Asynchronicity and Remote Working

Asynchronicity. Fantastic word, and a crucial concept in communication and engagement with a remote workforce.

A great twitter thread (https://twitter.com/chris_herd/status/1313202750818312192) detailed lots of learnings re: remote working. Lots to learn. For me, one key challenge.

We know that synchronous comms, requiring presence/response at fixed times, are grossly inefficient.
There are many channels that can be used asynchronously, allowing more reflection, collaboration and control of when you respond.

But, we have bad habits, reinforced by notifications. We enjoy the notification buzz (I'm needed!); we respond urgently. When we all respond to everything urgently, it keeps coming.

THE CHALLENGE: If you keep responding around the rest of your life, without the structure – physical and temporal – of the office, you suffer.

So, synchronous communication must be used solely for two purposes:
1) For the genuinely urgent – where people must listen and respond
2) For the emotional or social – where people are brought together, and again there’s a new emphasis here
 

Remote working is staying. So, for everything else - that’s a lot of everything - it’s time to break habits, use new channels or old channels differently, with a focus on the written word. We must allow people to respond – better – on their own terms.

2020 - The year I didn't go anywhere

 

 

Loads of thoughts on this chart.
1) It's not surprising Richard Branson has a Caribbean island
2) Liking how I've eliminated driven miles
3) How little I spend on hotels and food - I'm truly a cheap date
4) I saw a lot of the UK in 16-17...

But two things stick out:
Firstly - I'm no longer in front of clients and their people. So, what do I lose in terms of understanding? There's lots of smart ways to gain insight remotely from people - and I've added to that list. But, undoubtedly, a little is missing. You can't read the room in the same way, you can't spot that bit where there was hesitation or vigourous agreement. You can miss the cues that show you where you need to probe again. It calls for harder listening, more ways to make sure you are flushing out all that really matters to employees. That's my challenge.

Secondly - It's a long time spent within these compact and bijou home office walls. Each of those trips away might have meant me leaving domestic chaos behind. But they also represented a change of scene and pace, an opportunity to recharge. Often physically tiring; mentally they were a fillip. Without that option I need to find other ways to be in a different place, while staying right where I am.
Ideas welcome!

Time to Listen Hard

 

Everyone can put up with a temporary imposition. A change to how we do things, just to ride out the storm. Especially if it's for the common good.

But by now things feel a little more permanent. Commitment and understanding naturally falters.
Then layer on the come-back-to-the-office/No! Stay away! hokey-cokey that we've just endured.
Then layer on the fact that many will be in fear of their jobs, their health, their security.

It's a time to be listening to your people. And listening hard, because there will be a complex mix of fears, confusion and fatigue.

So, you might need some help to work out how you're going to listen. You need a hand to devise the most meaningful questions. You might need an independent person to get "out" and listen first hand. You might need help to unpick what comes back. Independent, rigourous and dedicated to simpifying the complex - Reason Why can help.

Survey Design Is Important - Even for chip shop sauces

This is a fun survey - but let me be clear, it is BUNK, BOGUS and BAD.

Here's two of the main problems.

1) Where's the "no sauce" option?
Either there wasn't one in the survey, or it's not reported. Either they've forced a potentially false choice, or we don't have the whole story.
I grew up in the South East, and your options for wet stuff on chips are usually as follows: Vinegar, maybe Ketchup. Or Tartare Sauce - but that's not even an option in this.
In my experience, no southerner has ever considered putting curry on their chips. Rightly, it's just not a thing.

2) What's the threshold?
Look at Northern Ireland. 10 responses, but 5 results are reported. So these "results" are mostly the opinion of 1 or 2 people. Is that valid?
Compare that with the North West - my adopted home - where they've contrived countless ways to contaminate chips with gloopy and/or wet crap. 102 responses. That's more like it. We can have confidence that this represents the wrong-headed decisions of my neighbours.

Surveys must be designed well and analysed well. People think they're easy, because they see them every day. I see them every day too, and there's usually at least one major error that compromises them. Get an expert involved.

Right, now I need to plan my next trip to Edinburgh to get a pudding supper, salt 'n' sauce and a can of Irn Bru...

"Your employer brand IS your brand."

"How you treat your employees NOW is more important than ever.

I heard that a lot at the start of the crisis. I said it.

And yet ... Sports Direct. As COVID-19 took over, Mike Ashley showed characteristic contempt to the people that make his millions. The people that allow him to fill a mansion with as many fireplaces as he could ever wish to vomit in.

Their BrandIndex score plummeted. And so - three short months on - in an act of retribution, the British public .... queued for hours to buy his brands.

It's certainly a lesson to me; predictions can bite back.

BUT

I've been running EB focus groups all week. Sharing various messages about an employer with their target audiences.

Time again they have told me "Sounds good. But let me have the evidence, let me hear it from their people."

You'd probably made your mind up about Sports Direct's employer brand already.

For many other - most other - organisations, you have a pretty blank canvas. People don't know with much certainty what it's like inside.

People certainly know how they feel about their employer right now.

So, now's the perfect time to not just tell your audience, but show them. To let your people tell your story through their experiences. That's your best #employerbrand

Examine who you're helping, and who you're not

I've seen a lot of people post a message: "If you’ve recently been made redundant (or are at risk), and we’ve worked together at any time, please get in touch and let me know how I might help you..."

The sentiment is entirely laudable, and only one of helping others less fortunate.

BUT

Young people are going to be hit - again - by the recession. They don't yet have that network. By helping someone that does, getting them access they might not otherwise have, in some way circumventing the system - could you be denying another young person that opportunity?

Likewise, and topically, people with more influence are less likely to be BAME, or female, or in the minority re: most of the other protected characteristics.

Does this kind of informal networking perpetuate that? That's almost certainly not your intention, it may not be the result in your case, but it's hard to argue that any kind of "jobs-for-the-boys" doesn't preserve disadvantage.

If we're really serious about levelling up, we need to get way beyond acts of intentional discrimination. We need to understand what little acts have unintended consequences.

Please continue to help people. But please be mindful of who you might not be helping.

Unknown Territories

Ironically, people might be in one physical place but they're likely to be in many different mental places.

I've been trying to consume as many as discussions, webinars, blogs as my time/sanity will stand. Those that explore what work, employer comms and the relationship with your workforce will look like.

There's a common theme: You can't assume people's thoughts, motivations or concerns.

So how to navigate? How to create messages that are meaningful, that answer questions, that show a positive future?

In normal times, I'm a big fan of the creation of personas/segments/tribes to understand how to communicate. I don't think that's possible right now. People will fluidly move between segments, or even to whole new ones.

So, you need to keep listening, continuously. Assume nothing. Be prepared to adapt fast. Be prepared to stop what people told you they wanted before. Be prepared to tell people things aren't as you thought.

If you press on regardless, if you don't gain the thoughts, assent or understanding of your audience - then you'll confuse, or the message will just pass by.

With a constant dialogue, there will be a lot of forgiveness of change. Listen carefully, then take small steps. And be prepared for that next step to not be forwards.