What worked last lockdown still holds true
While most of the country starts the shift back to reconnecting in a more human way, the people in Aotearoa New Zealand's biggest city are still waking up today to our highest levels of restricted movement. While we are clearly making progress, it doesn't change the fact that for many it's a real challenge to get ourselves up and going, with the added weight of taking care of the people we lead while still taking care of ourselves and those in our bubble.
As I've connected with different clients over the last few weeks, the same 'big rocks' continue to come up. Essentially, it's, How do I help my people:
Take good care of themselves?
Maintain a sense of connection with each other as a team?
Make good decisions about how they are using their time?
I’ve built on what I learnt from some excellent leaders at the end of last year's lockdown about the questions above, with some additions for 2021 - hopefully it helps now too.
June 2020:
One thing I’ve been really interested in hearing about is what worked (and didn’t) during lockdown. In particular, I’m homing in on what I think are the big three in maintaining a sense of belonging for people and their teams - Connection, Care and Clarity.
Here’s what I’ve discovered from my conversations:
CONNECTION
What worked? Unexpectedly, I’m hearing that people often felt more connected than ever before with their teams. Why? Because people discovered more about the ‘authentic me’ in their colleagues. They heard about family, pets, hobbies and what's for dinner. They discovered what works for their peers when it comes to routine and work set up, and how they love to start, break up, and end their working day.
What didn’t work? The assumption that connection meant having to always be connected. More than a few people I’ve talked to told me they had multiple days where they were back to back in online meetings. At points along the way, we fell into the trap of assuming that because we could connect remotely and we were all at home, everybody would be available all the time. Zoom fatigue became a real thing.
What can we learn? Connection is a fundamental need, and is different from unlimited availability.
The 2021 version: Ask your people what they actually need to feel like there's still good connection. It doesn't need to be driven by you - let them set the rhythm individually.
CARE
What worked? We were all in the same situation, and that created huge levels of empathy for others. People were having conversations that started every time with a genuine check-in about how people were going. And not just that initial ‘how are you?’ question either. There was a true desire to make sure people felt well supported by each other and had options to ask for help if they needed something.
What didn’t work? Similarly to connection, there were times when we overdid it. Times when people were making good progress and wanted to spend time focusing on deep work but got pulled out of it to be part of a team session. And if they didn’t attend, something must be wrong.
What can we learn? True care for each other tells people it’s okay to struggle, and going it alone isn’t necessary. And it includes being awake to what individuals need most – including to be given space to do their best work.
The 2021 version: Move the focus to self-care. Share what works for you (and if you haven't discovered that yet, there's your challenge - go try some things out!). Then ask your people to each come up with one thing they are going to try differently that is all about self-care. Check in along the way and see what difference it's making for them.
CLARITY
What worked? To me, this was the differentiator during lockdown. In general, we signed up to connection and care because we innately know how important those things are – especially when we can’t connect face to face. Teams who got clarity right set themselves up quickly with a routine and got their expectations clear. They minimised meetings because people knew what was expected and could get on with what they needed to do. It seemed to go something like this:
Initial meeting, and then weekly, to set and reset expectations, check what was working, tweak what wasn’t.
Then daily:
Household first – check everyone in your bubble has what they need for the day
Team stand-up – a quick online session to connect, check-in, ask for help where needed
Afternoon quiz (or something like that)
Put your hand up when you need help
Team leads tended to spread their 1:1s over the week so they could keep bringing in the lessons they were learning from each interaction.
It meant that team members didn’t feel like they needed to be digitally available all the time in case someone had a question. If the weather was beautiful (it was) and the hills were calling you to walk on them (they were), people could have control over how they spent their time, knowing what, how and when they were expected to deliver. Even in places of high urgency, I know of teams who put clear expectations in place early so that people didn’t have to be ‘always on’. Of course, it invariably felt a bit clunky as teams settled into a way of working. The ones who got it right though, didn’t change the expectations every time something didn’t go to plan. Instead, they rode with it a bit and reviewed weekly with the agreement that people would speak up if something really wasn’t working for them. While we couldn’t have clarity about when lockdown would end or what the world would look like, we could have clarity about what we expected of each other as a team while we worked remotely.
What can we learn? When everything is ambiguous, look for what you can create clarity about. Knowing the parameters we work within creates room for flexibility and autonomy. Keep the parameters minimal though, and embrace imperfection – it's all an experiment.
The 2021 version: Everyone has a role to play in establishing clarity. A really easy way to set up a social contract with your people is for both of you to write two lists:
Team member:
What I need from my leader in order to feel like I'm in balance;
What I'm offering to do to help create a sense of balance
Leader:
What I need from my team member so I can best support them;
What I'm offering them to help them create a sense of balance
Then, simply compare your two sets of lists. What do you agree on, where are there gaps, and what will you both do about the gaps? Aim to reach clarity about what you can both ask and expect of each other, and review it along the way to make sure you're both meeting each other's expectations.
What now then?
Connection, care and clarity are still where it’s at if you want to strengthen belonging. There will be some great lessons you and your team have learnt from lockdown. There’s a risk that you could just go back to the same old ways of working - some of those are good and useful of course. There are discoveries you will have made as well though, that have the potential to supercharge your team. If you want to bring the best of lockdown back into your communal working space now, try these questions with your team once you are back together in your workplace:
What habits do we want to make more permanent that helped us connect as a team?
What impact did it have when we took a little extra time to check in on each other’s wellbeing as a team? What do we want to do about that?
What happened during lockdown that we should keep implementing / sparked some ideas for how we could work better?
What would you absolutely not bring back into the office from our lockdown way of working?
Have a go, try some small things and see what happens.