The Dark Matter of Work affects Employee Productivity & Efficiency
Nicolas BEHBAHANI
Global People Analytics & HR Data Leader - People & Culture | Strategical People Analytics Design
???Companies are attempting to combat the Dark Matter of Work.
Researchers defined the Dark Matter of Work as activity and information that we can’t immediately see, but that has a powerful influence on everything around it.?? Knowledge workers are now using fewer software applications than in 2022, which business leaders say is down to deliberate action they have take
Dark Matter is still present within organizations, potentially hampering individual, departmental, and organizational productivity through the ambiguity it causes. Knowledge workers estimate that business leaders can see just over half of their work, and business leaders are in broad agreement.
The increased complexity of the digital age and the hybrid working revolution accelerated the growth of Dark Matter, but did not create it.
It has existed in activities such as meetings for decades, which has only increased in complexity as we introduced applications like video conferencing tools, according to a new interesting research published by Wrike conducted by Sapio Research , which surveyed 1,005 business leaders and 2,002 knowledge workers across the UK and US.
?What is Dark Matter of Work?
Researchers found that Dark Matter exists in texts, apps, video calls, spreadsheets, and conversations, and has a gravitational mass that can easily pull business and projects in the wrong direction. While we can't “see” the Dark Matter of Work, we can identify where it exists.
The Dark Matter of Work is work going on behind the scenes that teams and leaders do not have visibility into or real-time progress on, and there is no system of record in place to track it all.
?The top causes of inefficiency at work
The top 3 causes of inefficiency within an organization include:?
?? Poor communication and collaboration across your organization
?? Time wasted on activities like meetings and duplicative work?
?? Poorly designed or outdated processes
Additional causes of inefficiency highlighted by respondents included wasting time on meetings and duplicating work, along with poorly designed or outdated processes. All this heightens the sense that hybrid work is still something that organizations are adapting to. And it’s exacerbating the continued presence of the Dark Matter of Work.
?Mired in meetings
Researchers found that employees waste to much of their time in meetings: Knowledge workers spend an average of 2.79 hours a week in meetings Knowledge workers spend an average of 18.12 working days a year in meetings.
These meetings show one of the great risks Dark Matter brings performing work that isn’t productive and wastes employees’ time.?
?? The Dark Matter of Work is clearly having a financial impact on organizations. Time wasted on activities, such as repeating work that’s already been done, attending unproductive meetings, or following up on actions and statuses, costs the average enterprise millions.
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?How to improve efficiency?
Fortunately, there are steps that organizations can take to soften the blow of the economic crisis, which will have a more effective long-term impact than budget cuts and layoffs.
Accelerating digital transformation is a strategy that more than half of business leaders have adopted – often due to fears that falling behind will mean losing out to competitors or falling victim to the recession.?However, further digital transformation could also be the key to remedying the situation. But this relies on doing more with less rather than compounding the issue with additional complexity.?
Knowledge workers, for their part, believe that upskilling employees is the best way to improve efficiency. But business leaders view things differently, still intent on investing more in software applications.
??In reality, a combined approach with a ‘less is more’ attitude to software implementation will most likely yield optimal results.
Researchers believed the opposite of Dark Matter in the physical world is simply Matter. But in the digital world, the antithesis of the Dark Matter of Work is Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Researchers noted that AI maximizes the benefits these tools can offer when incorporated into internal collaboration management systems.
Business leaders and knowledge workers are largely aware of the benefits that AI can offer in terms of visibility and successful project delivery, with almost 9 in 10 leaders planning to use the technology to increase operational efficiency, primarily to reduce time spent on manual tasks and automate workflows
??This wonderful research shed light on the unseen complexities termed the 'Dark Matter of Work' – that often lead to work inefficiencies and hinder progress.?
The Dark Matter of Work is fueled by complexity more people performing more work in more ways using more applications, making it correspondingly difficult to track, share, and organize work. Researchers believed that a company-wide rollout of an AI-powered collaborative work management platform is the optimal course of action to increase visibility and alignment, reduce wasted effort, and deliver business outcomes positioning the enterprise for future growth and success.
Thank you?? Wrike ?researchers team for these insightful findings:
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Internal Audit Director | Trusted Advisor | Driving Efficiency and Profitability through Innovative Practices ●Internal Control ●Risk ●Compliance ●Sustainable Performance ●Business Impact ●Culture Transformation
1 年Nicolas BEHBAHANI, Your analysis reminds me of the "LEAN" concept which, in my opinion, can effectively remedy the so called "Dark Matter of Work" and allow productivity gains and a better quality of work produced by associates. What means: reduction in defects, lead times, cost, waste, and improvements in customer satisfaction, productivity, capacity, responsiveness and quality. #lean
LinkedIn Top Voices in Company Culture USA & Canada I Executive Advisor | HR Leader (CHRO) | Leadership Coach | Talent Strategy | Change Leadership | Innovation Culture | Healthcare | Higher Education
1 年Thanks Nicolas BEHBAHANI
Engagement & EX | Leadership | Culture
1 年Really interesting research Nicolas BEHBAHANI; thanks for sharing, and I like the idea of "dark matter". I suspect one problem behind the complicatedness of work is due to technology being implemented which doesn't really fix underlying issues / solve challenges. So seeing more technology as the solution might not be the panacea that the authors hope for. As opposed to involvement and empowerment, for example.
Lead consultant in HR Strategy & Value Management. Enhancing Value through Human Performance. Delivery of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Training. Lecturer and International Speaker on HRM and Value Management.
1 年Another interesting post Nicolas - thank you for sharing. I have previously highlighted the problems brought about by poor communication & collaboration. One of the areas covered by our consultancy work takes stock of the quality of the processes being utilised and we will often utilise Quality Continuous Improvement techniques to analyse and improve processes. However, duplicative work is a problem. On the one hand there is a need to capture and put into context 'the dark matter', which can include Implicit Learning (especially when remote working has been introduced), and on the other hand a need to filter out unnecessary work streams and data. Unfortunately, AI does not necessarily produce an effect of balance in that it can create a mound of data - some useful, some not so. For that reason, information management comes to the fore. Someone, with a wide knowledge of the workings of the organisation, needs to analyse the data in order to ensure that it is relevant and being communicated to the right people. Very thought-provoking Nicolas.
Speaker, Author, Professor, Thought Partner on Human Capability (talent, leadership, organization, HR)
1 年Nicolas BEHBAHANI Fascinating research with a creative label (dark matter). I may be a more traditional thinker (ahem, I am old), but I like to see evolution of ideas that build on the past. Behind the label of dark matter at work seems an effort to uncover what has been called organization dysfunction, low value added, or bureaucratic work. One such effort was the General Electric Workout effort that was repacked by dozens of companies as a way to declutter organizations by removing reports, approvals, meetings, measures, policies, and practices (RAMMPP grid) that did not add value (see book GE Workout). Though hundreds of structured meetings, employees were able to identify and remove non value added work. This research builds on this type of work. The addition of technology in the form of AI offers new insights into how works can be done. Again, drawing on the past, Jay Galbaith (the father of Organization Design) argued that organizations existed to manage information. His information-based perspective is magnified with AI's ability to process vast amounts of information to upgrade decisions. Thanks again for sourcing valuable research. Grounding the present research in the past may help make it more relevant.