Undoing Cultures of Busyness
Undoing Cultures of Busyness
Even before our organizations adjusted to virtual or hybrid structures we placed a high value on busyness. We rewarded the performance of individuals who churned out outputs and activities. That tendency to be as busy as possible got even more heightened during the pandemic when our staff felt like they had to justify their out-of-sight, out-of-mind existence in a virtual work environment. In addition to work tasks, working from home may have increased our ability to fill up our already full plates because we were able to layer in household and personal chores. What we didn’t learn over the past three years of the pandemic, is that busyness is not the same as being impactful. In fact, the pace at which we became increasingly busy just contributed to an overwhelming feeling of burnout. And unfortunately, even as some companies are returning to more in-person work we are continuing in our deep commitment to valuing busyness as exemplified in back-to-back meetings and days filled with short-term, transactional tasks. Teams continue to complain of full workloads and the potential for burnout. But when asked, “What are you busy with?”, we have a hard time showing and proving what we have gained from all this churn.
So how do we course correct from this culture of busyness to a culture of productive impact? First, we need to have intentional conversations on resetting what we value. Instead of placing a high value on activity and outputs, what if we flipped the script and started valuing deep work and outcomes? Here are some strategies to consider…
Re-haul meetings. A really good place I encourage folks to start is conducting a meeting audit. Remove non-essential recurring meetings from the calendar that are just about reporting out. A good rule of thumb is if it can be communicated in an email or on Slack, it doesn’t need to be a meeting. And instead calendar meetings that are focused on deep-dive conversations – problem-solving, design, innovation, and learning. Every meeting should begin with clarity on the purpose, process, and outcomes. What is the purpose of the meeting? What activities and processes will we engage people in during the meeting? And what do we hope to have accomplished when the meeting is complete?
Make time for Deep Work. Require your team to block out time on their calendars for “deep work” - deep work is work that requires cognitive thinking - this can include things like design work, collaborative work, problem solving, debriefing, and learning conversations. For example, my Friday afternoons are blocked time on my calendar for reflection and writing.
Mandate time off. We all need time to rest, restore and recharge. In fact, if we don’t spend time replenishing our brain power we are less effective, productive, and more apt to burn out. Consider shutting down the office a couple of times a year for a week [summer or winter break]. And require staff to request, calendar, and take their paid time off before the end of the fiscal year.
Create Adaptive systems. Change is a constant and organizations that prepare for adaptation are more likely to not double down on busyness behaviors when an event happens that disrupts the system. For example, shifting to provide more support services to staff experiencing a major weather event [wildfires, hurricanes, snow storms]. Creating short-term paid temporary positions to fill staffing gaps or during staff transitions. Stacking priorities during a particularly busy period, for example, pausing on some work projects when a major project needs all-hands “deep work”.
Modeling. With all things, if you are trying to disrupt some status quo way of being like busyness, it is important that leaders model the way. Positional leaders in an organization should model the change they want to see in the organization. If the CEO never takes vacation then staff will get the signal that rest and restoration are not things the organization values. If the leadership team is constantly running from meeting to meeting, but major problems and opportunities go unaddressed then they’re not modeling what it looks like to make time for the “deep work”. Again, staff will take its cues from what the leaders in the organization prioritize and place value on by walking the talk.
