Guest blog: Smarter Working in Europe: Plenty know-how, lagging adoption - By Philip Vanhoutte, Author of the Smarter Working Manifesto
/Philip is also the Founder of Ozadi and Co-Founder of the European Smart Work Network
Thanks Philip Flaxton, CEO of Work Wise UK for mentoring me and many others relentlessly over 15 years. I couldn’t be more fortunate to live and work in the UK whilst Smarter Working blossomed. Authorities like Philip Ross and Jeremy Myerson of WorkTECH, Tim Oldman and Annie Leeson of LEESMAN and Andy Lake of Smart Flexibility blessed me with great insights and actionable advice to produce award winning workplaces across Europe. It was my duty to share the journey and best practice with Guy Clapperton in the Smarter Working Manifesto in five languages.
The proverbial phone rang off the hook early last year when new work dynamics were needed to deal with a pandemic of never experienced proportions: any recommendations Philip ?! It was sobering to learn that Smarter Working is still a niche, as evidenced in low search volumes beyond UK, the Netherlands and Italy. And recent academic research reported that Activity Based Working hasn’t reached general management nor boardrooms. Not to speak of the poor office workspace ratings gathered by LEESM AN in comparing to the better home work settings. Employers are warned: give us more productive and healthier offices as home is the new benchmark. Awareness, consideration and serious Smarter Working adoption has yet to hit the majority of European Countries. But you’d be surprised to hear that hard-working Poland is embracing smart working with unseen devotion ! It’s all there to be applied, we just need better marketing and education.
Good time then to flash back and forward, taking stock of what was accomplished and is yet to be done.
In the beginning.
For me, what happened around the pandemic last year is rather déjà vu. As MD of Plantronics EMEA (now Poly), the 2008 financial crisis catapulted me into Agile Working with a Less is More project. What started as a space (and cost reduction) program turned into a big reflection on ways of working. As one of the first Leesman workplace satisfaction survey customers I learned that our offices were out of date and had poor acoustics, our collaboration tech was too diverse and needed integration. And our leadership styles were well ‘behind the times’ too.
We decided to build an acoustic temple in Royal Wootton Bassett, implemented unified communications & collaboration and made trust the rocket fuel of our workstyle. Unfortunately, the workplace revamp came with the tyranny of open landscape offices that trampled on basic needs of privacy and focus. The much-appreciated trust caused a desire to be always on, leading to some exhaustion and burnouts.
We got serious about well-being and implemented the European Mentally Fit institute’s Corporate Athlete Resilience program. The cherry on the cake came from Work Evohlution’s (now part of Humance) Distributed Leadership assessment and development tools. At last, we were able to boost leadership capabilities related to Relationships, Flexibility, Productivity and Culture. Many professionals have yet to realize that they are not born virtual leaders and did not receive any education nor coaching to develop such competencies.
Along the way
In supporting the Belgian Health Authorities towards their own implementation of Smarter Working I learned that a big part of social security budgets goes towards non-physical health care. A ‘They are killing us’ report attributed a substantial part of mental well-being issues to poor people leadership. Not surprising as Human Dimensions of Organizations are not thought in specialized education. Sure, MBA programs can complement but they also scratch the surface. Self-Determination psychology, anthropology, ergonomics and biophilia are still not part of most leader’s vocabulary. It’s time for a leadership driving license, where line and project managers should not be allowed to drive people unless qualified. We already do that in transport, finance, health and many other practice domains, not ? And why not make Smarter Working education part of such ?
On the Tech side, I can’t be happy with the lack of progress on UNIFYING various collaboration tools. Ever tried to blend Teams, Zoom and Facetime into a virtual work session … it’s impossible ! No shortage of ‘best of breed’ tools but nothing to make them work together across the walled tech gardens. And what about network quality of service. I had my fair share of frustrations battling with Vodafone and BT to get good Real-Time Communications service on the move or at home. Poor networks are at the root of crippled dialogues and sometimes technical unemployment. They make us all long for the power and impact of face-to-face encounters. Why can’t we get the equivalent of good water pressure on our communications utilities ?
On the Space side, I’ve grown ever more fed up with being indoors. I am not alone. How did we end up working in such unnatural spaces ? For decades the Biophilic Science has provided convincing evidence that humans, as animals, need nature … not just in the weekend. With pandemic forced working from home amidst endless ‘behind screens’ sessions, the workforce is realizing that the secret to healthy work styles is frequent breaks with nature. It’s largely free and easy to implement … I founded Ozadi to open eyes on the power of nature@work.
Going Forward
First priority is EDUCATION. Smarter Working is to become central to mainstream business education, foundational or post-graduate. We definitely need to boost the pool of Smarter Working practitioners. That’s why I’ve joined hands with Andy Lake to leverage his (closed) UK Smart Work Network into Europe. Want to know more, join our open house on May 27 https://smart-work.net/activity-based-working-and-the-future-of-smart-working/
And the critical success factors for Smarter Working going forward ?
- Profound appreciation and passionate application of the Smarter Working principles. See Andy Lake’s Smarter Working Handbook https://flexibility.co.uk/product/the-smart-working-handbook-new-edition/
- Detailed understanding of Activity Based Working in its workplace and workstyle aspects (will be covered in depth on May 27)
- Professional workstyles that take energizing as serious as focus and collaboration work … energizing is working … just look at sports world.
- Great Acoustics and Nature at Home, Employer and Coworking spaces with abundance of closed work studios designed to pamper professionals in traditional and virtual work routines.
- Better integrated collaboration tech and real-time communications QoS networks from carriers to your home Wi-Fi network
- Servant Leadership that delivers Distributed Work Success through genuine concern for associate well-being and superb facilitation of virtual encounters as master of ceremonies. Listen to Mark Dekan explain it to you https://youtu.be/g_K3Kk3jx5Q
