Taking Care of Ourselves for the Team
Functioning as a cohesive team is imperative for success. In an increasingly remote workforce, how can we achieve more comradery? To promote optimal team performance, we need to look at each individual’s need. Are we taking care of ourselves so that we can be there for others? At Fusion, we believe that to produce our best work, we need to take care of ourselves first. Below are some of the methods that our team uses to promote self-care and to enhance team dynamics. We published these as a memo at the beginning of the year and share them with new teammates.
Team togetherness is composed of structuring our individual work for optimal flow and structuring our collaboration work for optimal performance. We do our best individual work when we optimize for creating flow in our day. We do this by taking charge as owners of and having one or two blocks of uninterrupted time each day ranging from 60 to 180 minutes.
We all have different ways of making this work, some people will work best in the mornings before everything starts, and others will work best in the afternoon post a walk/run/workout. Specific start and stop times are not important. Our priority is client and session work. Our second priority is deep work / flow time. For example, if a client schedules a meeting in the middle of your flow time, then adjust your calendar to find a new time for flow. If you had planned on working 10–6 and a client schedules a 9:00 call, then adjust your schedule to make the 9:00 call. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you have a doctor’s appointment, even one that comes up at the last minute, then make the doctor’s appointment. Your team/manager/manager’s manager will cover for you. By Taking Charge as an Owner, we can find a reasonable balance with our flow work and client commitments.
Mental health hours (MHH) are another way to find balance with the sprints and high-pressure work we sometimes face. It’s hard to find a flow state for work if we’re mentally or physically tired. Mental Health Hours help us recharge. We all have days with an unexpectedly draining call or set of back-to-back difficult meetings. Alternatively, it might snow two feet or have 5-foot waves outside that we want to enjoy and would give us a boost for the rest of our day. Some clarity for thinking about MHH. Every person on the team has 4 MHH per month. These do not accumulate. The best guidance we can give is to exercise good judgement when using them. If you plan on using them weeks or months out, it’s likely a better use for your PTO. If you have unexpected child/creature obligations, don’t take MHH, instead rearrange your schedule to accommodate what you need to do. Mental health hours are yours to take when you need to take a pause in the day.
Structuring our collaborative in-person work is one of the most important elements to performing at an elite level. It is also one of the hardest to measure and justify. When we work together in-person we believe that questions are answered quicker, problems are solved more completely, and we are better able to walk in each other’s shoes which creates a stronger, more cohesive team. There is an active tension between working at home which is easier and feels more productive than working together in-person. We don’t believe that either approach is better, but rather a balance of the two.
With the distributed nature of our team, we encourage every person on the team to travel once a quarter to collaborate and work with teammates in-person at another location, which is company paid. There may be a specific engagement that creates an opportunity to prepare in-person with someone or simply a chance to visit an office for a couple of days. This travel is of course, dependent on individuals’ comfort levels with the ongoing pandemic. We understand this causes disruption to home routines and appreciate when people accommodate this type of travel and way of working.
If you live near an office, we would love to see you in the office a couple of days a week, whether you spend a couple of hours or all day. There’s no set standard or expectation of what days to come in. Everyone may come on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday or we might have people that come in the first part of the week and a couple that come in the latter part of the week.
A Fusion publication. We are employees of UHG and these views are our own and not those of the company nor its affiliates.
