a toolkit for an agile future

Judith CherryHead of ResearchOpportunity Now

Out of Office: A Toolkit for an Agile Future

The Research Survey

• 13 organisations in public and private sectors• 1219 team members: 55% female and 45% male• 330 managers: 37% women 63% men• Investigated relationship between working patterns, engagement and trust

Focus groups• 80 people across 4 organisations

Managers see the benefits of agile working

Managers views on agility

Levels of trust are high in teams

But a credibility gap for leaders

Agile working: promotes good management and exposes bad!

Reorganising work

– Shifting focus from jobs to tasks– Shifting focus from individuals to teams

Promotes empowered working and focus on outcomes

Rethinking the role of the manager

Managers need to manage It’s not command and control or laissez faire

• Setting objectives

• Monitoring workflow and setting milestones

• Performance measurement

• Communication and knowledge sharing Regular team meetings and knowledge sharing Individual communication Informal knowledge sharing (instant messenger, virtual whiteboards) Physical meetings

Areas for action• Make the business case and position agile working as good working practice

• Move from an employee benefit to a business solution• Shift from individual role models to team role model

• Show strong leadership• more visible in changing their own ways of working • more open and honest about the flexibility which they already

enjoy• more focus on outcomes rather than inputs or “face-time”• more challenging of practices and individuals (including leaders)

who do not support agile working

Encourage “structured and empowered” management model and reflect in competencies and performance assessment

Guidance► Clear HR guidance and consultancy and Management training

Practical examples► Best practice and coaching and mentoring from “agile” managers

Challenge► Assumption that all jobs can be agile to shift burden of

responsibility ► Robust mechanism for challenge

Support and challenge managers

Support agile workers• Guidance for new agile workers beyond application process

• Sharing best practice, buddying/mentoring► Setting boundaries► Effective communication► Career management

• Focus on visibility– regularly discuss their career development with their manager– to use technology to participate in development opportunities more easily– maintain their profile through electronic media– make the most of the physical time in the office to network with key contacts.

Thank you