a toolkit for an agile future
DESCRIPTION
Power point presentation from Opportunity NowTRANSCRIPT
Judith CherryHead of ResearchOpportunity Now
Out of Office: A Toolkit for an Agile Future
The Research Survey
• 13 organisations in public and private sectors• 1219 team members: 55% female and 45% male• 330 managers: 37% women 63% men• Investigated relationship between working patterns, engagement and trust
Focus groups• 80 people across 4 organisations
Managers see the benefits of agile working
Managers views on agility
Levels of trust are high in teams
But a credibility gap for leaders
Agile working: promotes good management and exposes bad!
Reorganising work
– Shifting focus from jobs to tasks– Shifting focus from individuals to teams
Promotes empowered working and focus on outcomes
Rethinking the role of the manager
Managers need to manage It’s not command and control or laissez faire
• Setting objectives
• Monitoring workflow and setting milestones
• Performance measurement
• Communication and knowledge sharing Regular team meetings and knowledge sharing Individual communication Informal knowledge sharing (instant messenger, virtual whiteboards) Physical meetings
Areas for action• Make the business case and position agile working as good working practice
• Move from an employee benefit to a business solution• Shift from individual role models to team role model
• Show strong leadership• more visible in changing their own ways of working • more open and honest about the flexibility which they already
enjoy• more focus on outcomes rather than inputs or “face-time”• more challenging of practices and individuals (including leaders)
who do not support agile working
Encourage “structured and empowered” management model and reflect in competencies and performance assessment
Guidance► Clear HR guidance and consultancy and Management training
Practical examples► Best practice and coaching and mentoring from “agile” managers
Challenge► Assumption that all jobs can be agile to shift burden of
responsibility ► Robust mechanism for challenge
Support and challenge managers
Support agile workers• Guidance for new agile workers beyond application process
• Sharing best practice, buddying/mentoring► Setting boundaries► Effective communication► Career management
• Focus on visibility– regularly discuss their career development with their manager– to use technology to participate in development opportunities more easily– maintain their profile through electronic media– make the most of the physical time in the office to network with key contacts.
Thank you