Meet Daisy – beagle boss of the new world of work

These are difficult times for us all – family, friends, colleagues and partners. Three weeks into this new way of working I wanted to pause and take stock. These are my personal reflections – but I hope that they might be of interest - and please, do share any insights you have about how we can safely navigate these uncharted waters.

Practice beats theory

For most of my career I have worked in technology, I’ve evangelised the modern workplace. That was the theory, this is the practice. After three weeks working from home and sharing space with my husband, two school-aged daughters and a very active three-year-old beagle, I now have a much better understanding of the challenges that working from home brings. But I’m also much more alive to the opportunities it presents.

My company has always provided a lot of flexibility in terms of where and how I work – but I often overlooked that, thinking it was better for me to be in the office with my team. I confess that sometimes I conflated busyness with effectiveness. I think that in the future we will all spend more time physically away from the office knowing that staying digitally connected to our team allows us to reach our work goals without compromising other aspects of our lives such as our physical health, mental health and social interaction.

Create new rituals

I confess I do miss the commute – it was a great way to get ready for or decompress from the day. Without that there’s a temptation to work even longer hours. But I’m learning other rituals to start and end the day rather than sitting in traffic – a walk down the street with Daisy the beagle takes five minutes, and then I can be fully present with my family. I’m not going to pretend that working from home is all rainbows and unicorns, these are tense times and we can’t always expect harmony on the home front – but there are practical things we can do to separate work and home and to appreciate what we still do have.

Learn from pioneers

I recently listened to Paul Woods from Adopt&Embrace share how his technology company has been working 100 percent remote for many years. He is now helping other small businesses do the same – including a physiotherapy clinic now offering telemedicine consultations. If the smallest of companies can adapt, imagine how we can all transform given the right technology and will to succeed. I am seeing our partners pull out all the stops to work with customers in all sectors to create innovative solutions that are helping business through this very difficult period.

Physical not social distancing

Technology is critical (I rely on Microsoft Teams for video meetings, group chats and securely running projects) but we need to always remember to put people first and foremost. We are social creatures so I’m learning to turn the video on. A good webcam and the option to blur the background during a video call makes communications personal without being invasive. For people who are vision impaired or hard of hearing there are accessibility features in technology that we can use to maintain the connection. I’m working with a host of different people in different situations – people who live alone, who share with flatmates, who are juggling home schooling or caring for a family member. Having the opportunity to connect with them is really important glue to bond the team. Technology means we can stay physically distant, but socially close.

Your time, your terms

When you’ve got a meeting room booked at the office you do your level best to get there on time. When you’ve got a meeting online then you can record the meeting – people who might be engaged on a call with a customer, or are busy trying to extract a critical piece of Lego for their pre-schooler, can still participate later and share their input online. I’m able to connect with Microsoft partners through online meetings and chat to get a really valuable temperature check on what is happening at the coal face. Smart modern technology lets you fast forward through a recorded meeting, you can take the temperature of the meeting with sentiment analysis, and everyone has a chance to participate and contribute ensuring greater inclusiveness.

Prepare to pivot

Working from home full time is a novelty for all our executive team, and in just the first couple of weeks we’ve made some really useful adjustments. Some things don’t change – we are all fully aware of our need to be accountable, to support the business and our customers with effective crisis strategies and cost management – but as working from home became our new normal we also realised we needed to change some things. For example, once we fully understood the challenges that people faced working from home we set 9.30am-4pm as our cross-collaboration hours and we’re booking 20 minute or 45-minute meetings that start on the hour. The great thing is this gives us a shape to the day – but also the flexibility to take breaks – and we’re as effective as ever.

Virtual water cooler

Juliet Bourke, a Human Capital Expert at Deloitte says that one of the most important things you can do is to share information to make people feel included, because transparency builds trust. You might have done that in the kitchen at the office, now we have Teams Chat to touch base with one another, share a funny story, have a whinge. I’m finding that a lot gets achieved quickly and with no loss of connection or impact. Where in the office I might have set up a meeting or sent an email, I’m finding that a quick Teams chat can be just as effective – and for more complex issues the early to-and-fro of chat can be a really good foundation for a deeper conversation later.

Getting to know you

I have got to see a whole new side of my team. We are sharing more than ever what is happening at home – sometimes it’s lighthearted chit chat, sometime more serious conversations about people’s wellbeing or their family worries. It’s enriching work relationships and deepening our culture. And the creativity this is unleashing is phenomenal – we’ve had virtual surprise birthday parties with sparklers and singing, and we’re planning an Easter Hat Parade that we can invite our kids to be part of as well. People are teaming in new ways right across the organisation especially when we are being asked to respond to customers and tackle crisis management. When everyone is working from home it doesn’t matter if your home base is Perth or Parramatta.

A final word

It’s not always easy – but we need to maintain a sense of optimism, to stay calm. We need to think creatively and challenge one another to come up with innovative solutions to problems we have never seen before. We need to think outside the square and forge new connections, bringing together complementary skills to create the best solutions.

And we need to care for one another – to understand what our colleagues, our partners, our customers are facing.

Every so often we get together online as a group at the end of the day and just touch base, how has it gone, how are we feeling? Our HR leader Leah Tinker raised the idea - we don’t do it every day but when we do it’s an informal temperature check on one another and the way the group is operating. Each day we’re learning something new about one another, about how we can work in new ways and despite these difficult days how to bring our best selves to the task at hand.