Working Smarter And Harder

There are so many ways in which we talk about time, think about time and worry about time. But how many of us as leaders really put the necessary time into managing time? It will save many hours, in many days, for you and many others. Time is the invisible frontier that must be embraced and put at the heart of all organizations that wish to thrive and build sustainably towards a better future for all. Helen captures the potential time offers for intelligent growth and how to bring it to life in your organization. Helen inspires us not to serve time or to pass it, but to be courageous in changing how we see it. Solutions that enable the effective use of time and time intelligent leadership are examined. As people increasingly work from home, the frameworks that Helen offers will make a real, practical difference in the workplace. Business owners and executives tend to talk about their people being their most valuable asset, which is right and good. However, some of the principles will still apply across different types of business, regardless of what industry you’re in. So what we all do with our time becomes the most important question. What value do we place on our time? How do we use our time at work? What choices and tradeoffs do we make? What impact do these have? These are big questions. I don’t recall talking with colleagues or managers over the years about what we collectively spent our hours on and whether we were making the right choices.

Back Into The Universe

I’ve rarely heard business leaders talk about their own use of time – what they invested their time in and what they chose not to invest time in – or seen them take steps to free up our time so we can focus on the work that really matters. Instead, we carry on much as we’ve always done. Our collective attitudes and habits with regard to time at work remain largely fixed, year after year. We are stuck in an old way of operating that isn’t beneficial to our health, our productivity or our businesses. A good definition of culture on which I rely is Edgar Schein’s definition:1 shared, basic assumptions held by members of a group or organization, developed from shared learning experiences. So what is our time culture? If organizational culture in general consists of shared assumptions, then time culture specifically is our collective attitudes, values and behaviours at work in relation to time. Time culture impacts and informs the usually unspoken assumptions, norms and behaviours about working hours, being available to participate in meetings and conversations, being responsive to requests, meeting deadlines over which you may not have any influence. Our time culture is also characterized by bureaucracy – the plethora of processes, structures, organizational layers and governance protocols that we create and that shape the way we work. This time culture is deeply ingrained. It’s so embedded in the way our organizations are designed, in our business ‘norms’ and in our historical approach to working that we rarely stop to think about it or question it. It is only when it causes us or our businesses extreme pain that we are jolted into a realization that we need to ‘fix’ things. This time culture is hurting us as individuals.

Chip Away The Stone

Other employees, who for a whole variety of reasons would benefit from a different deal, see their jobs become unsustainable and their careers progress more slowly or stagnate. This really bothers me. It’s heavily loaded in favour of some employees and against others. Being able to ‘get in and get on’ in our current time culture is highly dependent on our gender, our personal situation and our demographic. It’s also dependent on us making sacrifices in terms of our own wellbeing. Research shows that the most diverse and inclusive organizations consistently perform best in their market, delivering quality services to clients and attracting, retaining and developing the most talented employees in a highly competitive labour market. However, our time culture is negatively impacting companies through reduced productivity, wellbeing and diversity. As a nation, the working hours in the United Kingdom are the longest in Europe2 – or even the world – yet our productivity lags behind. When we talk about time and work, we focus almost exclusively on the individual, thinking in terms of what working hours are agreed or expected and how many days’ leave we can take, and how many hours we have billed to clients or spent chasing new business. There are countless sources of advice and many thoughtful experts encouraging us as individuals to work smarter and harder, and to be more productive with our time. The overwhelming ethos here is ‘it’s all about the individual’ – but I would argue that it’s the system we need to fix. We need to stop treating the symptoms and start treating the cause.

In My Place

Is there a better way – one that works better for each employee and works better for the business? By changing our time culture, we can create more sustainable ways of working that will allow all kinds of talent to flourish. More employees will be able to thrive and succeed, and employers will reap the benefits in terms of attracting and retaining talent and improving business performance. I hope this provokes more open conversations about our time culture at work and encourages debate, experimentation and a collective determination to change the way we work for the better. Part 1 articulates the burning platform on which we are all standing and the compelling case for change. There’s no time to waste, so let’s get started! What drives most businesses? Or, to put it differently, what defines success for them? This focus on financial measures and gains overrides all other aspirations. Obviously, businesses have a responsibility to secure financial stability along with sufficient reserves to draw on during leaner times. Beyond that, the primary aspiration of any business is to safeguard and ideally grow its financial performance year on year, depending on whether the business is in a burgeoning, mature or declining market.