My challenge:One of my organisational change "challenges" is quite a thorny one. I'm leading organisational change to support approximately 4000 employees change their office location. But is it a change of only their office? No.
They need to also embrace new workplace technology. So far, so good. But also adjust to a completely different way of working on top of this. Many have been working from home for the past two years. Now they move from this comfortable environment. Some may have distant memories of their traditional office.
So their comfort zone of their past is what many of my 4000 may cling to. Accumulating "stuff" on their desk. Having a desk. "Stuff" in long-term storage in the kitchen freezer. Same 'ol, different day.
For all the talk of future of work, the real reason we’ll go back to the office is a cocktail of 50% social pleasure and 50% social pressure. We want to see people, and we don’t want them not to see us.
- Gianpiero Petriglieri, a management professor at INSEAD
Their new location is pretty fancy, if I say so myself. Quite modern, and in a central, attractive location. Many of my 4000 people have to share tenancy with other teams. These other teams are in the same organisation - but still. It's quite a lot to adjust to.
So with the move pretty much over, how do I help "make change stick"? By resolving some remaining teething issues, and in fostering a sense of community. The former issue is logistical in nature. No sweat. Yet what about the former? How do you engender a sense of community in a diverse workforce? Many won't bother turning up to this location often... or at all. So there's an added dimension of hybrid working to also contend with.
When I walk in the shoes of one of my 4000 people, what goes through my mind? My sense of community starts to warp. Most of my meetings are virtual. My colleagues now sit in different places on "my floor" when they do work in the office. I have to use a desk-booking software application to find them. Sometimes they sit on different floors.
My feeling of a sense of community loses its footing. My old office, with the same desk, same coworkers around me served as a security blanket. I now feel a little out of balance. And what about new workplace technology I need to understand? Who on earth uses QR codes in meeting rooms to escalate an IT problem? Not to mention, my leader feels quite "far away" in our new setting. They try to meet with me online each week, but they still feel distant. Right, now to step out of one of my people's shoes. I put my organisational change hat back on.
...all individuals have three basic psychological needs—for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The satisfaction of these three needs promotes autonomous motivation, high-quality performance and personal wellbeing.- Deci, Olafsen and Ryan. Self-determination theory in work organizations: The state of a scienceBuilding a sense of community in the workplace can be challenging. But I need to start somewhere. How about two goals as a start?
1. Encourage employees to feel like they belong. Foster a sense of community.
2. Suggest (but not prescribe)a clear set of standards for how people should behave. Suggestions should sound positive and gentle, not prescriptive and absolute. This gentler approach may help people absorb standards without feeling like a compliance exercise.
What does psychological research have to our two goals?
Social psychology contributes a central theory — self-determination theory.
1. Social norms are powerful. These norms may tie into someone’s sense of competence. When people see others behaving in a certain way, they tend to follow suit because they don’t want to appear “out of place.” If you want your employees to follow a specific set of rules, make sure they’re visible! Put them on posters and your website so new hires understand agile working environment etiquette and underlying behaviours.
2. People need to have a sense of autonomy to feel comfortable within their environment. Clear policies act as behavioural guidelines. In my 4000 people, many might enjoy this feeling of autonomy. They can get on with their work in the agile space, knowing broad behavioural boundaries. The greater sense of autonomy an employee feels, the more likely they will want to be part of something bigger than themself?
3. A sense of community ties into relatedness. So let’s examine community as a psychological construct.
What is a community… in the context of agile working environments?
A community is a social group with shared values, norms, and goals. The term could describe a specific kind of community—either an organisation — or any group of people united by a common purpose or interest.
In general, communities are important because they help us feel connected, happy, and healthy. This can apply at work as well: employees who feel invested in their company’s success tend to perform better than those who don’t.
Why build a sense of community in the workplace?
Connectedness applies throughout the lifespan. In studies of children, connectedness leads to better psychological outcomes later in life. For adults in the workplace, connectedness supports productivity.
Connectedness has ties to employee diversity and inclusion. I enjoy this wonderful saying about all three:
…diversity is being invited to the party;
inclusion is being asked to dance,
and belonging is when they play your song.
- Originally from Verna Myers (expanded)
So, where to begin creating “community” and behavioural norms for our working future?
Belonging. Connectedness. Relatedness. Very close cousins — each describing a warm and fuzzy feeling. We may have an unspoken expectation and series of assumptions between our employer and us. We may want to feel part of a team — as one implicit expectation. Unspoken assumptions and expectations of our employer (and vice versa) form our “psychological contract”. Does this warm and fuzzy feeling exist when our psychological contract is intact?
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Katarina Berg have three suggestions. Their suggestions help us foster belonging or connectedness in hybrid working environments.
1. Balance the tension between a strong culture and effective diversity-inclusion-belonging practice. In my case, a “strong culture” may refer to getting work done. Yet my 4000-odd people need to adjust to new workplace technologies. Not to mention new behaviours, habits and etiquette.
2. Retaining the social element of work, even when people work from home. I agree, although most of the heavy lifting needs to be within each team. What regular online social meetings does each team have? Could some of these meetings be set up as “walking meetings”? I enjoyed many sessions where I walked barefoot down my street at home while catching up with colleagues. These meetings were at a set time each week. I found my barefoot meetings a refreshing change. These informal meetings contrast with talking about kanban tickets, “blockers,” and feeling like a machine churning out work.
3. Having the courage to let the culture evolve. As a change lead for my relocation efforts, I can tap into a vast community of change champions. I held regular meetings with my community. We’ve been together through thick and thin so far. Now it’s up to them to co-create how we design a better sense of community for their office. We steer the ship towards a sustainable way to do this, as my team will undoubtedly move on to other projects.
There are various models which can help. Wade Arnold and his colleagues designed a “Psychological sense of community (PSOC)” model. This model considers a sense of community as:
- Membership
- Shared emotional connections
- Influence
- The ability of a community to meet member’s needs
These four parts summarise ten workplace community “ingredients”. Thomas Naylor, William Willimon and Rolf Osterberg suggested ten defining characteristics. These characteristics may help workplace community-builders like me:
- A shared vision among employees;
- A common set of core values;
- Boundaries;
- Empowerment;
- Responsibility sharing;
- Growth and development opportunities;
- Tension reduction mechanisms;
- Educational and development opportunities;
- Feedback;
- Friendship.
These two models help us consider the dimensions of a “sense of community”. Plenty of psychosocial factors influence this warm and fuzzy feeling. Yet it doesn’t tie into how workplace space and hybrid working affect a sense of community.
Moving away from psychological models, what do experts in the workplace design space have to say? The envoy.com Workplace Trends Report 2022 suggests pragmatic workplace measurements. These measurements don’t foster a sense of community yet reveal crucial behaviours. These behaviours speak to whether a community in an office location is growing or declining. These measurements don’t tap into what my 4000-odd people think or feel. Yet these metrics support program evaluation efforts. Is this office relocation change effort going to “stick”?
- Workplace traffic over time
- How successful has return to office been?
- Per cent by month a) went to the office more than once per month b) not
- How far in advance did employees schedule to go into the workplace?
- Popular days to go into the workplace
- Is there an incremental lift in desk reservations?
- Which teams came into the workplace the most?
- How did workplaces keep people safe? e.g. vaccines
- What do workplace teams want to invest their time and effort?
This report also speaks to potential capability uplift work I may need to do. This report suggests top skills for me to build to help employees deal with hybrid working… and thriving in agile working environments:
- Adaptability
- Dealing with ambiguity
- Project management
- People management
- Event management
So far, so good. We have some disjointed yet helpful models and ways of thinking. But is there research linking the two?
Linking psychology with agile working environments
I’m a big fan of Dr Tony Grant. The “father of coaching psychology”. He passed away in 2020. In researching this article, I was happy to see his name again. One of his many journal articles may help solve my problem. Tony and his colleagues introduced the idea of a “Positive Built Workplace Environment”.
His article examined a brief intervention case study with a building in Sydney, Australia. This building? A certified ‘six star’ green building called International Towers. This space is an innovative commercial hub situated on Sydney Harbour. International Towers accommodates approximately 23,000 office workers. On top of this, a range of leading retailers and restaurants.
What are my takeaways as a change leader?
The International Towers building management was actively involved in making the space attractive. They articulated a set of positive values to existing and new tenants. The leadership sought to associate these values with the building and its precincts.
How did the International Towers team position these values?
Using the term ‘Carpe Diem’ as the ‘brand’ for these values. These values incorporated the aboriginal history of the land the building resided. The ‘Carpe Diem’ community encapsulated these cultural ideals.
The ‘Carpe Diem’ ideals were also about working towards a higher purpose. The values took life by management crafting a community of like-minded custodians. They considered ‘Carpe Diem’ to be about seizing the day and being mindful of the present. They also prized the value of taking positive action for the future, to do all one can do today to shape a better future.
The International Towers building managers positioned how they managed positive change. They considered their role as one of a curator. This mindset involved curating tenants through a purposeful selection and onboarding process.
This curation and a strong sense of values served as two change interventions. I’m considering using both, adapted to my current circumstances. Tony and his team also designed a helpful scale for measuring tenant/employee views.
This scale builds on solid foundations. They measure autonomy, competence and relatedness. These are our three facets of self-determination theory; each question adapts to agile working environments. On the downside, this scale has not undergone evaluation for reliability and validity. Yet it may be suitable for a quick, unscientific progress pulse check. I have yet to come across a business leader worried about the psychometric properties of any survey I’ve used… so far.
The Positive Built Workplace Environment Scale (PBWES), Buildings and our physical environment often affect how we feel.
Please think about how this building and its precincts make you feel and rate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement.
Autonomy
1 When I’m here, I feel a sense of choice and freedom in the things I undertake
2 Being in this building and its precincts give me a greater sense of purpose
3 When I am here, I feel pressured to be someone that I’m not (R)
4 When I am in this building, I feel like I can be myself
5 I feel a strong sense of autonomy when I am in here
Competence
6 Being in this building and its precincts make me feel incompetent (R)
7 When I am in this building, I feel like I am good at what I do
8 The atmosphere in this building has helped me develop and grow as a person
9 Most days, I feel accomplished from working in this building.
10 This building and its precincts boost my confidence in my ability to do well at my job
Relatedness
11 The design of this building helps me connect with other people
12 I can relate to other people in this building and its precincts
13 I often feel alienated and alone when I am in this building and its precincts (R)
14 People in this building are pretty friendly toward me
15 I feel in tune with this building and its precincts
(R) = Reverse scored
Many of my 4000-odd employees work in the office and at home. Thus I’m considering if this scale needs adaptation to cover both working from home and the new office environment. We will see.
I’m glad I spent some time seeking support for how I embed change for a new office location. I feel relieved that I can sit on the shoulders of intellectual giants. These giants reveal powerful insights which I can use in my change practice.
So far, I know that I have a measure and an approach that worked for a similar project to mine. Here’s to watching how my change reinforcement work goes. There is still a fair bit of adaptation and collaboration with my change community. Even so, it is an exciting challenge to have.
Our book — The Change Manager’s Companion — is available now. You can also check out our online course on Change Management.