DISBAND THE CULTURE CLUB - Rethink Strategy
It was way back in October 2022 that I wrote the article “Culture Does Not Live Here.” It was a rant against the demands to return to the office because remote work would have an adverse impact on organisational culture.
There is a Culture Club forming that cites culture as the reason people need to work in a building. I challenge every member of this club to find a definition of culture that refers to a location, a building, or an office. You won’t find one.
This will be a Culture Club series of newsletters as we explore what needs to be eradicated and replaced to build a thriving culture in a distributed workforce.
The Culture Club
It was this article in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) that sparked this newsletter. The article, “Meet the bosses insisting on five days a week in the office”, referred to Bryan Saba, Chief Executive of Excite Technology Services. He requires staff to attend the office five days a week unless they have extenuating circumstances. He is the latest member of the Culture Club!
He admitted that his office attendance policy had made it harder to hire new staff as many candidates wanted flexibility in where they worked.
He said:
“It’s something that we know is a challenge for us, [but] the way in which we’re mitigating that is creating an environment in which people want to work.”
He told AFR that the company had brought in ping-pong tables and added lawn bowls and drinks to the end of quarterly business reviews and all-hands meetings to add a social element to company updates.
He went on to say, “When you’ve got a really strong people and culture strategy, you have people buying into a purpose, beyond their work-from-home option, and they’ve really got skin in the game.
I despair! A strong people and culture strategy comprises mandating five days in the office and the provision of ping-pong tables and lawn bowls.
The non-executive director at Excite Technology Services is Neil Sinclair, who is currently Head of People and Culture at Pacific National, an Australian logistics company. Pacific National offer flexible working arrangements (subject to business needs). It is a shame Neil cannot convince Bryan to do the same!
It is time to disband The Culture Club. Culture does not live in an office. Period.
What is culture?
Organizational culture is defined as a set of shared company beliefs, values, and expectations that define the workplace environment and employee experience. By clearly outlining these shared beliefs, values, and expectations for your employees, you’ll inherently guide people to act and behave in a certain way.
The culture of an organisation is its personality and character. Organisational culture is made up of shared values, beliefs and assumptions about how people should behave and interact, how decisions should be made and how work activities should be carried out.
These are all definitions extracted from reputable sources on the web. As per the challenge I set at the start of this newsletter, there is no mention of a location, a building, or an office.
Remote work
Before I go any further, I want to make clear my stance on remote work, just in case you don’t know!
I am a firm believer that work is what we do, not where we go.
Employees must have autonomy and flexibility to choose where they do their best work.
Not every employee can work remotely due to current business needs. When technology enables them to work remotely, they should be entitled to like every other employee.
Teams (including cross-functional teams) should collectively decide when to gather in person to maximise outcomes.
Leaders must measure outcomes, not hours at a desk.
Remote culture
Organisations that have a fully remote workforce or a distributed workforce can have a thriving culture – it just takes work.
Be intentional
You must be intentional.
Danielle Abril, writing for the Washington Post, collated advice from companies who have operated remotely since inception.
“Companies shouldn’t switch to remote work and expect culture to flourish on its own. Remote leaders said it not only takes buy-in from the company’s top leaders, but intentional effort to create a sense of connection and shared values when workers are distributed.”
You must develop a strategy for your distributed working model.
Strategy
The purpose of a distributed work strategy is to ensure continued productivity, efficiency, and a great employee experience in a remote or hybrid working model.
Every organisation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Your strategy must be aligned with your organisational goals, business imperatives, and unique culture.
Your strategy should embody all the aspects I talk about here that will enable a thriving culture.
You will need to ask questions. For example:
· What business processes will we need to streamline, digitise and move into the cloud?
· What platforms will we use for communication and collaboration?
· What are the security and risk implications, and what will we need to do?
· What is our workforce profile?
· Which roles must be onsite?
· Which roles can be remote?
· What changes will we need to make to our office space to accommodate employee needs, e.g. collaboration spaces, innovation spaces, focus spaces, and social spaces?
· What roles and responsibilities will need to be assigned?
· What geographies are remote employees permitted to work in?
· What training will need to be undertaken, and by whom?
You will need to work on developing your list of questions and evolving your strategy.
There is a great source of help from Atlassian. Team Anywhere is Atalassian’s approach to distributed work. Since 2020, Atlassians have been able to choose where they work every single day. The workforce has become highly distributed: instead of being contained to their 12 global offices, Atlassians now collaborate from 10,000+ locations.
In January this year, Atlassian released the report “Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian.” You can download the report and use it to inform your strategy, policies and guiding principles.
Guiding principles
Guiding principles are values that set a standard for employee behaviour within the workplace. They help to shape the culture of the organisation and ensure employees understand what is expected of them.
Atlassian has three key guiding principles regarding where they work, how they work and when they connect.
Where: Employees can work in any of the 13 countries where Atlassian has legal entities.
How: The default is written and asynchronous communication.
When: Work together online and gather in real life to build personal relationships
Your guiding principles could include advice on when it makes sense to work remotely or in an office. The principle should be to let the individual decide where they will do their best work. If there are distractions at home, they may consider using a quiet place in an office. And the opposite applies. When teams (including cross-functional teams) are planning on collaborating, the team should decide where the best outcomes will be delivered. If all or most of the team are within a reasonable travelling distance to a physical location, they may decide to co-locate. They may decide that using the collaboration and communication platforms and tools available will deliver just as good results, and therefore, the team can save on the time and cost of travel.
I would include a guiding principle around communication etiquette. For example, at Buffer, there is no internal email. They found that using threads for internal communication was far more efficient and effective. Avoid an “always-on” mentality by setting response expectations for each communication channel. If you receive an email at 22:00, you do not have to respond to it. The sender knows you have 48 hours to respond. You will only ever receive an SMS from your boss if the matter is extremely urgent, and you will be expected to respond as soon as you can. If you get a direct message on a communication channel such as Slack, you are expected to respond before the end of your working day.
A guiding principle for video calls could be cameras on as the default.
There may be guiding principles around the hiring process that support the organisation’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging goals.
Formulate and iterate
Guiding principles must not be created in isolation. Employees must be involved to ensure the principles are realistic and usable. When employees are involved, there will be more buy-in than if only the senior leadership team created the principles.
The guiding principles are not cast in stone. They should be visited regularly, reviewed and updates made as needed.
Every employee must have access to the guiding principles, and they should be used as an integral part of the onboarding process.
Next week
In next week’s newsletter, I will explore another aspect of the thriving distributed workforce culture.