One of the things I remember yelling at my sisters when we were little was, “you did that on purpose.” It was usually an accusation (and if you hear your sibling’s voice as you read this, I accept no blame):
“You broke my toy on purpose.”
“You told that secret on purpose.”
“You hit me on purpose.” (Not usually true, Mom. I swear.)
The point is that when you did something purposely, it carried more weight than if you did something accidentally. It didn’t just happen, you meant it to happen. So, now let’s take a look at your team.
Something like eighty percent of large companies now have some hybrid or flexible work arrangement. Most of them even have a formal policy about how many days you should appear in the office, or when work from home is allowed. That sounds great, but is this arrangement really something you meant to do, or something that simply evolved.
For too many companies, flexibility was forced on them (we don’t want employees to quit) or just lingered like long Covid and never really went back to whatever normal was. Many organizations were too strict about returning to the office, which caused problems with their most experienced and best employees who liked flexibility and less structure while still getting good work done, so they loosened the reins a bit.
Sometimes that lightening up came from individual managers, rather than the organization. Side deals were cut. Managers agreed not to enforce the letter of the law as long as certain standards were maintained. (Or the company didn’t find out, which is like Don’t Tell Mom. It rarely ends well and everyone gets in trouble.)
Put simply, policies and practices evolved, but they weren’t done “on purpose.” Here are four signs that “it just happened, it wasn’t on purpose.”:
- The policy has no easily-cited rationale. Since we’re being childish, this is the equivalent of, “because we said so.” Adults deserve to be treated as such. And if there isn’t a really good reason for the policy, why do you have one? There may be valid reasons, and everyone deserves to know them.
- Flexibility is inconsistent across the organization. This leads to your kids saying, “well, Bobby gets to stay up past ten, why can’t I?” Some parts of the organization have different needs for collaboration, brainstorming and physical proximity. Leaving it up to individual managers can lead to feelings of favoritism, persecution and thus low morale and high turnover.
- Flexibility is granted as an exception rather than the way things are done. A strategic work policy helps create a culture- “This is how we do it here.” A policy that is too lax leads to resentment and confusion.
- Metrics become tactical, rather than strategic. This is a huge challenge, and the reason most policies stop at “Be in the office three days a week.” Easily observable behavior is simpler to quantify, but it’s not enough. A strategic policy looks at output and team contribution, cross function accessibility, and the quality of work. Determining what work should be done in-office versus when people are not there is an important part of a hybrid or flexible work strategy.
The point is that when things are done “on purpose,” they are often done more thoughtfully. Ultimately they are done right. If they “just kind of happen.” You may be solving one set of problems while creating others.
Was your team policy created “on purpose?” Do your leaders work with their teams in a thoughtful, purposeful and focused way, or are they just figuring it out as they go?
One way to find out for yourself is to take the Hybrid Team Assessment, available on our website. We can help focus your thinking and help guide future policy for your team.
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