How are you using your commute time?

Photo by Giallo from Pexels

A recent report by Atlas Cloud Computing highlighted a potential upside of the way Covid 19 has changed our working lives. 

Sifting through responses from 3000 people who had been office based prior to the virus and were now working from home, they came up with some interesting statistics, neatly demonstrated in their infographic.  Two very interesting things showed up.

Firstly, 4 out of 5 people i.e. 79% in the study thought that they were able to work effectively from home. Secondly 86% felt they are more productive when they worked from home.  

Schroders has told its staff that even after the pandemic they won't have to return to the office full time and can negotiate attendance with their managers. In Japan last month Fujitsu announced its 'Work Life Shift' to enable staff to prioritise working from home aiming to "introduce a new way of working that promises a more empowering, productive and creative experience for employees that will boost innovation and deliver new value to customers and society".

One of the main effects of this slide towards remote working as a norm, is the hours saved on the daily commute. Last September figures from Lloyds Bank indicated that in the UK we spend over 10 days per annum on our daily commute with the average journey time being 65 minutes each day. No doubt some people's commutes were a lot longer than that.

So what are you doing with those free hours now you aren't on a train / in a car / on a bike....? Are you in the 'add that extra hour to your work day' camp or are you in the 'wey-hey - more time for me!' camp? 

In the Fujitsu quote above the word that jumped out to me was 'creative'. Leaving aside the creativity that you might be bringing to your work if you are using those commuting hours to increase your productivity in your job, I thought I'd search for some unusual creative activity (beyond making sourdough, taking up knitting or the other well documented creative stuff we have all apparently been indulging in) during these unusual times. Here is what turned up:

Checking through my spam folder I am impressed at the creativity of names of my spammers. They all sound like a roll call of some fancy posh school. Equally impressive are the amount of people who have been having a go at relieving me of funds fraudulently using creative Paypal references. That has certainly given me something to do with those spare hours, in the battle to keep my money and my credit score.

On a more positive note, it's been very cool the way yoga and pilates teachers and personal trainers and dance teachers have taken to Zoom and possibly unfamiliar technologies to keep their clients. It's not easy to go from face-to-face to virtual if you aren't used to doing that on a regular basis. It takes time and patience! Refreshingly it means that we have become a little more forgiving when things don't go right, when you you are left contorted in gomukhasana for ages while the internet seizes. Or when you accidentally lick your spaghetti bowl forgetting you are in a video meeting. 

Without doubt a shout should go out to our young people. They've had essential bits of their growing up snatched away - restrictions on seeing friends, socialising, having the normal interactions presented by school, university, gap years, job opportunities. In spite of all that they have adapted to home learning, remote classrooms, small social groups, and getting involved in creative ways in things that matter. 

A casual trawl through the internet presented these creative young people: in May on Mental Health Awareness Day members of the Wiltshire Youth Parliament got together to share tips on managing everyday life challenges thrown up by Covid: in Mali Unicef trained young journalist Fatoumata is using her skills to fight against Covid disinformation: Chung, a young boy in Vietnam, used his passion for electronics to design an automatic hand sanitiser.

So let's take a moment to appreciate the potential creative cleverness within each of us, whether that is to give some of our extra time to 'hold' (virtually) someone else's hand through difficult times, learn a new skill that might have a small but significant effect on our environment (sewing on a button to save wasting a good garment) or find ways to add value for those we work with/for. 

Unicef - https://www.unicef.org/stories/malis-young-people-making-themselves-heard-fight-against-covid-19

Atlas Cloud Computing - https://www.atlascloud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Get-Home-Working-Done-Infographic-Atlas-Cloud.pdf

Plan International - https://plan-uk.org/blogs/meet-five-amazing-people-making-a-difference-in-lockdown

Your Kairos Moment

                                                    Water Dew - Daniel Kux at Pexels

Here we all are, in our different and separate spaces, living and working in a changed world.

Lockdown has firstly pushed us to adapt, then to accept, then to innovate. People have found new ways of doing things, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes with an enthusiasm to embrace opportunities for change.

What is becoming clear, is that those who have chosen to think differently and make the best of this difficult period in history are going to be the ones that thrive and flourish. Let's take a quick look at some of the thrivers:

• The Tate Galleries have introduced wonderful virtual tours and talks so that we can continue to experience the arts
• Boohoo, the online retailer picked up early on the changing trends of their clients, realising that their clients were going to be buying different clothes if they were staying indoors all the time; sales of homewear blossomed
• Drive in concerts are in the calendar at Cheltenham racecourse
• The Bishop of Manchester was delighted at the number of people joining online services, with over 400,000 people at the Palm Sunday service, more that any congregation previously.

To become a thriver, take a lesson from the Ancient Greeks. Kairos is the ' passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved' (Eric Charles White). The word Kairos means 'the opportune' or ' the right moment' and refers to a critical occasion for accurate action origin, meaning we should 'seize the moment to perform accurately and skilfully in order to achieve'.

The elements of Kairos are:

• the critical essence of time 
• the accuracy of action
• the clarity of the target

We have the critical time now, presented to us by the Covid crisis. The accuracy of action and the clarity of target are yours to choose. Grab your opportunity, make your change however small, and be clear in your objective.

Nemawashi - Good Decision Making in a Disconnected World

Green Bonzai Tree by Quang Nguyen Vinh

The Japanese use the principles of nemawashi in their business lives; it's literal meaning is “to dig round the roots”.  It is a process of preparing a plant for transplant and without proper nemawashi for example, a bonsai tree might not thrive when transplanted.  In these unusual times when Covid-19 has separated and disconnected us, we might find this principle of nemawashi useful to refer to as we struggle to make decisions in a challenging environment.

This idea of ground preparation equates to processes that will improve your decision making based on consensus and help you to make the right choices.  Nemawashi is one of the Toyota Way principles, where building consensus is integral to their ethos of embracing conflict without settling for compromise. 

Basing decisions on a process of complete consensus achieved through nemawashi results in decisions that are strong, cohesive and have the support of everyone involved.  This means ensuring that before you make any decision you implement the following: 

• Proper prior consultation and consideration
• Collecting ideas, suggestions and reviews for possible solutions in a creative way
• Persuasive and collaborative discussion of problems and issues in order to reach agreement to realise potential solutions.   

The objective of nemawashi is to retain harmony and cohesiveness where opinions differ.  By doing this groundwork you can save valuable time that might be lost by implementing the wrong strategy.  Once decisions are reached, rapid implementation can occur and you can effectively hit the ground running.  Having true consensus also means less conflict and less likelihood that someone will want to sabotage the decisions made.  By involving everyone beforehand it also allows people to feel ownership of the eventual solutions, so you get buy-in and motivation. 

In a culture where we are now meeting remotely using different meeting media, we can create the time before we gather together to get this consensus.  Time has taken on a different dimension, patience is becoming something we are more used to, meetings have to be more considered in the way they are set up and conducted. All elements reflected in nemawashi.

So, how do you go about it? The process is one of persuasion and inclusion by conversation and discussion in smaller groups so as to avoid open conflicting opinions.  For example, if you have a particular proposal in mind, or perhaps an issue that needs a solution, then you would typically start your nemawashi by seeking out those key decision makers that would be useful or relevant.  You might choose to casually chat in a small online Zoom (or other) meeting, getting a small group together for an informal discussion, or set up some break-outs during a more structured meeting. The objective is to gauge the other party’s reactions and opinions – are they really enthused, are there some bits they don’t like, do they loathe the idea, do they have any suggestions for improvements? 

 Nemawashi is by its nature, a slow nurturing process. In the last few months of living in a Covid-19 world, we have learned to use time differently so we can embrace this slow, nurturing approach to get really good results.

To make it more powerful here are some questions that embody the idea of nemawashi that you can ask people to consider and bring to the discussion at your main meeting:

• What do I think of the proposal?
• How would I improve the proposal?
• If I make this decision how will I feel – better or worse?
• Do I think this is a fair decision to all involved?
• If I had to defend this decision in a court of law would I feel sure and confident?       

This will allow everyone to bring a clear idea of what decisions they might make and the potential effects of these decisions.  This will invite inclusion, and a sense of readiness to reach consensus without conflict.  The result will be a powerful decision and something sure to succeed, a clear knowledge of why a particular move will not work and some alternatives to take forward.