2020 was in many ways a year to leave behind and yet, 2021 is already proving to be a bastard in its own way, presenting the very same problems as last year but with the bonus of being in the middle of winter.
From my perspective, the announcement that all English schools would once again close, evoked feelings of anxiety and a crushing expectation that my wife and I would, once again, be required to lead my two oldest children’s schooling. Fortunately, having endured (and I use that word advisedly) the last period, we’re now better prepared to approach it all with more pragmatism and understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
In short, for the children, keeping them busy with as many things that they enjoy doing as possible, rather than sticking rigidly to a predefined timetable.
For the adults, a combination of school-work, work-work and alone time, plus a balance of healthy lifestyle and moderate alcoholism.
All that said, the inherent optimist in me always relishes the start to a new year and the opportunity for renewal and drive that it brings. After all, amid the sh*t sandwich that is lockdown, some fundamental attitudes towards work and its relationship with our personal lives have changed for the better. The understanding that office-based work isn’t the only way of doing things for one.
Over the past few days, I’ve looked back at all the newsletters from last year and, in the process decided to record and share them as podcasts throughout January (the world’s first-ever Work/Life Podstorm I’ll have you know).
I received more messages about FWL#27 - Opportunities (and challenges) of the ‘flipped workplace’ than any other newsletter or podcast I’ve published. The primary area of people’s interest is the importance of flexible time. This is backed up by the conversations I’ve had with hundreds of people about the future of work since writing FWL#17: ‘The Project’ in September, including entrepreneurs, business leaders, managers, and employees.
Crucially, we have to create a system in which we can bring energy to our work time even if limited in the current circumstances.
In the last episode of season one of Take My Advice (I’m Not Using It), I spoke to two experts on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Zoe Young is the founder of Half The Sky, a flexible work design business who is part of the Work After Lockdown project and literally “wrote the book” about how mothers manage flexible working in careers and family life. During our conversation, she pointed out that while our perception is that flexible work is now the norm, a recent study by TimeWise found that the number of job ads carrying any reference to flexibility, has only moved from 17% before the pandemic 17% to 22% now. In other words, not very much.
Why is this a fundamental problem? As my other guest, Nishita Dewan, founder of CollaboratEQ and a specialist in D&I (diversity and inclusion) and learning organisations, explained, diversity isn’t just about box-ticking. It creates value by bringing different perspectives and world views to the table, ultimately contributing towards a culture of innovation and growth. Nishita points out that diversity means many things and can be visible – (gender, race, age) and invisible (such as some disabilities, background, home life).
There are myriad ways to approach engendering a diverse working culture, which we’ll cover in the future, no doubt. For starters, though, let’s consider the role of working parents - and mothers in particular.
As you may have read in the FT this week, new years resolutions are all about being intentional nowadays. In this case, it’s pretty simple - let’s intentionally empower people to manage their own time.
If we don’t, there’s a considerable risk that we lose talented and experienced people because, as a previous podcast guest, Allison Baum Gates, outlined in Business Insider this week:
“Millions of women left the workforce in 2020 due to the overwhelming duty of caregiving in a pandemic. 63% of senior-level women “revised their career ambitions” and 25% of women overall are considering dropping out.”
How do we do this in practice? Well, next week, I’ll share a framework with you that aims to give business leaders, teams, and individuals a platform that will help to achieve three things this year:
Greater flexibility
Better mental health
Enhanced performance
Until then, check out the podcast and try to have a great week even if it involves trying to work and teach at the same time.
Cheers,
Ollie
Any Other Business:
9 valuable leadership lessons we learned in 2020 from IDEO.
A short interview with Amy Edmondson on why there’s no role for fear in building the kinds of coalitions and communities we need - in work and life.
If you feel like making some changes this year, then here is a (very) comprehensive list of tips from Ideopunk to create a ‘better life’.
I’ve written about and write on Substack. Here’s an interesting piece in the New York Times about the person who’s really making it work, to the tune of over $1 million a year.
Finally, on that note, this article by Hugo Amsellem and the infographic below does a fantastic job of mapping the creator economy.
