12+1 Strategies to realise the value of your digital workplace
In the last 2 articles, I looked at what is a digital workplace and the use cases it serves and identified reasons why it's not fulfilling its promise .
Now I suggest strategies to overcome the drawbacks identified and create a digital workplace which is used widely and effectively. They underpinned my thought process for putting together the agenda for Social Now 2024 .
1. Understand the main use cases
Many factors contribute to the priority and importance of use cases for the digital workplace. Type of work, workers’ profiles, work arrangements, size of the organisation, number of physical locations, etc.
Identify the use cases which are important to the organisation and order them by priority. Please consider as many user personas as you can; specially do not forget about the very specific requirements of frontline workers .
2. Review the existing digital toolkit
Use the identified use cases to review the current set of digital tools. Which use cases are not covered? Are there multiple tools for the same use case? What tools are in the market to meet existing gaps while integrating with our existing tools as much as possible?
Do not underestimate the time required to force technology to do what it was not designed to do. Equally, do not underestimate the effort required to get people to embrace tools with bad usability and user experience.
At Social Now 2024, Suzie Robinson will show how to make sense of your digital workplace landscape
3. Rethink work processes and practices
To take full advantage of the digital workplace, organisations cannot make the mistake we frequently see in so-called digital transformation programmes, i.e. they cannot simply use digital technologies to replicate the current analog processes and practices.
Do you really need to email the board a PDF of your project initiation document to get their approval as a positive reply to your email? Could this not be a shared wiki page that also aggregates all comments, the whole thinking process and decisions made towards the final, approved version?
Do you really need to run weekly meetings for project updates? Could these updates not be easily tracked in a status page within your digital collaboration space?
In your onboarding programme, why do you have to limit buddies to those in the same location as your new hires? Could they be in other geographies, thus contributing to breaking silos and giving employees a sense of opportunity?
Take time to understand the tools, and think openly of how to leverage the tools to respond to the prioritised use cases. Question and be critical of the current ways of working: they were defined when the organisation had a very different set of tools and worked in a very different global context of work.
4. Design for and embrace asynchronous work
Sumeet Gaythry Moghe advocates for a way of work which privileges asynchronous practices: an async-first approach. It may not be an option for all, but it is certainly a possibility for many.
There is a huge opportunity to reflect on how asynchronous practices can be adopted to allow for true flexibility of work-time, to accommodate personal preferences, to give time to properly ponder and gather information before voicing opinions or reaching decisions.
I guess we can say “async-first, so that you can think first”.
Sumeet Gayathri Moghe will be at Social Now 2024 to demonstrate the power of asynchronous collaboration techniques
5. Review required set of competences, skills and experiences
With the rise of generative AI, there has been a lot of debate around the skills of the future. Organisations are missing the same level of reflection and debate when it comes to the skills required for more flexible work arrangements and for workplaces predominantly digital.
Being able to communicate clearly, having good understanding skills, being comfortable with time lapses between action and reaction, being self-driven, having digital dexterity. These are some of the key skills and competences for workers in this new reality, and what organisations need to recruit and secure.
Revise your organisation’s personal development plans, and adjust your focus when recruiting.
6. Humanise the (digital) workplace
In theory, the digital workplace and more flexible work arrangements enable people to work according to their preferences and personal circumstances. At the end of the day, everyone gains when people are allowed to “show up as their full & fabulous selves” .
However, if not careful, the digital workplace can also create gaps and dehumanise the workplace, discriminating and missing out on the benefits of diversity.
Emily Hinks ?? talk at Social Now 2024 will give tactics to cultivate inclusive spaces and accessible practices
7. Define policies and governance models
As with many things, it is important to have policies and governance in place. Everyone needs to know what is expected of them in this context of work.
Is an intranet news item to be taken more serious than a post on the internal social platform? Does a direct message on the digital platform demand a more urgent response than an email? Who can create team spaces in the digital collaboration platform? When can digital work spaces be private? How is content maintained to ensure validity and relevance?
Carefully define policies and governance models which align and reinforce organisational values while contributing to an effective and safe digital workplace.
After defining these policies and governance models, make them known and accessible to all.
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8. Encourage definition of team agreements
Organisations should create and support digital technologies, define global policies and governance models, and recommend good work practices supported by the digital workplace. However, each team will have its specificities and needs.
It is important for teams to agree on how to work, fulfilling their role, meeting their objectives, staying engaged, and respecting each other’s preferences and circumstances.
Andrew Pope, for instance, recommends teams to create their own team charter as a tool for all members to focus on the core, agreed ways of work, including rituals, common tools and consistent practices.
9. Change the narrative
Too many meetings are not a synonym of one’s importance; the quantity of emails is not a reflex of how much and well one works; a 2-hour wait before a response does not mean the colleague was lazying; someone who shares resources widely with colleagues isn’t necessarily a showoff.
There are many narratives born in old times which inconsistent with the digital workplace. These need to be replaced with new narratives.
One way to do it is by highlighting the behaviors and practices of key leaders; another is giving voice to employees who can either share their own examples or help surface the elements of the desired narrative.
In 2024, Céline Schillinger will do a practical how-to session on amplifying your organisation’s stories
10. (Up)Skill leaders
Many of today’s leaders are actually just managers: guided by traditional management and work practices. They are:
Look at your organisation’s managers and leaders; select a few – because of the critical nature of their teams or because of their enthusiasm and openness to change; and take them by the hand. Show them the ropes, show them how they can use the tools to ascertain their knowledge and tap into the wisdom of the crowd to achieve their KPIs.
Andrew Pope keynote at Social Now 2024 will be about redefining the role of digital leaders
11. Implement an adoption plan
Many of the tools in the digital workplace kit have been around for a while; and most people will say they know how to use them. The truth is:
Make sure to create and implement an adoption plan which considers communication, training and engagement activities.
Communication may include:
Training may have to be classroom-based for some audiences but, by and large, it may also include:
Engagement can be driven by the above but also:
At Social Now 2024, Jaap Linssen will do a practical session on how to effectively communicate change
12. Review the appraisal system
In many organisations, good performance is still perceived as having a direct link with the number of hours worked, with being seen or being the first one to respond. That way of assessing people’s performance is not compatible with flexible work arrangements. Besides, many of the benefits of the digital workplace will not be reaped in that scenario.
Good performance should be linked to the quality of the work produced, meeting of deadlines, helping colleagues, contributing to the collective pool of organisational knowledge and living the corporate values (when they don’t contradict the former items on this list).
Look at your organisation’s appraisal system and challenge it. Does it accommodate the scenario of distributed and asynchronous work? Does it reward the quality of the deliverable over the time sent producing it?
+1. Measure and improve
Finally, as with all change processes, identify relevant indicators (both of activity and impact), measure them regularly and analyse them. Use the positive results to communicate the benefits of the digital workplace; use all results for validation and continuous improvement.
These 12+1 activities are varied and touch different organisational areas – internal communications, human resources, knowledge management, etc. Engage them all as early as possible, making it clear that the digital workplace will serve them but will also require their support and active participation.
This is the third of 3 posts. The first one looked at what is a digital workplace and what use cases it should respond to; the second one was on the reasons why digital workplaces are not fulfilling their promise.