New Ways of Working
The corporate world is in constant flux. So much so that the flux state we now work in is commonly referred to as ‘VUCA’. But it’s not like we’ve been doing the same thing over and over again for hundreds of years, things change all the time, it’s just now, the pace and intensity of this change has increased drastically.
The term ‘New Ways of Working’ has been thrown about quite a bit over the last year. Google’s pushing ahead with their re:Work program, and other companies are slowly catching onto the trend.
But what are new ways of working? At Design for Business, we believe they’re…
- The lofty visions we have that help to create a better place for everyone, everywhere.
- The work practices that have helped organisations traverse and innovate in this VUCA world
- The processes and procedures that are gaining in popularity as new generations demand more diversity, inclusion, and flexibility
- The policies that help us move forward with our new efforts, rather than keeping us where we are
- The mindsets we all shift towards to help us challenge the status quo and truly innovate in this disruptive world
- The activities and rituals we perform in teams to help us co-create and co-design
- The decision and investment systems that allow for huge risk appetites, yet protect the underlying purpose of our business
- The focus on sustainability, not just for the company, but the community and ecosystem the company operates within.
- Anything that propels us at light speed towards a greater world for all.
No company out there has the answers to all of the above. No-one is perfect, yet together, sharing what we’ve tried, what works, we’ll be able to help build the perfect work environment. An environment that will change dramatically from year to year, but ensures one thing stays consistent: people love what they do.
To get the ball rolling, I’ve outlined 5 new ways of working that we’ve noticed or created in our team. Consider adopting them if you’re a transformational leader that’s keen to push the boundaries ;-)
1. Design Sprints
The greatest way to test an idea and beat a stifling investment process
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Design Sprints made this list. I’ve written about them here and here and here. For those that don’t know, a Design Sprint is where innovators, visionaries and experts come together to test an idea or solution, with customers, over a five day period. You simply mashup human-centred design, agile, prototyping, customer testing, and storytelling into a five-day workshop.
If you’re not doing Design Sprints yet, you should try one. A lot of organisations are building them directly into their project investment process, some directly into their innovation process, others already have similar processes in R&D. The power of Design Sprints lie in the short timeframe it takes to validate an idea. Innovation processes often break down when you take 10 of your best ideas out of a pool of thousands, and run them through validation at scale. You’re much better off taking the top three and doing a Design Sprint for each. You’ll soon find out what’s worth it or not.
Pick an idea that might help you innovate and run a Design Sprint now!
2. Slackterest Channels
It’s like Pinterest but an ‘interest’ channel on Slack
Teams around the world have adopted slack, whether through their IT department or on their own (without IT’s blessing). We’ve also adopted Slack rampantly throughout our consulting practice (sans-IT), and I believe the greatest value it’s added to our work practice is what I’m calling Slackterest channels. A place where members of our team can post content that interests them, or is relevant to our roles as Design Strategists. It’s a little bit of a competition now, who can find the best link, the most cutting edge research, the most inspirational quote, the most relevant video etc.
This ensures that each member of the team is up-to-date on everything that’s happening in the world, relevant to our profession, and to our client’s industries. The best thing about Slackterest channels is they form organically. People just find cool stuff and want to share it. Slack promotes a culture of sharing, so it just happens naturally.
Create a Slackterest channel on your own personal interest topic now!
3. Corporate Narrative
An open ended ongoing conversation with your customers and employees
Corporate storytelling has been pretty popular lately, and a lot of corporates have created their stories. But stories are limited in that they only have a beginning, middle, and end. Sure, they might have chapters, but at the end, there’s always some sort of resolution. The problem with stories is that companies don’t end when their story does. The new hot topic for communication and culture building is the corporate narrative, a continuous dialogue, no beginning and end, like episodes of the Simpsons, they’ll keep going forever.
Narratives help companies weave complexity into sub-narratives, where characters come and go, familiar themes emerge, and we’re on the edge of our seats waiting to see what will happen next. If you treat your strategy as a story, you’ll always be chasing it, if you treat it like a narrative, you’ll starting living in it straight away.
Start telling your narrative today!
4. Weird Hours
Allowing creativity to exist outside the nine to five
Thankfully, Diversity and Inclusion is stronger than ever. Corporates are undergoing all sorts of changes to facilitate this inclusion. Out of all the amazing initiatives, the one that resonates the most with me is flexible working hours. None of us are hard wired to work a nine to five day. Creativity certainly doesn’t happen for eight hours straight during weekdays. Weird hours is what you need. Sometimes I’ll take a couple of hours off during the day to explore, think, do whatever I like.
Other people start later in the day, some finish early, some work half a day on the weekend and spread the time out over the week. There’s no mould to this, it’s all just weird hours. The good thing about weird hours is that people can choose when they’re most productive, and work during that time, so your productivity rate goes up, but who cares about that. It’s all about people being able to do their best when they want.
One of the most important things to do when implementing weird hours is to share your calendars and plan out the week ahead. This kinda stuff shouldn’t just happen on a whim, especially not big blocks of time. If you want to take a two-hour inspirational lunch, that’s fine, but if you’re only working half a weekday, let your colleagues know.
Pick a time period this week where you can take three hours off during the day!
5. Corporate Furniture Hacks
Making your environment less prison-like and more inspiring
We all hate the standard issue grey corporate furniture and most of us have to work with it all the time. Some of us are lucky enough to work for companies that actually value aesthetics, experience, and ambiance and fill the office with nice designer furniture. For the rest of us stuck in the grey ice-age, the only option is to HACK it. Bring in some IKEA, some pallets, some pot plants, smuggle it all in during the weekend when building management aren’t around, just make sure it’s not violating fire regulations, and you’ll be fine.
Decorate the office! Activity based working has done away with the usual family photo and pot plant on our desks, this doesn’t mean we can’t hack the shared spaces. Put up a photo wall, get a flatscreen installed somewhere, build a bike rack, hook up a Sonos system, do anything to make the office a bit more like a design studio and everyone will have a better time.
Hold a hackathon for your office space now!
Embracing new ways of working is as easy as changing your mindset, start to question the things you do and the processes and policies you have in place. Look a bit deeper at how you make decisions, how you motivate your people, how they communicate with each other, how they might like to communicate and collaborate with each other, and start to change things slowly. The shift must be gradual and consistent.
Subscribe to our Design for Business publication for more, and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.
