Highlights and Insights

from week 2 of The Great Work from Home Experiment.

Only 15% of WFHers feel as, or more connected to their colleagues since starting remote working.

We’re onto week 2 of our Great Work from Home Experiment, and so far we’ve been exploring time management, flexibility, collaboration and the tools and techniques WFH-ers are using to bring maximum value to their work. If you missed it, take a look at the initial insights here.

This week we’ve picked out some highlights and offer some ideas and workarounds.

All the gear and no idea! Most of us hadn’t even heard of Zoom, Teams, Miro or Mural a few weeks ago. Now it’s the normal way to offer a virtual meeting and connect with colleagues or clients. Whilst we’ve now got all this new tech at our fingertips, it doesn’t mean we know what to do with it! Our WFH-ers are reporting challenges around the lack of training support when using these new programmes.

We hear you. If you need help with using remote collaboration tools — get in touch with our resident remote workshop expert Brett. (He recently wrote this article about it.)

People are tending to work more hours — why not challenge yourself to switch off on time and use your commute to switch off, try something new and unwind?

More bark than bite. With the endless zoom sessions, we’re running out of time in our days to actually get sh*t done. One WFHer isn’t impressed; “there’s this massive culture of ‘catch ups’. How often do we do them now? When does one work if there are two hours of catch ups? The mind boggles”…

We hear you. Block out sacred work or thinking time in your diary — and don’t give it up for anyone! Jenny Burns, Exec Partner at Fluxx suggests using a planner and lots of visuals; ‘The lines between our work and home life has become increasingly blurred, and so it’s important to plan your days and week with this in mind. I use a daily planner that includes both priorities- it even includes lunch and dinner plans to take another thing out of my head — and I use large colourful post-it notes to visualise and manage my priorities.’

We’re a polite bunch. For some, the little ‘on the go’ questions that you’d ask in passing don’t have their place — they’re not formal enough to set up a video call, but the answers are needed in order to get the task done. Normally we’d be able to scan the office and spot if our colleague is free to interrupt. Nobody wants to be sending an email. And a message on Slack. And a message on Teams. And a Whatsapp…

Blocking out time for lunch and breaks is important to break up the day.

We hear you. Try a Power-30; it’s 30 minutes uninterrupted collaboration time on a thing — an idea, plan, article, Google doc, or anything you like. It’s ‘doing time’ so you and your team can co-collaborate. Try it; It’s amazing what you can get done in a mini-sprint.

To market or not to market. It’s a challenging time for businesses and the economy at large and some of our WFH-ers are struggling with getting new work through the pipeline.

We hear you. We all need to do our bit to help the economy and that doesn’t mean stuff has to stop. Now is the time to pivot your offering or service; think about what your clients or customers need right now, and how you can best serve them in this uncertain time. (Want to know more? Read Pivot or Die.)

Vital rituals. Only 15% of WFHers say they feel as, or more connected to their colleagues while working from home. Some people have cracked it; “we have a meet link always available for people peeking in to say hi, and have set a morning (optional) meet-up there. Some also let others know when they go for lunch, or organise activities like online sport or cooking sessions.”

We hear you. It’s imperative to build a routine that works for you (and your team) to help you stay connected emotionally, and mentally. Whether it’s walking around the block for a morning ‘commute’, ordering Deliveroo to enjoy over a lunch and learn with your team, or embarking on virtual scavenger hunts with your colleagues. Rituals are the key to productive and happy working culture.

We’re excited to see what other rich insights the experiment will bring — stay tuned by following Fluxx on LinkedIn or signing up to our WTF Newsletter, and we’ll update you as we go. Curious as to how Fluxx has helped companies such as Condé Nast, Mars, Thames Water, HSBC, Addison Lee Group and many more? Learn the secrets for sustained, repeatable innovation models, from expert practitioners. Get in touch now Jassi@Fluxx.uk.com