We made it to the holidays! This was a year like no other and looks like for next few months 2021 will no let us come back to whatever normal was.
I was recently asked if maybe there is some good material on how to work online and what to do or not to do. I couldn't name anything. So here it is. My Six Lessons for Holidays 2020:
The online has put us through a lot! Let's think about the learnings for after the holidays...
Lesson #1: Don't expect the usual work efficiency from yourself or your colleagues.
We are NOT "working from home". We are working remotely during a global pandemic
crisis - and there is a difference. Nothing is "as usual" anymore. We are in general working more, and we are getting tired faster. Our "usual" ways for regeneration are probably gone.
Lesson #2: Trust and goal settings instead of task reporting is the cultural change that will help you and your organization.
The worst thing you can do to yourself or to your colleagues is micromanagement and detailed work day reporting.
Lesson #3: If you don't know what to do:
REST is the answer.
Encourage your team to rest, share your "rest" successes. Normalize and praise rest for all.
Lesson #4: In an uncertain-ever-changing reality, make the process of improving the work culture solutions a "must have" of every team.
No solution is good for everybody - listen to individual stories, make small individual changes. Be open to accommodate individual needs.
Lesson #5: Be kind to yourself and your colleagues when you make mistakes. Evaluate them from a place of kindness, it helps in seeing humans not only broken processes.
We will make mistakes, and that is ok. Accept failure as part of learning. Talk about it, draw conclusion, improve and repeat the cycle.
Lesson #6: Be intentional in building the online work culture and relations, name the awkwardness of this forced cultural shift, and push through it anyway.
Whatever good happen naturally offline, in the online, needs will and effort. Our work cultures were not created for remote operations, and even if they were, they were certainly not created for the times of global crisis.