Introduction

The traditional approach to work-life dilemmas is to develop a corporate policy or program that will accommodate the individual needs of employees. To some degree these policies and programs have become yet one more HR entitlement. Employees can feel entitled to be able to use the telecommuting policy regardless of the nature of their work. This holds true for part-time work or job share or flexible work arrangements. Many managers thus resist these policies because they do not know how to say no or they fear that if they let one-person work part-time everyone will want to use the policy. The policy and program approach to solving work-life dilemmas helps few employees, rarely considers the business needs and often compromises customer needs.

Ford Foundation Sponsored Research

Organizations and their managers now have an alternative to the entitlement approach to work-life dilemmas. Artemis Management Consultants helped spearhead a cutting-edge action research project that transformed the work-life field. The Ford Foundation sponsored three research teams: Artemis Management Consultants worked at Tandem Computers. The Families and Work Institute worked at Corning and a team from MIT´s Sloan Graduate School of Business worked at Xerox. Our goal was to determine what the cultural barriers were that prevented employees from utilizing the creative programs and policies that many organizations had developed and had won recognition for the ´family-friendly´ organization. The action research teams worked in each company to understand the cultural barriers and to examine the habitual ways that work is structured.

As a result of this three year, Ford Foundation sponsored research, organizations can now approach work-life dilemmas as a core business strategy supporting the three bottom lines: profitability, customer and employee satisfaction rather than an HR entitlement program. HR staff can now work as business partners with the line to facilitate finding systemic solutions to business problems.   As a result of Artemis´ participation in the research, we have written a workbook to teach managers and their teams how to improve what we call the three bottom lines. Here are the basic tenets of the new systemic approach that we call ReInventing Work.

          The basic tenets of ReInventing Work:

1.           ReInventing Work teaches managers and their teams how to challenge traditional cultural assumptions and how to redesign their habitual work practices and structures so that the business results are improved and customer satisfaction, along with employee satisfaction, increases.

2.           A work group begins with a business dilemma - a presenting problem that negatively impacts the business results as well as the personal lives of employees.

3.           In essence, ReInventing Work is a systemic intervention that helps organizations analyze the interdependencies in the world of work and the world outside of work. Events are not isolated occurrences. There is a connection and perhaps even interdependency between our personal lives and our professional lives.

4.           The traditional stakeholder model is expanded not only to include shareholders, suppliers, customers, and vendors, but also to include the "family." Our "families" have a stake in the success or failure of the businesses we work in. We use the term "families" with quotation marks to indicate all those in our extended circle, not just the traditional heterosexual, nuclear family.

5.           The goal of ReInventing Work is to improve the three bottom lines in organizations: profitability or shareholder value, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.

6.           ReInventing Work uses traditional work redesign tools but links them to all three bottom lines in a systemic change process.

Example

Here is an example that demonstrates the power of ReInventing Work:

A sales team had developed the habit of staying up all night to get proposals ready for prospective customers. They would be cheered in the morning by their manager and co-workers for demonstrating their commitment to their work by staying up all night. Using the ReInventing Work process, the group examined this cultural norm and work practice. They came to realize that the practice was counter-productive to achieving their business goals as well as their personal goals. They could not produce their highest quality work at 3 A.M. For the next few days they were so exhausted they did not work at maximum capacity. Thus, productivity was diminished by the all-night practice. By staying at work all night, they also missed personal time to exercise, be with friends and "family," or just renew themselves by working on hobbies or reading a good novel.

The members of the work group began to reward one another for leaving work at a reasonable hour and for producing quality products and achieving their business goals. They no longer applauded one another for working long hours. Soon their efficiency improved; the quality of their proposals to prospective customers improved; and the staff was no longer required to work extended hours. They were able to have a personal life if they chose.

We have come to understand that many of our work practices and the norms we set and reward one another for are often as counter-productive to accomplishing our business goals as they are to achieving our personal goals. We often use old stereotypes passed down from parent to child, teacher to student, and advisor to advisee, to define what it means to be a successful worker in the workplace. These stereotypes are often outdated and frequently prevent us from achieving our personal and professional goals.

The ´fix-it´ Crew

          Corporation X had recently changed their business model to respond to changes in the competitive marketplace. Customer Engineers (CE´s), the hardware ´fix-it´ crew, were now required to wear beepers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and to be at a customer´s site within two hours of the customer´s call for help. CEs were beginning to balk. Morale was dropping; the staff no longer had a personal life because they could not plan activities outside of the beeper range, and CEs were threatening to quit. Since CEs are highly skilled individuals, and the learning curve is a long one, the manager foresaw significant problems if a massive turnover took place. Moreover, since CEs on beepers were paid overtime, even if they did not go out on a call, the manager´s budget was being stretched to its maximum to meet the new business demands.

          It is important to note that it was a change in the business strategy that sparked a new challenge for the employees, their manager, and the Human Resources staff. The manager needed a business solution quickly, not a work/life program.

The Presenting Problem.

The new requirement of 24 hour, 7-day availability was bankrupting the budget and becoming a burden, because employees on beepers could not make personal plans that took them out of beeper range on nights and weekends. Morale was low and staff were threatening to leave the company.

Solution:

Using ReInventing Work strategies and tools, the work group learned how to redesign their work structures and processes. They took their current business challenges-the new requirement of a two-hour turn-around time-and working as a team, brainstormed the ways in which they could solve their personal dilemmas while also supporting the needs of the business. It became clear to the team that a schedule change of some sort was necessary. After considering a number of scheduling options, two CEs volunteered to go on a three-day, twelve-hour schedule, from Friday through Sunday, 8 A.M. to 8 P.M., with an additional four hours on Monday morning,

Results:

·               The other CEs in the office can now count on weekends off.

·               The customers now have a regular weekend CE, whom they have come to know and trust.

·               The "families" benefit because CEs on the weekend shift are now able to be involved in their kids´ activities at school during the week. The weekday CEs can make personal plans on the weekends knowing their co-workers are covering that shift, and thus, no beepers are required.

·               Overtime expenses have been reduced significantly.

·               Employees, who were ready to leave because of the excessive overtime required, have remained. Thus, recruitment and training costs have been eliminated.

ReInventing Work  

          ReInventing Work is a change process tool rather than a program, seminar, or training session. The intent of the process is to achieve organizational change one work group at a time. As organizational change consultants, we have supported for many years the trickle-down theory of change-convincing senior management to set a vision or issue an edict and then hoping that everyone will follow!

          One of the key learnings for us in the Ford Foundation research is that a work-life culture-change process needs to be systemic and to start with the individual, the co-workers, and the manager. We found in many cases that managers may be supportive of work/life issues but that individuals and their co-workers were beating themselves to death. We also learned that norms develop at the work-group level and that work processes and work structures are created at the work-group level. Thus, it is the work group that needs to examine how their behaviors impact the achievements of their business goals as well as their personal goals. It is the work group and their managers that have the ability to control and change many of their behaviors and practices. The CE example is a prime one. They did not need senior management´s permission to change their work schedules. They needed to examine their habitual work practices and understand how continuing to do the same thing they had done for years in a new business environment was not good for the business or for their personal lives. Organizations can, indeed, change one work group at a time.

          Intact teams have the ability to examine their cultural norms and their habitual work processes and determine for themselves a more effective way to accomplish their business goals while also supporting the personal needs of the staff. It is our experience that successes, like the CE division´s, are contagious. Other employees and line managers hear about the improved business environment in one work group and want to replicate the process in their own area.

          Here are some other examples of changes that were made by work groups and their managers as a result of their exposure to ReInventing Work:

The Presenting Problem.

Employees were not using their accrued leave time; burnout was becoming a concern for staff as well as managers.

          Solutions

1.           In a sales division in the Midwest, all individual development plans now include a section for the employee to complete, indicating his or her plans for the use of Flexible Time Off. During performance reviews, managers ask employees if their goals have been achieved, and if not, why not. This encourages all employees to plan their personal time off and then to be accountable for actually taking it. The managerial message is: "Time off is important for you and the organization."

2.                                   Employees in the same sales division identify colleagues who can function as backups in their absence. It becomes easier to take time off when someone is sick or for a vacation if the employee knows that another person will handle the essential work.

3.                                   This sales group has experimented with two other changes. It has new norms for voice mail and electronic mail response time. It has also agreed that staff and managers will no longer be expected to respond on the weekends and on their vacation to voice mail and electronic mail.

4.           The sales group has an "assumption buster" award. At staff meetings the members are encouraged to challenge one another when traditional assumptions or habitual work processes prevent them from seeing new business opportunities or affect their personal lives. They have given one another permission to challenge the status quo. The assumption-buster award is a lighthearted way to encourage the sales team to challenge what are usually accepted as "givens." They are learning to ask new kinds of questions and to innovate to benefit both the business and their personal lives.

The Presenting Problem.

A Human Resources group was not meeting its deadlines for long-term projects. Staff morale was down and concern about burnout was rampant, because staff members were working long hours in an attempt to complete their project work.

Solution:

The members of the HR group determined that interruptions during the core workday were preventing them from having concentrated time for their long-term projects. They reconfigured their furniture so a "receptionist" prevented drop-in visitors from interrupting all of the staff. Staff members rotated into the "receptionist" role and addressed visitors´ questions, so that others in the department were not disturbed and customers were still supported. Professional staff also began rotating responsibility to answer the telephone. Now everyone in the department has uninterrupted time to focus on longer-term projects by avoiding constant interruptions. Customer requests are still addressed on a timely basis, and HR staff members feel more job satisfaction and less stress. They are working more efficiently and reducing their overtime hours.

The Presenting Problem.

A finance staff person was frustrated by constant interruptions breaking his concentration on detail work.

Solution:

This finance staff person now puts masking tape on the flashing red voice mail indicator light on his telephone. He realized that the light was a distraction and kept him from concentrating on his work. He now returns his calls at several periods throughout the day instead of having frequent interruptions during his peak productivity time.

The Presenting Problem.

CE managers are required to travel extensively to cover their territory, attend corporate meetings, and meet with customers. This takes them away from the office and away from home frequently.

Solution:

A Customer Engineering division schedules quarterly off-sites to begin at noon so that staff travel in the morning and avoid an extra night away from home. They have agreed to work through dinner to cover the agenda. They prefer this schedule to taking an extra night away from home. Travel costs have been reduced for the business while employee satisfaction has increased.

 

Implementing and Sustaining Change

          In order for ReInventing Work to be implemented successfully in an organization we have learned the following:

·               HR staff need to have change management skills, knowledge of systemic processes, work-redesign experience, and the personal or role power to influence change in their organization.

·               it is important to foster a partnership between line managers and Human Resources staff for change to occur. Line managers are feeling the pain personally. They have a business challenge, like the new expectations of CEs, or they have trouble recruiting or retaining staff, like the sales organization. This pain motivates them to take action. Even the most persuasive and influential Human Resources staff have had difficulty "selling" the tool to their managers if their managers were not personally introduced to it as a business solution rather than as a human resource program. It needs to be approached as a continuous learning process not a training session.

·               measurable results along with anecdotal evidence are necessary to demonstrate the bottom-line benefits of the ReInventing Work process.

Apply the Process as Consultants

The Presenting Problem:

An on-going challenge as a consultant is to minimize excessive travel. We have tried to apply the ReInventing Work process to ourselves. We are based in the San Francisco area. We submitted a proposal to a company in Boston. They called to let us know that they had received 70 proposals and we were one of four firms they wanted to interview. Our interview was scheduled next Thursday at 2 p.m. We were delighted to be selected but we were not enthusiastic about traveling across country for a one-hour interview. To be cost effective as well as support our personal needs, we suggested that we rent Kinkos video teleconference facilities and they could interview us using this new technology. We were competing against large and well-known consulting firms and we were selected because we are asking new kinds of questions. We are not doing our work in a knee jerk automatic fashion any longer. We are stopping to ask if a decision or a strategy makes good business sense at the same time that it supports our needs as people.

The Presenting Problem:

A client wanted us to do 20 focus groups in four states within a month´s time. We love doing focus groups, but we do not enjoy spending a month traveling to four states. We took a few minutes to brainstorm with the client´s project manager. A win-win solution emerged. We designed a train the focus group facilitator course. Traveled to each state once to conduct the training. The client selected 16 employees who were delighted to be provided with professional growth. They ended up conducting 63 focus groups. The client obtained richer data; they now have the internal capacity to do focus groups whenever they need to. We made just about as much money because we designed and delivered the course. It was a true win-win. This solution emerged because, once again, we were willing to ask new kinds of questions. We were willing to explore new ways to conduct business that would also support the personal needs of our staff.

Conclusion:

ReInventing Work is a systemic tool to help individuals, co-workers, managers and organizations learn how to structure work and create cultures that support the three bottom lines: shareholder value, and customer and employee satisfaction. By using the new tools of examining traditional assumptions and habitual work processes you to can create win-win situations for your organization and yourself.

Visit our web site at www.ArtemisManagement.com to learn more details about our ReInventing Work process. You too can move your organization beyond policy and program into real systemic change that benefits shareholders, customers and employees.