Reflections… Finding Opportunity in Transformation
Team,
Last week, our Communications Director, Katie Maldonado, shared her research and summary thoughts regarding Best Practices for Remote Working. Thank you Katie for sharing those good thoughts.
This week, I want to provide some insight into a related topic that may be on your mind: When can I return to the office? I appreciate that for many working from home has its advantages, but also its challenges. As a father of three kids in the house, I equally enjoy being able to pause mid-day to eat lunch with them and get frustrated when I am asked for snacks while I am on an important Teams meeting with my boss. Missy also enjoys me being at home during the day to be the stern voice when Doak needs it; yet she loathes when that stern voice is the “drill sergeant” being critical of the late sleepers and lax morning routines that beforehand I would not see in the summer.
More than that, we at APM have pride in our family culture within the workplace. We enjoy being around each other, seeing each other, sharing life with each other. COVID has interrupted that togetherness. For us, we want to be together again.
This is not lost on our Leadership Team. In fact, last week we read an article together online from the Harvard Business Review, 5 Tips for Safely Reopening Your Office. This particular article has grabbed my attention, not so much because of the reopening discussion, rather because of the wisdom contained in it about behavior change, culture, and leadership. These learnings apply equally to the Corporate offices and to the Field jobsites. The larger lessons I took away …
When changing behavior to form new norms, you must be explicit and prescriptive about what you want. And you must have accountability to address behaviors that are not compliant with those norms. In APM, we have a leadership tool called Sorry +/- that enables accountability for compliance, both the positive recognition and the constructive correction.
To correct non-compliant behavior, you must have a good intervention culture. In APM, this is our STOP program. Our STOP program must have two phrases that are exclusively and repeatedly used. When executing a STOP, say “Please”. When receiving a STOP, say “Thank you” and comply. Period.
Culture begins with leadership. Leaders must be visible, must articulate the why for new norms, must exemplify the new norms, must drill the new norms, must inspect the new norms. In APM, we call these leadership tools Lead by Example, Stump Speech, and Management by Walking Around (MBWA).
One final, forward looking thought: For reasons beyond COVID, our return to the office must include a different expectation. For example, there are some exciting opportunities in the works that may further transform our Pasadena campus from an administrative feel to an industrial feel. In other words, the campus will transform from “open toe” to “closed toe”. I want all our office and campus procedures to transform with that in mind before our people return.