Challenging old style management distrust in an age of flexibility

A hot topic in my clients’ world seems to be about the necessity of offering flexible work arrangements. Many of these conversations were stimulated by Yahoo and Best Buy pulling back their flexibility policies at the beginning of the year. Recent debates are amongst Leaders looking to understand the real trends.  I found it surprising after conducting further research how many companies are light-years ahead of the game and others are way behind.  The technology and telecom industries and many global packaged goods companies are convinced that work is “agile” and can be performed from where the employee works most effectively,
In the workforce today we have the “i-generation” entering and millennials moving into leadership roles. Boomers and Gen-Xers in senior leadership are no longer just facing the question on how to provide “choice” of working models but forced to consider supporting “customization” in the work environment. Old school leadership distrust has got to be challenged.

What are the managerial beliefs which create this sense of distrust in flexible work arrangements; are they real and how can they be remedied in today’s style of work?

Being face to face enables you to keep track of productivity.

This belief couldn’t be more out of date given current modes of work.  To quote one employee, “If you are physically in the office you can twiddle your thumbs and nobody will bother you, as soon as you work from home you have to document everything you are doing.” Let’s get real, most managers are usually so busy with their own meetings and own work they are not monitoring employees at every given moment. The luxury of a team member being at a manager’s beck and call because they are down the hall is also a delusion since so many use instant messaging or e-mails to get answers.  In fact, I often hear the opposite story about their manager’s presence; most team members cannot find them when they have an urgent issue to resolve.

Productivity is best measured by outcomes, delivered work and behaviours which made it happen. In the office managers are not watching their team members every move but observing behaviours primarily during meetings or presentations.  Work progress is usually monitored and adjusted through one-on-one update meetings.  Working remotely shouldn’t change these approaches to managing performance.  In fact, studies at IBM and Cisco show that team members who work from home regularly or even sporadically both demonstrate a higher quality of work and expend extra hours on the job for higher productivity.

Collaborating over the phone is less effective at drawing out opinions.

This actually may be true if leaders and team members haven’t had a lot of experience with conference call meetings. However, almost everyone is gaining experience with dial-up meetings. Like every new capability there are ways to build skills and create practices which can make conference calls equally conducive to participation and information sharing. Global and multi-location organizations cannot afford not to conduct business by conference calls because travel is so expensive.  Tools for sharing presentations, posting comments, white-boarding on-line, etc. also exist to enhance remote verbal collaboration. Group meetings should never replace regular one-on-one meetings where hesitant opinions can be gathered post-call and issues resolved.

Skills for conducting effective meetings or working collaboratively as a team are ones which all organizations need to focus on building.  Extra focus on creating collaboration moments in a remote environment is also possible. Managers need to be organized to dedicate time to planning meetings and team building moments along with leveraging multi-media tools for sharing.

Watercooler-like creativity and decision-making moments are lost.

Losing the spontaneity of watercooler conversations is a real possibility amongst remote teams but my position is these discussions are not the best way to sustain businesses. I have a friend who claims she is constantly out of loop because around her office ideas and decisions seem to come up at coffee discussions in which, as an introvert, she doesn’t participate. Everyone in her office works in the same location but even those impromptu meetings or decisions are still not shared consistently.

 There is a fallacy that creativity only happens in the spur of the moment or that all decisions are faster when on the fly.  Knowledge and worthy opinions may not be included and decisions may not be better.  Great creativity can also come from deep and quiet thinkers who don’t freely vocalize unformulated thoughts quickly.  Additionally, even when solid decisions are made quickly not many managers are skilled at keeping everyone in the loop or providing all necessary background on the decision.

When workers work remote from one another watercooler-like opportunities can be simulated through regular one-on-one updates or planned meetings and social gatherings. However, when a decision needs to be made it is important to open up space for creative thinking. For many, creativity and brainstorming may need advance reflection so planned agendas are important.  Finally, managers need to remember that sharing timely information and decisions are critical to their leadership role and the smooth functioning of their team.

Employees take advantage of working from home for personal life management.

This is the mother of all flexible work distrust justifications. It comes from both the opportunity work-from-home arrangements offers and the potential detractions that they bring.  Principally flexible work arrangements help employees to juggle their work and personal life to be more productive.  That may actually mean they are managing their personal life during work hours. However, this doesn’t actually imply they are contributing less or stealing time.

For all the reasons described in #1 face-to-face working is not necessarily more productive. Employees will often flex their time so that they are working earlier or later in the day should they go to an appointment during work hours.  In addition to giving back hours, many people often benefit from working from home because of the ability to focus without office distractions and produce better work in a shorter timeframe.  For the employee, working from home does take strong work habits and extra practice in maintaining communications and collaboration.

To get over most of the distrust Leaders have they must focus their thinking on four bottomline enablers and outcomes which help to ensure flexible arrangements are effective…

1. No matter where they are working, employees must be appropriately responsive to leaders, internal peers and customers/clients as required by their position.  This means effectively responding in both in verbal and written format.
2. Employees need to attend virtual meetings and flex their work location when needed to be available for collaborative work. They are also responsible for sustaining relationships necessary for group membership and the functions they perform.
3.  Managers must enable ways for remote and local team members to interact one-on-one and as a group, in person and electronically, to sustain information sharing, idea sharing, problem solving, creativity, relationship building and collaboration. If they or their teams do not have the skills to do this then providing tools and skills development may be necessary.
4. Employees must deliver upon role responsibilities and key performance indicators, i.e. promised quality, timelines and quantity of work, as well as the appropriate behaviours to get it done.

Old style of management and distrust is not going to stem the tide of today’s expectations for flexible working arrangements in environments where it is reasonable.  It may delay introduction of them in certain workplaces, however, for companies to continue to appeal to and retain new generations it will be necessary to get past old thinking. The definition of what is reasonable and possible in many work environments should be challenged as it is likely old management practices holding things back.  When introducing flexible working arrangements it will be important to build the thinking shift, the electronic tools, and supportive skills training to ensure its success. The ultimate benefits for allowing more flexibility will be employee engagement, greater retention and improved productivity of the business.