to be flexible and cultivate collaboration and creativity – Managers need to bring people together for integrated collaboration and workplaces need to support flexible schedules and location choices.

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Flexible Workplace Design

Provide shared work environments for collaboration, creative activities and connecting with others;
Give individuals choice to work either in an office or in a work-at-home option; and
Enable work through common technology platforms for communicating, managing workflows and sharing information.

Results Based Performance

Focus staff on common goals, create transparent decision-making and communicate priorities;
Align objectives and results of individuals and teams to the strategic goals and common purpose ensuring accountability for key results; and
Evaluate performance based on clear objectives and measurable results that are tracked in regular reporting forums.

Ways to Connect & Support

Connect with people to plan and report on work activities to entrench a common understanding and shared identity;
Organize events with people to build and maintain social connections; and
Support staff with consistent messaging from leaders who lead by example, listen to feedback and adapt to meet individual needs.

To help organizations envision and plan for their Future of Work, I have developed a self assessment tool – The “Future of Work Assessment” which will: propose a desired future end-state – based on a framework that represents the emerging characteristics of successful remote work environments; gauge your current state – i.e. where you are on a continuum between “old work norms” and the “future of work” ; and identify areas of focus as you redesign your physical workplace, restructure your management practices, and identify how your culture may need to evolve. Reviewing and ranking where your organization is with this self assessment can help you start the conversation about the Future of Work in your company.

You can try out Part 1 of this three part self- assessment here: https://bit.ly/FOWPart1

Managing Results Remotely

Managing results is vitally important in making remote work effective. When managers no longer see their employees on a regular basis, the manager’s attention needs to shift from managing time and activity to managing results. However, an solitary focus on only results can leave employees feeling isolated or abandoned in an exclusively remote work environment. I recommend an approach that blends strong personal engagement with a results focus. Managers who connect with each employee as a person, and at the same time, manage the work output or results can cultivate superior performance.

Managing in a remote work environment requires focusing on people first, and then on results. Managing both people and results helps to address three important aspects of performance in a remote environment:

Trust – In remote environments, there is a tendency for managers to become micro managers in an effort to keep track of employees’ time and activities. This can backfire as it undermines trust. However, managers who take the time to understand each employee on a personal level – asking both what they are excited about and what they are worried about – build trust.
Motivation – Staying motivated when you are working remotely can be challenging. Motivation is enhanced by challenging staff to solve meaningful problems and setting realistic expectations.
Productivity – Productivity is enhanced with people feel empowered through increased autonomy to achieve specific results. People feel productive when they deliver tangible results that are recognized and rewarded.

Managing people: Keeping in touch with people and helping your teams stay connected with each other is more important in a remote work environment. When people are not working in the same physical location you can’t depend on informal meetings or hallway conversations to keep everyone aligned. Therefore, it is essential that managers play a role in creating opportunities for their teams to connect with each other to discuss business problems and also to build and maintain social connections. Managers also need to be fully present and open in all conversations with their staff. To manage people and relationships remotely:

Facilitate teamwork – hold weekly team planning meetings to solicit input and coordinate work teamwork.
Stay connected – schedule regular – at least weekly – one-on-one check-ins with your remote workers.
Cultivate community – plan a variety of social events and activities to foster personal connections and create a shared understanding.

Managing results: Establishing goals, objectives and results measurements is good practice in either an in-person or remote work environments. However, in a remote work environment establishing clear accountability for results is much more important. Without a mechanism to define, measure and monitor results, managers often become micro-managers, which erodes trust. To manage results more effectively:

Create shared goals – communicate the goals for the company and department goals to all employees.
Set clear expectations – establish both team and personal objectives and key results – OKR(Objectives Key Results) for all employees.
Focus on results – track and report on tangible outcomes or results – not activity, time or attendance – for all employees.

Work is what we do, not where we are. However, working remotely is not an easy and seamless transition for all companies. Both managers and employees may struggle with the switch to remote work. You can help support managers in a remote work environment by: introducing results focused management practices and processes; and fostering a culture of trust between management and staff through personal engagement.

Accountability Starts with Each of Us

While organizations can implement organization-wide management systems to improve accountability, individuals also have a role to play. We can all improve accountability by having more explicit conversations every time we take on a new responsibility, task or project.

Most of us come to work every day wanting to do a good job and deliver on expectations. Yet, we have all been in situations where projects are late, plans are not followed, results are not delivered, budgets are surpassed and important deliverables fall through the cracks. This could be due to a lack of clear direction, or we are given unachievable goals, or our roles and responsibilities may not be clear. These factors can lead to these potentially uncomfortable situations where you:

agree to take on an extra project, and then a week later find yourself working ten hours overtime to get it done; or
take on a extra task for a colleague, but then need to delay another project, and now you are worried that this was the wrong call; or
promise your manager to deliver an update to a internal process, but then find out that it is a contrary to a company policy.

We can avoid these situations by having more explicit conversations – up front and ongoing. Improve your personal accountability by following this simple three-step conversation model when you respond to a request:

1. Yes/No/Maybe – say exactly what you are going to do. Agree on the answers to these questions: what is the specific result that needs to be achieved? What is the time frame and is it realistic? Are other resources needed? AND if you don’t have enough information to say “yes” or “no” in the moment; say “maybe” and commit to commit when you have the information you need.

2. Update – say how it is going. Show progress towards the result; measure progress; provide updates; and highlight any potential issues or roadblocks.

3. Done – say when it is done. Declare when the request has been fulfilled and discuss the extent to which the results meet the original expectations.

Following this conversation model, will strengthen personal accountability and build a foundation of trust. Personal accountability starts with us as individuals, and we can improve our own accountability by being clear about our commitments upfront.

Accountability Management System

Accountability is the most important aspect of management for most organizations. Creating accountability in organizations increases the probability of achieving goals and objectives. Accountability is also important for individuals as it can reduce the stress of unclear or conflicting expectations. Accountability also helps individuals within organizations as it reduces stress caused by unclear or conflicting expectations.

Leaders who implement a system to manage accountability create a shared understanding of how the organization can achieve its most important objectives and results. The IMC Accountability Management System enables leaders to communicate clear expectations about roles, responsibilities and results to departments, teams and individuals.

The IMC Accountability Management System® has been used successfully with both private-sector and public-sector clients. It has four steps:

Focus – Create focus when you set direction: define objectives and results using the Priority Matrix.
Align – Get aligned on roles and responsibilities when you define Customers and Performers using a Responsibility Map.
Take Action – Build robust Action Plans to execute projects and deliver results.
Sustain – Keep the system going and monitor results with standard Scorecards on a regular rhythm.

These four steps, and the tools and templates that facilitate each one, help to surface the most strategic priorities, create an organization-wide focus, and provide management with a blue-print to measure and report performance.

But of course, while organizations can implement management systems to create clear accountability, individuals have a role to play too. We all can improve our personal accountability by being clear on our commitments.

® Trademark pending

Getting the Right Stuff Done

We often hear about the importance of getting stuff done – especially when organizations have developed a new strategy. But, we also know that a strategy is worthless if we can’t implement it. Once you have a strategy, you know “what” you want to do. All you have to do…is do it. Sounds easy, right?

However, that is exactly where a lot of organizations struggle. In order to implement a strategy, we need people to take action. Therefore, we need to direct, motivate and measure the work that people do. Which is very achievable if we do three things:

1 – Define and focus on strategic priorities;

2 – Establish a governance framework; and

3 – Follow-through to tie actions to strategic objectives.

Organizations that are more successful at getting the right stuff done have adopted management practices that: set direction, align roles and responsibilities, manage execution, and sustain performance through monitoring and reporting. We call these management practices an “Accountability Management System”.