Connection is King!

The results are in!

Disconnection is by far the biggest challenge my clients experienced with flex in 2021.

From the conversations I’ve had so far in 2022, it’s becoming more, not less, of a problem.

If you do one thing in 2022, I suggest you make ‘connection’ your flex-focus. 

Here is how you can get that going.

Connect with Tools, not Rules

Use tools, not rules. Rules are too blunt. They crowd out valid options for some people. Rules often get in the way of the ideal arrangement for a minority of people. The arrangement that would otherwise support them to be at their best and do their best work. Tools instead act as guardrails against outcomes that won’t work and provide the boundaries within which everyone can get creative with confidence.

Connect with Whom?

One tool I use to support great connections is what I call ‘The Landscape of Expectations’. 

This is a map of the broad landscape of expectations and connections that we all work within. 

Let’s acknowledge the fiction that it is only my manager who has expectations of me. There are expectations coming at me from all over the place, all of the time. They come from my manager and others in my team, they also come from other places in my organisation. They don’t stop there though. They come from outside my organisation too, customers, stakeholders, suppliers and partners. 

If I acknowledge all those people who have an expectation of me, wherever they are in this landscape, I have a good place to start with my key connections. These are the people I need to talk to to test my assumptions and boundaries of what is possible when it comes to flexible work. These are also the people I need to connect with on a regular basis and establish how we are going to stay connected as we work together.

Connect How?

I’ve written before about how we can connect better by getting creative with space and time now we’re working more flexibly. 

We can also think about connecting for different purposes. We don’t want everything to get too heavy. People miss the informal and unplanned as much as they miss the more formal and planned connections that we used to have so much more frequently when work was less flexible.

What Now?

What can you try to keep you and your team more connected in 2022?

• Use tools, not rules

• Who is part of your landscape of expectations?

• How can you play with space and time?

• Consider formal, informal, planned and unplanned interactions

• Try some new things and see what works for you and your team