Remote work reduced opportunities for chance hallway or water cooler conversations, which often lead ... [+]
It is lonely at the top. Senior leaders achieved the highest ranks within their organization often due to hard work, recognized accomplishments and deep-rooted networks. Once they get to the top level, they are often isolated, shielded from the truth of what is happening in the trenches. They get half-truths and omissions.
What about on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder? How do they share information, perspectives and serendipitous conversations that lead to innovation?
Innovation commences by seeing the gaps in people’s thinking and making those connections. What opportunities are there for information to flow? Are there clogs and detours in knowledge sharing? Do people have ample opportunities to seek out the gaps and make connections?
While there are multiple benefits to remote work, an issue of contention is the lack of chance hallway or water cooler conversations, which often lead to incidental learning. New employees, especially junior ones, will be unable to connect with more experienced employees and develop relationships. We need to reconsider how we are redesigning our work.
Work relationships matter
Join any organization and you will be handed documents, manuals, playbooks, handbooks, standard operating procedures and websites to reference. It is referred to as explicit knowledge—information and ideas which are documented. This is critical as it teaches you what to do, how to do it and where to go to solve problems.
There is another type of knowledge that is equally, and if not more important, that of tacit knowledge, the traditions, cultures, insights and mental models that are often subconscious and in our minds, but are an integral part of the tapestry and culture of the organizations. It is not codified and you can only access tacit knowledge when there is trust.
Building ties
Ties are the relationships between people. If we have strong connections, we build trust. It is with those with whom we have strong connections that we can turn for assistance and support. We build strong ties with those who understand and can empathize with our situation.
Tacit knowledge, the type where a hidden curriculum of unwritten rules and traditions are shared, is more likely exchanged with those we know well and trust; with those, we have strong ties. The downside is when you know each other well, you are less likely to develop new ideas, as you tend to discuss topics with which you are familiar.
As we redesign the future of work, we must consider the role of how knowledge is transferred among people. In her new book, Redesigning Work, London Business School professor and member of the Thinkers50 top management thinkers ranking, Lynda Gratton, outlines a four-step process for redesigning work.
Understand what matters
Test your assumptions and collect critical data about your employees and organization. Ask yourself these questions:
Which skills, networks and jobs are crucial for productivity?
How does knowledge flow within the organization?
What do employees want from work and the company?
Reimagine the future
Once you have a basic understanding of what really matters, how can you reimagine work to leverage this knowledge? Gratton suggests the following ideas:
Create an office space where conversation flows, and incidental learning can naturally happen.
Make the home a source of healthy living and working.
Consider how focus and coordination can be supported by the way we structure the working hours.
Model and test ideas
When you have a hypothesis, it is time to test it against multiple variables. Ask yourself these questions:
Will the model be relevant and useful in the short, medium and long term?
Will the model work to aid in skill transitions?
Is the model equitable and fair to employees across the country?
Act on your model and create new ways of working
Work to inculcate the new model into the practice and culture of the company.
Create a practice that engages people with the design choices and makes them agents of change, thereby being part of the process.
“What Lynda Gratton has always been concerned about is the human dimension of business. She constantly reminds us that we are social beings first, and business people second. She has championed the shift from competition to collaboration as the economic imperative,” shares Des Dearlove, the cofounder of Thinkers50 which ranks the top management thinkers in the world.
As we consider the future of work and redesign our physical spaces and opportunities for human interactions, Lynda Gratton’s ideas create a framework to test assumptions, learn best practices and take a giant leap into the future.
