A healthy and effective way of working

Sustaining strong performance while improving wellbeing

Our way of working was severely shaken up during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, before the pandemic, many already experienced a suboptimal way of working that negatively impacted their productivity and wellbeing.

Globalisation and the digital revolution accelerated the pace of change, dramatically increased information flow and enabled people to work around the clock. 347.3 billion emails are sent each day according to Statista .

Many people struggle to effectively manage the use of the technology they have access to. Gloria Mark and her colleagues have found that the average time spent on any screen is just 47 secs. The period spent working on any one project (called the working sphere in the research) is only 10 mins and 29 sec at a time.

When Microsoft surveyed 31,000 people in 31 countries in February and March of 2023, 64% of respondents said they struggle with having the time and energy to do their job and those people are 3.5x more likely to also struggle with innovation and strategic thinking. Microsoft discovered that people are in 3x more Teams meetings and calls per week compared with February 2020.

In 2022 Microsoft discovered that 54% of employees feel overworked and 39% feel exhausted.

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report , globally, 77% of employees are not engaged in their work. 51% of employees expressed some level of intent to leave their jobs. 44% of employees reported that they experienced a lot of stress the previous day.

Not surprisingly, Gallup’s analysis of 122,416 respondents found a strong link between engagement and performance outcomes, such as productivity, retention, safety and profitability.

Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup had the following to say in Gallup’s 2022 report, “Business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit compared with business units with miserable workers. Additionally, teams with thriving workers see significantly lower absenteeism, turnover and accidents; they also see higher customer loyalty. The point is: Wellbeing at work isn’t at odds with anyone’s agenda”

This article answers the important question of how can we create and sustain a way of working that not only sustains strong performance but also promotes wellbeing.

Exploring the problem

Factors that unconsciously sabotage our ability to do our work

Let’s take a look at the experience of a fictional team that shares the common challenges and opportunities we face in the current world of knowledge work. They work in a global organisation. Like most of their colleagues, they feel that they have to be “always on” to be effective. They spend most of their day reactive, answering emails and chat messages and attending back-to-back meetings. The team rarely feel present in meetings as they are too busy answering emails at the same time. Their day is spent coordinating and communicating about work rather than executing the strategy and achieving its objectives.

As knowledge workers, our team’s value-adding work activities depend on their brain’s advanced executive functions. Brains need a lot of energy for these advanced cognitive functions to enable them to make decisions, solve problems, plan and communicate effectively (see below for more information on the brain).

Some of our team members find it easier to focus and think clearly in the morning. However, due to their packed meeting schedule, most of their essential and value-adding work is done in the evening, when their mental energy is often low. The result is low quality and lots of mistakes. This way of working also screws up their sleep, leading to a downward spiral in productivity, missed targets and poor mental health.

When the team members get the opportunity to work on their critical tasks during the morning, they regularly get interrupted or distracted by the flood of notifications they receive. They find it hard to focus and think clearly.

What is worse is that the team struggles to prioritise their work. They lack clarity on their top priorities, and there is no alignment on priorities within the team.

The team accept every meeting request and try to clear their email inbox every day. Most of the team members keep their email and chat tools open all day just in case someone needs them. They feel overwhelmed with work.

Unfortunately, our team is not alone in their way of working. Their organisation is impacted by a lack of progress on the right things, which causes their strategy not to be executed, while efficiency and quality drop. Business performance sinks along with the ability to transform and innovate. High levels of stress and burnout make it hard to retain and attract the right people.

Your brain’s functioning and how it influences your thoughts, feelings & behaviour

In my work I use the Rider and Elephant metaphor, coined by Jonathan Haidt, NYU, to simplify the functioning of the brain. This metaphor helps you to better understand how your brain functions and how it influences your behaviour and outcomes.

In Daniel Kahneman’s popular book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ he refers to System 1 which would equate to the Elephant and System 2 which would equate to the Rider.

The Rider, also known as the Conscious, Rational, Controlled, Deliberate system, provides your brain’s executive functions. The Rider might provide these advanced functions, although he/she is not a machine that can work at high speeds continuously.

The Rider requires immense amounts of our brain’s resources and tires easily.

The Rider has a limited, common resource for making decisions, planning and exerting self-control. For example, using effort on self-control will limit the resources we have left for solving problems (also known as cognitive depletion ).

This is like exercising a muscle, during which we work the muscle and then let it rest to regain energy again. Luckily, our Rider’s resources can also be renewed through recovery. More on this below.

Your brain’s resources fuel your cognitive functions

For your Rider to provide you with these executive functions he/she needs enough resources, hence the importance of managing your stress and energy.

Effective energy management ensures your brain has enough mental resources for attention management. This enables you to focus, be creative or be present with others.

In the current world of work, this becomes even more critical as our brains are the most important resource, organisations have in delivering growth and the desired business plan.

Stress inhibits your ability to perform and thrive

Stress can be been defined as the “psychological and physical state that results when the resources of the individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and pressures of the situation”.

Stress is an important part of growth and development; it can be positive and not necessarily harmful.

Stress can be simplified as “A response to demands that call for activation and the use of resources.”

Mild, short-term stress can be beneficial. We become more alert, our thinking rate increases, concentration improves and our motivation and performance is benefited.

The problem occurs when we experience long-term stress with no intermittent recovery (rest). Unbroken high stress and the resulting high alertness breaks down our body and brain and can lead to disease and exhaustion.

Long-term stress also inhibits our Rider’s cognitive functions and our attention management. We become more reactive, thinking and behaving from a survival mode. You can learn more about stress and how to manage it here .

One scientific theory is that our bodies follow 90-minute ultradian rhythms of alertness. This rhythm results in periods of more, then less alertness.

Following the theory on ultradian rhythms, on average, we should ideally work no longer than 90 minutes before taking a 5–20-minute break.

Therefore, working for longer periods than 90 minutes is thought to increase our stress levels as the body must draw on this emergency response to keep us going. This stressed state negatively impacts the functioning of the Rider and therefore reduces our executive functions (solving problems, making decisions, planning, self-control, etc). There are exceptions, for example when we get into the state of flow.

For many people working in organisations, this might not be realistic. The psychologist, Ron Friedman considers that one effective approach is to schedule two breaks of 15 minutes, one in the morning between 10:00–11:00 and one in the afternoon between 14:00 and 16:00.

In the US, the Centre for disease control and Prevention says that taking as little as a 5-minute break , is beneficial.

You could simply start with building a habit of taking the afternoon break which tends to be the one we need most.

The solution

Continuously improve the way you work

Performance comes from investing time and energy in the right things and with the right people. The key is to establish an optimal way of working for yourself and your team that helps you navigate complex and uncertain times while enabling the organisation to become more agile and responsive. The discovery of an optimal way of working, in our experience, is best identified through weekly experiments.

Weekly Prioritise, Improve and Plan Meeting

Schedule a recurring 15 to 60-minute Monday or Friday morning calendar appointment. Use this time to prioritise and plan how best to use your time and energy. Use this time to implement the following.

Prioritise

What are your top 1 to 3 priorities for this week? Consider your strategic and operational objectives, your projects, innovation and improvement initiatives and what needs to be done to make progress on them. Make the priorities actionable and ensure clear metrics, lead measures, or key results that help you measure progress.

Reflect and Improve

Spend a short while reviewing what went well in how you worked last week (& why) and what could be better this week (& how). Form an experiment testing the proposed improvement, such as scheduling more Focus time to concentrate during the morning instead of the evening, reducing meeting duration to 25-mins or changing status updates to occur asynchronously instead of during a meeting. Consider where the work requests are coming from. Do urgent and important appointments keep getting requested due to value demand or failure demand?

Plan

Consider the nature of the work that needs to be done. How much is to be done alone while being undisturbed to concentrate, contemplate or be creative (Focus Time). How much needs to be done with others (Collaboration / Meetings), and how much time should you set aside to respond to requests, e.g., email or catch urgent and important requests or curveballs (Responsive Time)?

Schedule the following appointments accordingly.

· Focus Time: Intentionally book calendar appointments for this week and the coming weeks when your brain works best to concentrate, contemplate and be creative on your most important work. Different roles need varying amounts of Focus Time. E.g., your R+D team might need the most, whereas Customer Support might require the least.

· Collaboration Time: Determine which meetings are required. Do you have enough time with the right people, and is it best to meet in-person, virtually or hybrid? Which meetings do not relate to your priorities and can be delegated, delayed, or eliminated?

· Responsive Time: Schedule time to respond to others. Different roles need varying amounts of Responsive Time. E.g., your R+D team might need the least, whereas Customer Support might require the most.

· Recharge Time: Schedule short Recharge and Mental Preparation sessions throughout the day. Ideally, at least once every 60 to 90-mins. Especially before important meetings, mentally challenging work or before you transition from work to home life. Have you got solid work boundaries in place? See the section below entitled: “Managing your energy and brain’s ability to perform” for more information.

Team reflections

It is also recommended to implement the Prioritise, Improve and Plan reflection as a team on a weekly or biweekly basis. By reflecting individually and then as a team on your priorities, how you are working together and whether your calendars’ reflect your priorities, helps you to incrementally establish a way of working that fosters wellbeing and sustainable accomplishment. For example is the team aligned on the top priorities and is everyone aware of the work that needs to be politely declined, delayed or delegated? Is the team getting the right balance between focus time, time to respond and meetings? What are the performance and wellbeing inhibitors and how can they be resolved as a team?

Your continuous improvement process will support the evolution of the way you work, no matter the external changes.

Tackle the hybrid work challenge at the same time

Two key factors to consider with hybrid work are the Time and Place in which the work can be most effectively conducted.

Determining the nature of the work required to achieve your team’s objectives provides a foundation on which to consider the needs of the team balanced with everyone’s preferences (e.g., home or office). This consideration will dictate the best time and place for the work execution.

Example 1: Ability to Focus

To be effective in creating a new strategy, planning a project, or solving a complex problem, you need to focus your attention and think clearly.

Timing: When do you naturally have the highest level of energy? Your brain needs a lot of energy to focus your attention. If you are a morning person, it will be easier to focus your attention in the morning.

Place: Is it easier for you to focus undisturbed at home, in the office or another remote location?

Example 2: Ability to Collaborate

A practical brainstorming session is best conducted in person.

Timing: This will depend on when the team can come together. It is also be impacted by energy levels. Many people tend to be more creative in the mid to late afternoon.

Place: A meeting room or collaboration space in the office.

Managing your energy and brain’s ability to perform

There are several ways we can manage energy. For example, we can reappraise the situations, events, people that negatively drain us; to reduce the negative impact. We can also become better at managing our energy (body and brain’s resources).

Lisa Barret calls this our body budget. We often adopt Garmin’s term: Body Battery.

We call the behaviours that help you manage your body battery, enabling behaviours. These include optimal sleep, exercise, recovery during the day and ultimately behaviours that help you manage your stress, recovery and therefore your brain’s resources and attention management.

An example of an enabling behaviour is getting 7–8 hours of high-quality sleep.

Sleep is the most effective way to recharge your resources. For example, it can increase your ability to learn, by at least 40%.

Regular breathing exercises or meditation enables us to better focus our attention and improve emotional regulation.

Eating a healthy meal or snack every 3–4 hours helps to balance blood sugar and results in better decision-making.

In addition to being aware of the enabling factors, it helps to understand how we can turn these behaviours into automatic habits (something the elephant helps us with). This reduces conscious effort from the rider (think willpower and self-control) and provides us with more mental resources for other tasks.

As mentioned above, taking as little as 3–5 minutes to do nothing, read, listen to calming music, perform breathing exercises or meditate can provide your brain with the resources it needs, to focus attention.

When will you start to reflect on your work style and the impact it is having on your wellbeing and performance?

Conclusion

The current and future world of knowledge work demands skills that are cognitive heavy and energy hungry. This world of work can also easily leave us in a hyperactivated state in which we experience high stress and low energy. This is a state in which the brain’s executive functions are inhibited. Our feelings, thoughts and behaviour can easily become more reactive, primitive and based on survival. In this state, it is not only harder to learn but it becomes impossible to perform our most important and complex work.

By increasing our self-awareness and self-leadership skills we are able to manage stress and energy. We can plan and align time, energy and attention to the moments that matter most to us and our business.

We can be present and actively listen to others in our meetings. We can concentrate on creating an important document or presentation. We can co-ordinate with others to find a solution to a complex problem.

By regularly reflecting on how you work as an individual and as a team you can form effective habits, automating the key behaviours that maintain a balance in your body battery and promote the effective use of your executive functions. This provides you with the optimal brain functioning to sustain strong performance while thriving in the current and future world of work.