Solve for autonomy and manage for fairness

Having spent 14 days in isolation, Tom Brockhurst has a new perspective on the implications lockdown can have on people.

After having his autonomy taken away for a couple of weeks – ‘it really erodes at your being’ – it makes sense to Tom that the future workspace is some form of a ‘blended environment’. Neuroscience tells us that we need to solve for autonomy and manage for fairness and this extends to organisations contemplating bringing workforces back into the office.

So what does solving for autonomy mean?

It means we need to question what is the best way for an organisation to move forward, and how do we ensure it is collaborative and inclusive to all. What are the decisions that we can extend to our employees about coming back to the workplace? How do we ensure decisions are made as a team and not in isolation, or without consideration and input from all?

• Does 100% of our workforce need to be in all the time? Maybe it’s only 50%. We give them the choice about who’s in and when.
• Does everybody need to get together every day for that communal piece that we know is quite valuable?
• Do only a few hours a week or a few days a month need to be spent in the office?

Neuroscience research has proven that if everyone has a say in decisions at work, you will create a more productive and connected workplace. So once these decisions that gives our employees some autonomy have been made, we need to ensure everybody is having a say and there is fairness in the way that it is working. Solve for autonomy and manage for fairness. That’s how we’re approaching the quagmire and the ambiguity of coming back to work after COVID. Hopefully there’s no more lockdowns but whatever happens, the future is going to be different. We hope this has been helpful as you are thinking about transitioning back to the workplace over the next few weeks and months.

To learn more, why don’t you give us a call and see how we can help you.