Ute Franzen-Waschke, owner of Business English & Culture, is a coach who helps organizations build culture through conversations.
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In our last article, my writing partner Deborah Goldstein shared an analogy about workplace technology: "Think about how many of us have leveraged all the ways we can communicate by using technology effectively. You wouldn’t drive a Ferrari only in first gear; why underutilize the digital tools at your disposal?" It illustrated the lack of practical knowledge about the use of ordinary workplace technology. The technology is there, however, training and educational sessions are lagging when it comes to the best use of these tools and growing employee confidence. The importance of being tech savvy in a hybrid work world seems obvious. Yet a study found that even in tech companies this cannot be taken for granted.
Researchers found many positive correlations among their respondents supporting remote workplace settings, such as increased flexibility and a healthier work-life balance. However, communication, management and technology were themes identified as areas of concern. The good news is with some attention to these topics there are opportunities for small and meaningful improvements.
A real-time example is meetings. Unlike when meetings took place in-person in a conference room, in hybrid meetings technology meets communication and vice versa. Depending on how well we manage these two areas, meetings are either more or less effective and engaging. We already explored how stress levels are mitigated when meetings finish five or 10 minutes early and shared a tech tip for how to do that automatically. This is important because we know from personal experience and from research that the number of meetings at work has increased dramatically. This can be attributed partly because we work more from home.
Have you been thoughtful and strategic about making your meetings more effective and efficient? Let's consider that a typical meeting model is 10% planning, 80% meeting and 10% follow-up work. However, we've come across a model that we are currently testing with our clients and have reason to believe it will be much more effective. The distribution is 50% planning, 20% meeting and 30% follow-up. Just by comparing the percentages, one can see that the synchronous time spent together in a meeting is a big saving, namely 60%. Well, you might say, both models add up to 100% of time spent, and yet the second—more effective model—shows that the time spent together on a meeting call is considerably shorter. In order to be more efficient during the time spent together, diligent prep and follow-up are necessary. That means we have to expand our toolkits because the prep and follow-up can be done on your own time and convenience asynchronously.
What tools do you use in the workplace that support asynchronous work in an effective and fun manner? We’ve been asking our clients this question. Some responded with silence, while others asked, "What do you mean by that?" We saw this as an invitation to pull up a random meeting agenda on the screen so we could explore the following questions:
- Which item(s) on this agenda need(s) a synchronous conversation to work on?
- Which item(s) can also be worked on and prepared before the meeting and continued to be “discussed” after the meeting?
We came to the conclusion that most items could be streamlined and completed more efficiently by splitting the tasks into asynchronous and synchronous packages. But the concern on many clients' minds was: Are team members going to take the necessary time to prepare and add to the whiteboards and collaboration platforms? The answer is: Maybe not in the beginning. Meeting discipline and prep effort have always been areas ripe for improvement—not just since Covid-19 changed the way we work. Things move fast and prep work is often sacrificed. We all know that these old habits die hard, yet with a little help, some conviction and pointing out tangible benefits to everyone suffering from online meeting fatigue, these obstacles can be overcome.
The rewards of changing to this new model are autonomy and more control of your own time, resulting in higher levels of your personal well-being and your team’s engagement—plus, the possible bonus of having fun using tools to help you get the prep work done!
At the same time, it is crucial to learn how to integrate the work that was done asynchronously into the live meeting and thus keep coworkers engaged both synchronously and asynchronously. Demonstrating that work done on your own time impacts and relates directly to the work accomplished together in the live meeting is important. Everyone needs to have a sense of responsibility and ownership, holding each other accountable for the new ways of working the entire team shaped and agreed upon.
We invite you to play with these synchronous and asynchronous elements in your meetings and use the tools that support such effective hybrid meeting models to see what the positive effects and learnings could be for you and your team. Remote and hybrid work is here to stay. It’s time to shift gears and learn how to maximize the horsepower hiding under the hoods of your Ferraris. Uncover what is hidden plainly in sight in your application folders on your computers and make those tools work in your favor.
If you would like a subtle nudge to motivate you to explore these ways of working, consider the fact that by timing your work to your own natural rhythm of energy, you will be more focused and creative. This can equate to finishing tasks more expeditiously, leaving you with more time for life outside of work. We’ll explore circadian rhythms in our next article.
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?
