Intentional Flexibility Programmes
BLOG 163 : Intentional Flexibility Programmes
With the possibilities of flexible working being experienced by many rather than a few during lockdown, we are now in the midst of an enlightened flexible workforce revolution requiring a mindset change on a workplace not required full time. Greater flexibility is seen to benefit organisation’s ability to better support project-based teams, mobile teams, and modern leaders.
At the recent Culture Collective NZ meeting Stella Green was interviewed alongside our client Jacinta Sarsfield of 3 years, on the top tips for those wanting to convert quarantine remote working into an intentional flexibility programme.
Here’s the 25 TOP Tips and video reel
To prepare yourself and your team for a Flexible work programme here is our top 25 tips
For you:
Educate yourself on what flexible working means, and different models.
Look around at others and what they are doing.
Reframe the situation from simply solving a problem to an opportunity to inspire - e.g. how can we inspire and engage people through/during a change to more permanent flexible working?
Have someone you can rely on through this, as it can get a bit stressful.
Sponsorship & early support
Consider having joint ownership for the project, e.g. HR and property, or HR and Tech.
Onboard a sponsor to the cause to help get this through. The more senior the person the better.
Focus on selling the vision at the top table.
Recruit change champions to evangelise about the change.
Start of a project plan
Predict the challenges within your team and front foot them. You can work with the team to identify what these challenges may be.
Choose the right sequence to roll this out for your team based on your priorities and challenges.
Coming up with a solution
Consider the three spaces - mind space, physical space and permission space in your solution.
Consider what you actually NEED versus what you think you need.
Bring the team in early to ask what they need. Getting input at the grass roots level helps inspire and excite people. If you can’t do this, definitely check in frequently.
Co-create the workplace principles on which the change is based.
Plug into the mindset of the team. It’s more about the mindset than it is about the technology, etc.
Communications
Choose a positive frame to communicate the change, e.g. instead of “taking away” as desk, choose to communicate “giving you 200 desks to choose from”.
Start comms and influencing at the top with the leadership team. It’s OK if you don’t get all of them onboard, but having a few keen supporters will help your cause.
Be super clear on the “why”.
Remember that even if people are mumbling about the message, they appreciate the comms.
Ensure at all times you allow people to be heard.
Weekly comms are good. Ensure they don’t drop off soon after the change. Communication is like a heartbeat, keep it going.
Pitfalls
Common pitfall is the budget. Ensure you have one, you are clear on how you can use it and how to prioritise it based on strategic priorities, likely challenges, etc. Define what flexi means and how it relates to the budget.
Realise that it is possible that you will design something that you don’t really use all that much - be it space (physical or virtual) and if that is the case, acknowledge the mistake and move on. Don’t dwell on it. Ongoing evolution is part of the plan.
Measurement
Use engagement metric as a good metric to track.
Celebrate your success.
Hybrid - Teaming by Design
Now is the time to reframe the way we support leaders and managers and develop intentional flexibility programmes. The role of the workplace has changed, we now face the challenge of adapting the way we work to suit a diverse range of working styles and mixed work modes in our new connected work environments. Be Confident offers Teaming by design – Independent expert diagnosis to inform work decisions today and design of work for tomorrow. We focus on optimising the teaming experience with increased flexibility in this hybrid way of working to provide a more human work experience.
Be Confident clients benefit from :
Our track record of co-creating workspace purpose and change, in particular the creation of collaborative, connected and culture-aligned spaces and work practices for organisations seeking greater productivity through flexibility.
- We bring the science of Work Design – Team workstyles, cadences , strategic adjacencies, and organisational psychology to our thinking
- We’re specialists of integrating cross functionally
- Strategic purpose envisioning with senior stakeholder engagement
- Property place & space and the pragmatics of ROIs and facilities management
- Consideration and input to collaboration force especially in areas of ideation thru virtual tools, communications and cadences
- Linking the culture thru people involvement virtually and in person and a success measure of lifting employee engagement through change,
- The analytical approach we bring matched with strong stakeholder engagement and representational workforce involvement.
- A developed Flex in/Flex out methodology already in use with clients
FLEX IN & FLEX OUT
Greater flexibility is seen to benefit an organisation’s ability to better support project-based teams, mobile teams, and modern leaders, as well as accommodating more flexible workforce resourcing models.
To better define Split modes of working Be Confident has coined the phrase FLEX IN & FLEX OUT where we talk to Flexibility of work. Where FLEX IN is flexibility within the walls of the office environment and FLEX OUT as being flexibility beyond the office environment. FLEX IN considers the provision of movement inside the workplace between teams, moving to perform a particular activities for teams and individuals.
Case studies of organisations successfully utilising this methodology can be seen on our website or LINKEDIN page.
Author: Stella Green Be Confident Ph 021 812 232 stella@beconfident.co.nz
