National Work Life Week: Being a truly flexible organisation

In Channel Eye’s third article for National Work Life Week, Chartered Coaching Psychologist Aidan Kearney explores how the recent shifts in work patterns, accelerated by the pandemic, have reshaped our understanding of the workplace. He delves into the benefits of flexible work environments and the importance of autonomy, relatedness, and competence in fostering intrinsic motivation and high performance.

Modern technology has allowed us to connect and work with colleagues across the globe, remotely and effectively. Of course, the shift towards this new reality and an evolving concept of what a workplace is, was accelerated by the Covid pandemic; however, I would suggest that any wise organisation should seek to learn and apply emergent principles that can offer advantages.

What sorts of advantages could flexible or remote patterns offer though?

Well, given that we are in National Work Life Week, I might suggest that the ability to flex around work practices and where an organisation can demonstrate an understanding of the challenges faced by the life admin tasks, we all encounter is a huge positive. A culture framed around this type of flexibility presents the opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of where competing priorities around work and life can cause tension, stress, and challenges for employees.

It goes deeper, however. A core theory related to intrinsic motivation and high performance is Deci and Ryan’s Self Determination Theory. In its simplest form the theory for which the evidence base is substantial at this stage posits three core elements that facilitate high performance and serve to bolster intrinsic motivation.

These are – autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Let’s take the first of those shall we?

If we feel a sense of involvement and autonomy over our work patterns this can be enormously powerful stabiliser and motivator. Choice and the perception of choice is fundamental to our overall wellbeing.

In terms of the other two components then, hardly a revelation this; but we are much more likely to feel connected (related) to those we perceive who have our interests at heart.

Likewise, and this may actually be revelation to some (trust me I’ve heard some truly archaic and uninformed attitudes in regard to what people working remotely get up to), but most people actually want to do a good job, to prove that they are competent. Doubting ourselves and our competence levels is not a pleasant position.

If you’re wondering about that, I’d just ask you to reflect on the last time you doubted yourself, how pleasant and welcome was that experience.

So, lightbulb moment here folks. If you’re leading a team, or organisation, help people to feel that they have a say in what’s going on; that their voices are heard.

This doesn’t mean that you have bend in hundreds of different directions, but we can display the skills of listening and consideration of contributions in such a way that it encourages accountability and ownership for behaviours.

Why though is grasping some understanding of human motivations so valuable for any organisation or workplace.

Let me pose you a question … is it better to have people intrinsically (self) motivated around high performance or would it be preferable to have to try to continually motivate those around us?

I submit the answer is pretty straightforward.

Great Aidan, so all we need to do is to listen to people, (pretend) we have considered their input and then do our own thing.

Erm, no, definitely not that. In fact, the human mind readily cues in on aspects of storylines and narratives which don’t fit together. Doebell, Rowell & Koenig demonstrated that this ability develops as early as 3 – 5 years old in humans.

This makes sense as it’s adaptive for survival, what can I trust or not trust, and is there any danger there?

So, if you’re say you’re going to be flexible, be flexible. If you say you’re going to listen, genuinely listen (this is a skill, that in my experience, many think they are much better at than objective observation might suggest).

It’s also not enough to think about what motivates you and think that is the best way to motivate others. Recent research has highlighted that Gen Z in particular are less motivated by extrinsic rewards like salary and more so by intrinsic motivators including competence and relatedness Kirchmayer, autonomy and work life balance and for millennials, personal and professional growth is crucial, so having a clear pathway necessary and a perception of meaningfulness of work critical to this group.

The challenges of understanding the drivers and motivating factors of multigenerational and diverse workforce are mirrored by the opportunities, the harnessing of skillsets adapted to new and emergent technologies, the insight and innovation that can come from the different ways in which different minds of different ages see the world and can co-operate to more effectively problem solve.

Now I will be the first to say that face to face human contact is fantastic for our overall wellbeing, for our ability to engage with each other. And as such physical face to face work has its place absolutely. A corresponding motivation from younger minds may be to learn from their more experienced counterparts, to build their competence.

As such we need to consider the context that exists for our organisation, what’s right for it and its people right now. How can the body corporate get the best out of its people, by understanding and supporting their needs and motivations. This means that I would suggest organisations adopt flexibility.

A good friend of mine, Prof Ross White, has recently published a new book on psychological flexibility – ‘The Tree That Bends.’ As leaders, as organisations I would advise becoming that tree. If we remain too rigid and inflexible we risk the consequences when the world shifts and moves, as it has done with the nature of workplaces and our relationship to and expectations of a workplace.

I’ll leave my final thoughts, a note of caution in the words of Prof Sir Cary Cooper, who recently described moves by some large multinational organisations to move staff back to full time office environments as the actions of what he called the: ‘Dinosaurs of our age’ and we know what happened to the dinosaurs when they were unable to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Cary went on to say something else; you might recognise it from what I’ve said above?

“If you value and trust people to get on with their job, give them autonomy – and flexible work is one of those – they’ll work better, you’ll retain them, and they will be less likely to have a stress-related illness.”

The business case makes itself, harness flexibility, embrace change, adopt balance (work life and other forms) as your approach. You’ll reap the rewards.

Aidan Kearney (main picture) BSc(Hons), PgDip, MSc, CPsychol is a BPS chartered coaching psychologist and expert in high performance thinking and behaviour. His company, Malleable Mind, is dedicated to helping people overcome challenges by harnessing their power for adaptive change. He works with individuals, teams and organisations in business, public sector and elite sport to enable them to reach their true potential. Please feel free to reach out to Aidan on email.

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