Jarred Consulting

As we enter into the winter months and what is almost certainly going to bring another period of restrictions and changes to working patterns for many due to the pandemic, HR professionals and business leaders’ aim is to create sustainable ‘hybrid’ organisations.  Organisations where the vast majority of people are working from home, balancing many priorities.  This requires a culture, as well as working practices which will allow people to thrive, and not just ‘survive’.  There are many facets to this, wellbeing is at the top of the list, as many people have been going great guns since March and are at risk of burn out, but also on the minds of leaders (or should be!) is how they can support their people to take ownership of their new way of working, learning, collaborating and delivering, in a way which is aligned to the business strategy but also gives them a choice in how they stay connected. Top Tips Inclusive, Purpose-led Leadership

• Reinforce your purpose and values to underpin why people should ‘be in the boat with you’ (and not just for the pay cheque!)
• Invest time in making sure your leaders behaviours and mindsets are aligned to your values…it is critical that everyone walks the talk
• Equip your leaders to support your people and lead through change by investing in their development, whether that is change management and agility, inclusive leadership, managing remotely or resilience.

Get the basics right

• Make sure that processes have clear and regular opportunities for people to connect, to have regular conversations, whether formal or informal.  These need to be baked in to the every day to ensure people do not lose touch, such as team meetings, coffee mornings etc.
• Transparency of business strategy and focus, and progress against goals set is needed.  Communication is key to keeping people feeling part of the whole, and to them taking ownerships for doing ‘their bit’.
• Set targets on a regular basis and measure progress, on a team level in order to encourage joint goals.  It will give everyone a reason to celebrate when goals are achieved, and learn from the experience regardless of outcome.  This could be as simple as ensuring clients are invoiced in a timely manner, or 2 business development calls a day.

Client centric organisational design

• Put clients at the forefront of activity, which means changing how teams are structured so that they can focus on particular relationships, in order to deepen their understanding of the challenges and opportunities clients are facing.  Sector or client focussed Squads will help teams build deeper, more meaningful knowledge and experience which can then be shared across a squad matrix through peer learning circles and the use of CRM tech.
• More transparency across squads and practice areas / departments on workflow, project status, pipeline and resource availability to support efficiency of delivery but also to enable the right (best) people to be working on the right things, at the right time.
• Invest in developing your people’s coaching and questioning skills so they are confident in building understanding of their client’s context.

Conscious Learning

• Instil the need to continue to learn and develop in your people, even though they don’t have as much opportunity to learn through osmosis by being around their colleagues and supervisors in the office so much.  This means encouraging them to set their own learning goals, perhaps even on a monthly basis.  Talking through these goals and how to achieve them on a regular basis with colleagues and line managers will also help people to feel connected and supported.
• Encourage people to self-reflect on what they have done well or are pleased with what has gone well more generally, and what they have learnt from it.  Allow 5 minutes at the end of each day to do this so that it becomes a habit.
• Build in conscious learning targets to development programmes, so that your people own the taking forward of their learning into their day jobs.

Proactive connections & Wellbeing

• Encourage your people to pick up the phone to someone they haven’t spoken to in a while, to re-connect.  Even if they have to leave a voicemail, that person will know that they are being thought about, and it will most likely result in a time being booked in to re-connect properly.
• Actively encourage your people to look after themselves, take a break to go for run at lunchtime, pick up their kids from school, take up a hobby which allows them to switch off from work entirely.
• Provide your people with coaching and mentoring support, a critical outlet and sometimes sounding board to help them work through the fog and clarify their priorities.

If you have any questions on any of the details in the update, please get in touch.