ADVANCED WORKPLACE ASSOCIATESTake Aways from Working AWAy Workshop 3

09.04.2020

For further information or to register for our next sessions please visit: https://www.advanced-workplace.com/awa/services/advanced-workplace-institute/working-away/

A big thank you to everyone that attended our highly interactive third workshop of the Working AWAy Series. As promised we have put together the key take aways.

KEY TAKE AWAY 2: In addition to changes in work environment and household circumstances, our brains are also wrestling with unexpected changes. Neuroscience shows that the brain is wired to keep us safe and to conserve energy. It runs constant prediction loops - drawing on past experiences to manage and conserve energy. New situations consume more energy, making change / the unfamiliar potentially tiring and reducing the energy required for other activities. AWA’s Director of Research & Development, Karen Plum, uses a bucket to represent brain energy capacity. In times of high uncertainty / worry there’s potentially less energy available for new / innovative activities and even familiar ones (including habits) may take longer and consume more energy than before. This helps explain what is going on for us and for our colleagues during these uncertain times.

KEY TAKE AWAY 1: Working from home since Coronavirus lockdown has been different for everyone – for many it isn’t the same as under ‘normal’ circumstances. People must balance work and personal commitments, home schooling, sharing their “office” with others and worrying about loved ones – all of which will affect their performance. Participants were asked how much their ‘productivity’ had changed since before lockdown, and what factors were most impacting their performance. The chart below shows that over half of attendees either felt more productive (38%) or had not experienced a change (18%); the remainder (44%) felt less productive. When asked about the influences, work/life balance was slightly better than before and access to colleagues was slightly worse – but naturally these results are the average across respondents and hide variations.

Prediction loop: lower energy consumption when faced with known situation and higher consumption when faced with unknown situations

Plum’s Model of Brain Energy: consumption of brain energy under ‘normal’ circumstances vs ‘now’

Productivity affected in lockdown: participant output Factors affected in lockdown: participant output

ADVANCED WORKPLACE ASSOCIATESTake Aways from Working AWAy Workshop 3

09.04.2020

For further information or to register for our next sessions please visit: https://www.advanced-workplace.com/awa/services/advanced-workplace-institute/working-away/

KEY TAKE AWAY 3: As the brain is consuming more energy to make sense of the current situation, the question arises as to what can be done to ensure it can maximise the use of its capacity. The research AWA carried out in collaboration with the Center for Evidence Based Management (https://www.cebma.org/) around cognitive fitness was shared, explaining the factors that impact the way our brains work – both positively and negatively. The aim was to help indentify the differences the factors could make in having better cognitive fitness.

KEY TAKE AWAY 4: Having considered individual needs and appreciated the challenges of working in the current times, these must be set in the context of Team needs. Drawing up a Team Agreement was proposed to help teams discuss and agree what is allowed during this time? What is ok / what isn’t ok? What will work best for our team and help us understand each other, be clear and set / manage expectations? Some ideas shared by attendees are shown below for inspiration.

Clearly defining expectations & having regular

check ins

Trusting people: outcome based not time based

Being flexible to individuals: making

individual availability visible

Work out best form of

communication

Have technology ready to go -

charged, tested, running

Make time for ‘social’ time

What is allowed? Can I go for a run in the afternoon? Is it ok if my child appears during a video call? Is it ok if the dog barks? Is it ok if I work later/ earlier than regular hours?

Cognitive Fitness factors: impacting the way the brain works Cognitive Fitness factors: affecting the different brain domainshttps://www.advanced-workplace.com/category/cognitive-fitness/Read more here: