Slide 7 of 11
Notes:
The most successful companies of the recent past have tended to place a strong emphasis on the atmosphere and environment in which staff work, as well as on the traditional Taylorist aspects of improving the mechanics of how tasks are performed.
This is because - all other things being equal - happy, enthusiastic and positively motivated people who enjoy coming to work are more productive and deliver better performance for customers than people who are only at work because they need the money and can’t get a better job.
When we distribute work and teams in a telework programme, we may lose some of the background elements that affect motivation and enthusiasm. For example in a call centre handling brief and repetitive calls there is usually something of a “party atmosphere” surrounding the work; the work itself provides little opportunity for fun and interpersonal exchanges, so we add in little celebrations and excitements.
Some aspects of this “positive environment” approach do lend themselves to analysis, particularly communications and relationships. We need to assess what patterns of communications and relationships are built in to the task set, and what are the missing elements that have to be delivered through other processes. Some of these other proceesses should be automatic - for example regular personal contact between the manager and each member of the team. But some may need what could be considered “non-essential” and costly effort - for example bringing a widely dispersed team together in an attractive location from time to time when there may be no obvious (to the bean-counters and the tax collectors) business “work” to be done.
