_Performance enablement through human-centred design

Management thinker Dan Pink famously stated that there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. When it comes to the workplace it is no different, and we have not yet dared to apply practically what we know to be true; that our existing model, from a performance perspective, has been failing us.

To be fair until recently we only had part of the data. Now, driven by the mass work from home experiment of COVID-19, we have enriched the data to a tipping point, where we can finally discuss workplace alternatives viewed through the lens of performance.

Performance is our business raison d’être. It is the end point of all our endeavours. It is why business succeeds.

Last week, in preparation for the post COVID-19 return to work, Knight Frank Australia surveyed our staff for “new working preferences”. Over 50% of respondents stated that from now on they would prefer to work only two or three days per week in the office. When asked for reasons for this preference most cited performance and efficiency improvements working from home. Despite the jerry-rigged home office set ups and distractions, the feeling is that we have been performing to a higher standard. Our clients have also commented on our improved levels of engagement and output.

So what are the conditions of working from home that are producing better performance than the fit-for-purpose office?

To offer an answer we must first understand the drivers of performance.

In our knowledge economy, our performance at work depends on our cognitive abilities. Being able to think, create, plan, problem solve, make decisions, and learn all require a balance of conditions. We call the result of these conditions well-being. Well-being is an indicator of our resilience, longevity, and adaptability. And it is a misunderstood and much overlooked fundamental of work.

When a sportsperson over trains they experience fatigue, injury and eventually burn out, a condition which leads to a significantly reduced desire to participate in that sport. So what happens in the workplace? Well, exactly and entirely the same, of course. 

In our search for ever increasing efficiencies we have created something unsustainable. The conditions in our current ways of working expose us to constant stimulation. We are always on, and it is this that our work evolution has failed to adapt to.

Prolonged exposure to these sustained conditions can cause cognitive impairment, depressive disorders, and even atrophy of brain regions. And yet we expose ourselves to this knowingly, as this has always been the way.

Organisations have been increasingly aware of the implications of stress, and they have made attempts to introduce collaboration zones, wellness programs and games rooms to counter this. These measures, though very well intended, are merely band aids on an already present injury, and a radical re-position is now necessary to target the source.

So let us look at what we can do to create the right conditions, and what should now be taken more seriously having experienced our working from home stint.

The first and most necessary step is a revamp of the tried and tested, urban-centric, open plan, nine to five day. 

Step 1: Performance-based-preferences diagnostic 

All organisations to carry out a performance-based-preferences diagnostic for staff ways of working. This caters for both employee preferences as well as employer requirements, culminating in a mutually agreed matrix of when and in which environments their people perform best. The end goal is to correlate preferences to working roles. 

Step 2: Workplace strategic review

All organisations to carry out a workplace strategic review. City based offices with artificial light, air and temperature, in which staff spend their entire day, no longer provide the best environment for well-being and performance. The new requirement is for community and collaboration spaces, vibrant drop-in centres for high impact and high value activities. Creative spaces not docking spaces. 

Step 3: Spaces that enable performance

This could be at home, where you have increased control over your work environment and more time to focus on well-being instead of your usual daily commute, or a drop-in hub, which is both creatively and technologically enabled. The hubs could be membership affiliated or smaller local offices, situated along transport routes, within the communities people live and designed specifically for well-being and performance.

Step 4: Platform for change

Good leaders will entrust and empower their people to perform at their best. They will give them the place, the freedom and the platform to be excellent and manage the performance expectations through clear goals and accountability. This is a time for true enablement and an advanced review of policies that will drive performance objectives. People and Culture together with Technology will be encouraged to empower and enable, and new environments built on trust and transparency will become the platform for change. 

The era of true flexibility of workplace is upon us and it has come at a pivotal time in our history where work and well-being need to work in unison. As a result of COVID-19, and in-spite of its horrors, we have the opportunity to ensure well-being is at the heart of every business decision we make. We now know that when we design for humans and not just the economy, both will prosper.

Pauline-Jonah Tague

Client Strategy Advisor at Knight Frank Australia

Pauline-Jonah.Tague@au.knightfrank.com

+61 2 9036 6874