Ute Franzen-Waschke, owner of Business English & Culture, is a coach who helps organizations build culture through conversations.
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Knowing the time of day we are most productive determines the optimal time for work that moves us toward our goals, targets and deliverables. However, this doesn’t suggest how our productive time is best spent (e.g., alone, or together with team colleagues) or where to spend it (e.g., at the office, at home or from anywhere).
A team of researchers at Hult EF Corporate Education headed by Dr. Debbie Bayntun-Lees and Andy Cross published a study that provides recommendations for leaders on how to rethink leadership in hybrid work environments. Aspects explored include which tasks team members prefer doing alone from home versus at the office, and what they can more effectively accomplish together remotely versus together on-site, respectively.
In an online dialogue with HR leaders about precisely this, my colleagues and I gathered the following answers:
Alone and on-site in the office:
• Preparation of presentations, workshops, to-do lists (33%)
• Tasks requiring technology or access to material that’s only available on-site (33%)
• Email (17%)
Together and on-site in the office:
• Meetings (36%)
• Brainstorming (27%)
• Feedback conversations (18%)
• Networking (18%)
Together and remote:
• Brainstorming (33%)
• Attending meetings (33%)
• Follow-up meetings (22%)
Alone and remote:
• Preparation for meetings; collection of ideas and thoughts (40%)
• Working on new concepts, descriptions, statements of work and offers (30%)
• Focused work (20%)
• Research (10%)
When looking at these percentages, two opportunities become clear:
• Being more intentional and precise about location and mode
• Being more intentional about time and mode
The distinction between remote versus on-site work does not indicate if work happens alone or together. In both "locations," work can happen either alone or together. Therefore, more specificity will help teams and leaders structure tasks and work assignments better when they are intentional—not solely about where work happens but also with whom and how it happens, synchronously or asynchronously. Leaders and teams might want to rethink typical on-site and remote-work tasks. What used to be typical for a space no longer is.
Let’s look at some of the surprises.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming, an activity that pre-pandemic was typically considered necessary to happen together, in person, is a task that according to the above data many now feel comfortable doing either remotely (33%) or on-site (27%). And brainstorming can even be done alone! See “Collection of ideas and thoughts (40%).”
The use of interactive whiteboards that allow for fun and engaging brainstorming sessions in the remote workspace have made a big difference for some. This also allows the task to happen both synchronously and in real time, as well as alone and asynchronously, when each employee is in an optimal state to brainstorm.
The privacy of one’s own home office may be especially appreciated by introverts. From our client base, we’ve heard how much easier it is to contribute to an asynchronously arranged brainstorming session than to a synchronous one—where the pressure to produce ideas is often too high to let ideas flow easily. That’s good news for bosses and teams alike because every voice on the team can now be better heard. And with that, more ideas can be collected. It’s a win-win prospect for creativity, innovation on the company side and inclusivity for team members, thereby helping to increase engagement and well-being.
Preparation And Focused Work
According to the data shared, “preparation and focused work” happen optimally for the majority of the respondents alone and remote. We believe this sheds light on the importance of remote workers working more in tune with their circadian rhythms. The result can be more focus and productivity during their best hours.
Truthfully, we were surprised at some of these findings. It seems counterintuitive that brainstorming, when done remotely, is more inclusive and effective than when done in person. But this new working world is clearly turning paradigms upside down.
We see a reassuring message in the data for employers, as well: When focused work happens alone and remotely, employees are indeed productive and giving their best for the company. It is difficult for some to do focused work in the workplace due to interruptions. When working at home, employees have more agency to mitigate these potential distractions. Being aware of this might inspire some bosses to release the desire to always see their workers in the office.
Takeaways
It may be helpful to study the data through the lens of your personal experiences and preferences. But for us, it’s a confirmation that in the new work landscape, leaders and team members are well-advised to look together at their teams’ preferences and to rethink how meeting structures and work schedules can be adapted to increase productivity, engagement and well-being. Consider the following steps as a possible template:
1. Where and with whom does your best work happen? Is it in the office, together or alone, or in your home office, together or alone?
2. What are the preferences of your team?
3. How can you rearrange work assignments to best suit team members’ needs in three dimensions: for synchronous or asynchronous, together or alone and on-site or work-from-home options?
4. Experiment with these new arrangements. Then do a retrospective study on how productivity, engagement and well-being have (or haven’t) shifted. Decide together as a team what you’d like to keep, bin or change again.
Making the necessary changes requires courage—we all know how hard it is to let go of our dear habits and routines. But pre-Covid-19 workplace settings are indeed a thing of the past. Therefore, the sooner you consider how to optimize work for yourself and for your teams, the sooner productivity, engagement and well-being will result.
In our next article, we’ll tease out how to better insure intentional productivity no matter the when and the where.
This article is part of an ongoing series with fellow Forbes Coaches Council member Deborah Goldstein, founder of DRIVEN Professionals.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
