Editorial
Senior leaders from a growing Boston-area financial services company were frustrated that their 90+ corporate employees were refusing to return to the office full time.
“We want to get back to being a family, just like we were before COVID,” they said.
Employees and department managers saw it differently. “We’ve proven that we can be even more productive working remotely, and we like having the extra time in our lives. And besides, we’re not your family.”
As leaders continued to debate remote workplace policies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees began leaving for companies that were willing to commit to a flexible work model.
Laura, the Chief Human Resources Officer, called me in to help break the impasse. “We need an objective facilitator we trust who understands hybrid work to help guide us in making crucial decisions, but we don’t want someone to make decisions for us. Senior leaders are wary about bringing anyone who has a ‘hybrid agenda.’”
After an initial meeting with senior leaders, we all agreed that a facilitated working session to create shared principles would be the best first step to help senior leaders get unstuck.
Workshopping the Decision
To prepare for the workshop,several leaders were interviewed, and in parallel,an anonymous virtual conference area was set up, where department managers and supervisors could share their perspectives. This way, everyone could start the workshop with a shared understanding of the current state from multiple perspectives.
It was good news when,, early on in the first workshop, all senior leaders agreed to this principle: “Employees have flexibility in terms of where and when they work.” But it soon became clear that “flexibility” had very different meanings around the table. While some felt that work schedules should be part of the discussion, others argued that hours were non-negotiable. Some felt a minimum of three days in the office was “flexible enough,” while others wanted department managers and team members to make their own decisions.
By the end of this first workshop, the team agreed on a handful of principles, all of which had profound implications:
- Our company culture transcends work location.
- Department leaders and team members agree on work location and hours.
- We invest in technology that makes it easy to work from anywhere.
- We foster connections though intentional in-person gatherings.
The second workshop, held a few weeks later, also included 20+ supervisors. Small groups brainstormed a series of policies and actions to help bring each principle to life.
For example, department heads would take a first pass at identifying which roles require a certain minimum amount of time in the office, along with the rationale. HR would conduct focus groups and surveys to ask employees to brainstorm aspects of the company culture they value the most and one supervisor would lead a subteam to brainstorm ideas for in-person gatherings that make commuting worthwhile.
As part of the debrief, participants agreed on priority actions and logical subteams accountable for carrying the work forward, along with delivery dates. The company finally had an agreed-upon policy they could defend, communicate and implement.
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Creating shared, explicit principles was essential for this team to gain alignment and make decisions that are clear-headed, equitable and reasonable. Without shared principles as a foundation, the road ahead will be fraught with conflicts, accusations of unfairness, frustration and ultimately, will cause delays that can be measured in dollars, lower productivity and attrition.
Essential Ingredients for Success – The “Secret Sauce”
The following can help your team most successfully create and maintain your shared principles:
- Agree where principles are most needed and why. For example, maybe your team has reached an impasse, or perhaps you’ve noticed an extraordinary amount of tension and friction. If it’s a new team or a new project, creating shared principles about communications, reporting relationships and decision-making can be a great place to start.
- Create a shared understanding of what makes a useful principle. For example, principles should focus on the what vs. the how and should be specific enough to drive behavior. A vague platitude like “We respect all employees” is relatively meaningless. A principle like “Employees and their managers decide where and when work gets done” provides clear direction, leading to the creation of norms.
- Once your team agrees on a principle, discuss exactly what must change as a result and who will be affected. What has to change? What norms will support these principles? What actions are needed? Taking the example above, norms might relate to the criteria for choosing work location and hours, and the frequency and process by which decisions are made.
- Agree how your team will reinforce principles. Rather than leaving it to the team leader to call out transgressions, all team members should hold each other accountable. For example, if the team has agreed on the principle that all are fully present during team meetings and some multitask their way through every conversation, everyone should feel comfortable about calling out the disruptive team members, with a reminder about why this principle is so important.
- Make sure your principles are internationally transportable. Will the language be clear to a non-native speaking team? Are these principles realistic for people in all locations? For example, principles about work hours, scheduling and vacation times may not apply equally.
- Test, validate and refine your principles. Some principles sound good in theory, but don’t work as planned. That’s why it’s important that everyone agrees on the exact wording at the start. For example, a principle that calls for everyone to post documents in a central area may not be feasible due to technology limitations. Set aside time at team meetings to observe how principles are working and suggest areas for new principles. The creation of shared principles is not a once-and-done event. It’s an ongoing process.
While team principles should be flexible enough to be modified from time to time, they should be stable enough to withstand the test of time. Discuss the team principles and their meaning with new team members, and share with teams you work with frequently to improve collaboration and serve as an inspiration for them. Store your written principles and norms in a place where everyone can easily access them and suggest edits as needed.
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