A Call for Compassion over Expertise
Adapting to remote work during a pandemic
I am an academic, and love observing work systems, exploring how they function, and gaining insight through analysis. I am scheduled to defend my dissertation in less than three months, a huge milestone after years of engaging with practitioners and iterative examinations of the data collection. The topic of my dissertation: How do fully distributed organizations collaborate on interdependent work! Timing and relevance in some ways could not be better. Yet, I have not been able to write anything that felt meaningful to contribute to the very active conversation on remote work happening during this crisis.
Of course I have strong thoughts about designing distributed work systems; however, each time this week I started writing about what I have learned researching remote work it felt hollow. The topics were evidence based (although admittedly not yet peer reviewed), and have the potential to impact organizations and employees, yet there was a disconnection with the reality of life now. It took a week, and 10+ abandoned articles, for me to realize that now is a time for compassion not expertise. Limit the massive supply increase of expertise and expert opinions, which can be based on generalizations and past individual experiences, and focus first on compassion through an understanding of the constraints that come with an unprecedented shift in work along with a more general uncertainty.
To be clear, in no way am I criticizing the discussion of known best practices or sharing remote work resources, I have been so impressed with how the community of remote-first companies and leaders have mobilized to share knowledge, answer questions, and generally provide support to those seeking it during this abruptly shifted into a new way of working. What I don’t think is a top priority right now is a pushing “expertise” without the acknowledgment that this is an extreme and challenging situation. Something some of my early article drafts were guilty of.
As the need for social distancing continues for another 6 or 12 (or more) weeks, the need for implementing distributed work practices will come, and I do intend to share the insights from my research soon. Yet, those who have been pushed into remote work now did not make a strategic or considered choice to do this, and the current environment is full of uncertainty and ambiguity.
As such, I call on organizations and communities to show compassion. To focus on the human connect over traditional role definitions, to communicate openly and establish a base level of understanding for the unique and idiosyncratic situations others face (this could be very detailed or abstracted), and then co-create what work could look like for the next few months. This includes establishing psychological safety and granting trust, while above all being a kind, considerate human.
Once this initial phase is achieved, and some work practices have emerged, then move on to explore effective remote work practices and adjust behaviors. Change is hard, and it may seem weird to encourage the emergence of any practice when a “blank slate” is present. However, unlike an organization that plans for a transition to a distributed workforce, companies have been forced into this without preparation. This means that instead of experiencing an open creative space, the experience of employees working from home is more like a panicked free fall. This will lead to reactive thinking and attachment to those decisions. By detaching from work and focusing first on people, a baseline of activity can be established (stopping the free fall) and various options for remote work specific designs can be considered. For some organizations this process may take 2 days, for others a few weeks, and in an ever changing environment it is unlikely to be a continuous progression.
An important note for those who are already working in a distributed way — do not underestimate the impact of this shift on you. While your work systems may not be significantly interrupted right now, the toll on the mental health of you and your coworkers is still present. Additionally, many of us are now sharing our physical space 24/7 with partners and dependents, having to balance an increasing set of responsibilities including care-giving, supporting distant loved ones, and managing our own well-being . Give people the time and virtual space they need to process this experience. While the productivity of many may decrease, others may pour themselves into work as a means to cope; allowing all of that (for a time) is important. Show compassion for yourself and coworkers, being in a position where the WFH mandate is less jarring does not mean that you are removed from the impact of a global pandemic.
I will be sharing articles soon related about how to design distributed work systems, but first I am showing myself compassion by expressing some of my struggles this week in balancing the unique experience of this crisis with being able to share the insights of my research.
