“Organisational Permission” to Not Be "Too Busy”

I found myself unable to switch off during my Yoga class the other day. “Breath in and release, let go of every thought” the instructor droned and I had to stifle a wave of annoyance - how could she be as clueless as to think that’s even remotely possible?! If I managed to tune down the operational mode and stop thinking of the huge presentation, the procurement nightmare and the big product design meeting next week or even the summer holidays, an upcoming house move, my next flight (yes those are back) and the secondary schools' applications, I would count myself lucky and let’s face it, as soon as the operation bit is silenced there’s a whole other introspective and analysing mode to take the space it left where I had plenty of creative thinking that had been waiting for its turn, so what were the odds to push them both aside and clear my mind? 

Surely all these people around me with their deep breaths and their content smiles had much easier, much less complex lives. Surely they weren’t as busy. 

What if they were though, but they were just better at prioritising what counts? What if they had made this time a priority? I had to accept it was a possibility, after all, when I took Yale’s Science of Wellbeing course I was nothing short of astounded at all the stats that made ever so much sense regarding how prioritising mindfulness -or even just breathing!- had unbelievable effects on our general wellbeing and our productivity more so than any other way of trying to get better or faster. 

We may not all know each and every one of those stats but we all know some, we all know enough of them. We may wince at it and we may not like to admit it but these days we do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that things like Yoga, meditation, breathing work, etc, aren’t some hippie mumbo jumbo fit for yearly retreats, but as necessary as any other essential system, or even more so. So if we know, do we prioritise them? 

We don’t. 

That would be taking care of ourselves and we’re too busy to do that. For a brief moment during the pandemic “self-care” wasn’t a hippie, dirty word anymore - it took a global tragedy to achieve that. Judging by what we see in teams already today, lo and behold it didn’t hold. 

Just like self-care and all of the above work is seen as frivolous, at work, investing time in the wellbeing of the team is a struggle. We’ve seen hundreds of teams being presented with what is practically an easy and pleasant way to get themselves in extraordinarily better shape by using our Dashboard and yet resist it, complain and bemoan how busy they are. 

We’ve spent an inordinate amount of work making sure the time investment in doing the human work that our product empowers is minimal - we designed the most efficient way to measure how people feel and the most obvious way to present that information alongside the fastest ways to change it -our “mini”, short plays only take 20-30 mins- so all in all, the total amount of work that a team has to put in so that they better their dynamic by using our software can easily be as little as 40-50 mins ever so often. Everyone has that kind of time in the same way everyone can do a Yoga/thinking/meditation session a week right?

Wrong. 

“We just don’t have the time for this”

“We’re so behind already!”

“We can’t take the time to do this too!”

“This is on top of all the other regular work!”

“What happens if I won’t finish my other stuff if we do this?!”

“This is for other teams with less on their plates!”

“We’re busy”

We’ve heard it all. And it’s preposterous. We know it, you reading this know it and more importantly - they know it too. 

Look, I get it, we’re all busy, everyone’s busy like *really* busy. I run a company, have a primary age school kid and write/speak- Busyland is where I live but as every grown-up knows, when it comes to time management and priorities where there’s a will there’s a way and much as I may have wasted that session above with the mental objections, it had been in the calendar and I had dragged myself to it and I will continue to make the intentional time for the breathing and the meditating and the Yoga no matter how counterintuitive it may seem at times (when I forget it’s the only way to sustainably keep my SuperWoman complex going) as every hour spent on that work makes me 10x faster and more performant in all the other hours. Not to mention that realistically I only sabotage myself with “yes but…” thoughts like the ones above when I break the habit and the practice and if I simply focus on constancy for a while I’ll be fine.  

Most teams will realise the “busy” argument is ridiculous, a cop-out, unsustainable and ultimately unprofessional and slowly start to say less and less of that and do more and more of the human work. Often times it’s a function of how much upfront work we at PeopleNotTech have done on showing why and how they can supercharge their performance once they do the measuring and the plays, but many times, no matter how we show the value of Psychologically Safe teams and no matter how much they comprehend it - the HumanDebt is still too great. 

The lack of “organisational permission”. It’s where it was never ok to put themselves and their emotions first before and it doesn’t feel like it’s quite ok now either. Where this was not part of their to-do’s. Where the human work was utterly absent or an afterthought. Where they didn’t deserve to think and care for themselves. 

The teams that on the contrary, do feel they have “organisational permission”, where our Dashboard comes with genuine support, where they are clearly asked to invest in their team dynamic and expected to make it part of the everyday work, they soar. They take to the human work with gusto and everyone from developers to accountants delights in bettering various behaviours once they know they are allowed to and given the tools to do so. It’s a pleasure to witness what people and teams can achieve when they feel genuine, deep support. 

What does this “organisational permission” really look like? Imagine you still worked in an office and you saw one of those smart massage chairs in some trendy Valley’s HQ You know it would do wonders for your posture, for your mood and ultimately for your work. You have no reason to believe the organisation cares about your back or would invest in one and instead of being up in arms about how they don’t love you enough you have two options - you may choose to decide you’re not the kind of pansy who needs a massage at work and try and put it out of your mind while stocking up on over-the-counter pain killers or you can buy one yourself and bring it over to the office, not even asking anyone if it’s approved to do so. 

When management comes over they may completely ignore it as if it weren’t even there, the elephant-come-chair in the room or they may even admonish you for not asking for permission to bring it over, but what if they might sit down and get a back rub themselves and praise you for the initiative? 

What if, instead of telling you off, they organised transport to get it back to your house or bought it off you and then kit every other team with one like yours and they became affectionately known as “Jimmy’s Chair” named after you - the hero that made everyone’s shoulders loose enough to type and think. 

Better yet, what if there was a “Jimmy Chair Golden Hour” a week in everyone’s calendar where they were expected to either get a massage or otherwise show they’ve found different ways to improve their wellbeing? 

If you believed the organisation you’re in may do the former would you carry on with your knotted back and suffer in silence? Moreover, would you not just jump at the opportunity to go to a job that already had Jimmy’s Chairs?

Is this an exact comparison? Of course not, our solution makes teams dynamics better, it improves the way teams work and the human work is neither as easy nor as quick as a shiatsu massage -and certainly not half as familiar of a concept- but I promise you, once done, it feels even better and it is even more needed. To do it, we all need organisational permission at the level above, where none of the “this is not regular work, we’re busy” excuses are tolerated, where the human work is made a true priority, where it’s seen as part of our most basic KPIs and we even see performance appraisals containing it, where it’s not only suggested or encouraged but mandatory. 

So do you as an organisation need to buy massage chairs then? No, you need to give firm permission for team-level self-care. Team CBT. Team human work. Permission so true and so strong it shows that the human work is your No. 1 task and a real priority if you ever had one but only do all that if you want to last and succeed.