At Belongify, we want to make a work prediction, and it’s about what many more working people will intentionally NOT do, or stop doing this year. At unprecedented levels, people with any reasonable level of choice, will say NO to doing work that does not personally feel meaningful and purposeful.

We do not want this statement to come across as aloof, exclusive to knowledge workers, or tone-deaf to the reality of severe unemployment issues. However, lots of people will be taking more stock of their life/work situation.

Our current environment has taught us many lessons. One of them is a poignant reminder of what is really important to each of us at work. As an example, having a job requiring unnecessary hours of wasteful commuting to and from work is going to become unreasonable regardless of management dictums and compensation. Waste of time/effort just won’t be worth it to many.

Also, working in a toxic organization culture and/or for a crummy leader is going to get more scrutiny. One of our old bosses used to say the longest two weeks in the world were between pay periods if you were miserable at work. Life and time are too precious. This has always been true, and over the last year, we have ALL seen how fast the world can redefine literally everything. We will not cling to or put up with crap. 

People at work, regardless of generation and especially Millennials and Gen Zs, are becoming more discerning and willing to both speak out and act on their feelings.

They want to work for an organization that advances humankind.

They expect social justice, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. And now, amplified by the painful consequences of a pandemic, they appreciate the importance of BELONGING! They want to be able to be their genuine selves, ask for and get authentic help, contribute and make a difference, while feeling trusted and welcome at work (and everywhere).

By the way, remote working can provide this desirable work experience. It takes imagination and new mindsets. 

We’re well aware we all need to make money for the basics in life, and hopefully a little more. However, what many of us WILL NOT do in 2021 is to put up with lousy workplaces and leaders.

Yes, we need to be personally self-accountable as employees, and bring our imperfect best to work most days. Furthermore, we can’t expect leaders and organizations to be perfect either. However, if we have little or no space to change ourselves for the better, how can we stay in a work environment that suffocates and denigrates us? 

2020 was haunted by the phrase, “I CAN’T BREATHE.” We hope 2021 becomes invigorated by a sense of “DEEP FRESH AIR,” that most welcome breath that comes from the freedom to be one’s true self, unafraid, and making a difference while being embraced by others in a circle of true BELONGING. 

DUMB CULTURE THINGS TO CONSIDER TURNING DOWN: 

1. 9 to 5.
2. Work as a place.
3. Sameness.
4. Lagging technology.
5. Painful processes.
6. Bureaucratic performance reviews & ratings.
7. Performance management.
8. Unnecessary dress codes.
9. Rules and policies that treat us like children.
10. Non-value hierarchy/status.

What About Travel? 

While we were thinking about the personal challenges throughout our careers. Long hours away from family was probably the most daunting. The last 18 months have confirmed, for many of us, that we can challenge numerous workplace assumptions. One of those is, who has to travel? When? 

Leaders, please use this time to seriously challenge your travel policy. The high costs of travel to the operating model are one thing. However, the human cost is far greater for many. We realize that some people love to live on a plane. In most cases, it becomes a learned, unquestioned “necessity.”

As we move forward into the post-pandemic workplace, let’s not drag back every piece of cultural debris with us. It’s an opportunity to “house clean,” and sweep out the crummy things we’ve often accepted as “just the way it is.” Who really has to travel is part of this reconsideration, along with revisiting when in-person meetings are really necessary. Frankly, there are many more opportunities. Taking small steps like this will make our workplaces a little more human, and a little more accommodating to parenthood and work integrating with the unique personal lives of the people who make the business run. 

Let’s Give Meetings a Kick in the Pants!

Many details about daily work have been under reconsideration. Perhaps meetings should be in the crosshairs for review as well. Why? So many meetings just plain suck. Too often, they have no clear purpose, a poor process, and few meaningful outcomes. Unfortunately, the prime benefactor is mostly the meeting convenor. (Usually, the boss). 

The meeting can be considered a relic of industrial management. Ask yourself how much value is being created by having each one you’re involved in? If the easy answer is “lots of value,” by all means, keep participating in them. When they are highly productive, participants know the purpose of the gathering, what they’re going to do to meet objectives and then commit to doing so. This includes follow-up and learning. Do they need to be synchronous? Is personal attendance really necessary? Does every meeting need to be in one-hour increments? Should all be recorded? Documented?

Please move forward with a healthy review of all meetings. If you look at your calendar and spend more than 25 percent of your time in meetings involving more than three people, you may be stuck in meeting quicksand.

Time to kick all your meetings in the pants, and see what happens. Meetings, as we often currently conduct them, are calendar activities more than value-producing processes. Kick ’em in the pants again.

At Belongify, we know bosses that somehow think remote work diminishes collaboration and culture are feeding us a load of crap. That’s why there is this icky feeling that some bosses, particularly those of generations less familiar with remote work, are eager to regain tight control of their minions by counting butts in cubicles.

Advanced thinking companies like Google, Ford Moto, and Citigroup Inc. have promised greater flexibility. Other organizations, especially those with big wheel leaders like JP Morgan Chase & Co. Jamie Dimon, has publicly taken positions about how remote work doesn’t play “for those who want to hustle.” Nothing stokes big egos more than seeing those fearful slaves working so hard after 10:00 p.m. 

The following refers to a Bloomberg Law article recounting the reaction of a very capable employee, that may be representative of people having to work on-site, just because… “The final straw came a few weeks ago: the request for an in-person gathering, scheduled for all of 360 seconds. Got dressed, dropped her two kids at daycare, drove to the office, had a brief chat, and decided she was done. Her quote: ‘They feel like we’re not working if they can’t see us,’ she said. ‘It’s a boomer power-play.’”

What many organizations and bosses may not fully realize is that the relationship between North American businesses and their employees is undergoing a profound shift. For the first time in a generation, workers are gaining the upper hand. Relevant to this is the increasing desire for flexibility and autonomy.

A May survey of 1,000 U.S. adults showed that 39 percent would consider quitting if their employers weren’t flexible about remote work. The generational difference is clear: Among Millennials and Gen Z, that figure was 49 percent. 

If you’re not convinced how important remote work is, you might want to wake up! Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University, who’s researched why people quit jobs, notes: “Bosses taking a hard stance should beware, particularly given labor shortages in the economy.”

The theme of the following story is starting to become commonplace: “The mother of five moved her family to the New Jersey shore. And once the push to get back to offices picked up, the idea of commuting hardly seemed alluring. This spring, she accepted a fully remote position as chief financial officer of Yumi, a Los Angeles-based maker of baby food.” 

Top talent will work where they want to. However, be careful not to be arrogant about you or your company being so special that this doesn’t apply to you. Talent at every level being in the driver’s seat will happen fast.

It’s personally gratifying to Belongify that people everywhere are finding ways to work remotely. And maybe you’ve noticed that to effectively Work From Anywhere (WFA), it takes a specific mindset to make it work.

The technology and logistics underlying WFA are important, yet fall secondary in significance to the human element. The priority challenge is how team members individually contribute to the collective good and overall value needed. In a recent Lead In podcast, we challenged you to revisit the “value versus activity” topic. This time, we’d like to coach you on the next area of development for accelerating team progress. It is an extension to the latest Lead In on optimizing productivity. 

What to Do: Conduct a personal and team assessment in the following four areas: 

1. Risk and Failure.
2. Honest Conversations. 
3. Helpfulness and Generosity. 
4. Inclusion and Belonging. 

This is a continuous journey of development, and we do not want to oversimplify. However, in the spirit of starting small and acting now, please do more to:  

1. Minimize blame and concentrate on learning fast after mistakes are made.
2. Invite people to openly talk about hard or sensitive things.
3. Always think “yes” first, and ask “how might we?” 
4. SEE everyone, show up to be genuinely seen, make everyone truly welcome, and genuinely feel that they BELONG. 
   
   

If you commit as a follower AND leader to just doing those four things more often, and get better at them, we PROMISE you will have one of the most productive, engaged, and high-performing teams. Invite everyone to be ALL IN in those four areas, and you will even become extraordinary. When you go backward in any one or more of those categories, the opposite will happen.

As we often say, it’s that easy, and that hard. 

At Belongify, we recognize that silos of information in your organization can sabotage your productivity and breed distrust, but they don’t have to. 

Organizational silos form when leaders, and ultimately employees, are allowed to develop more loyalty to a specific group or team, than to the employer or company as a whole. 

As a result, silos make it increasingly difficult for groups to connect and work together. Information sharing grinds to a halt, and the opportunity to advance the organization together begins to break down. 

Rather than creating a workplace for greater conditions to belong, we create a breeding ground for silos to grow and flourish. As Amy Edmondson says in her HBR article, Fostering Collaboration Across Silos, 

Belongify is deeply interested and committed to creating conditions of true belonging. Our organization loves the principles underlying Ubuntu, a South African philosophy that teaches that all humans are deeply interconnected. 

Respect for all is at its foundation, and it implores us to look outward, acknowledging the humanity in others.

When we do this with sincerity, our behavior transforms. It’s difficult to mistreat others if we genuinely recognize their inherent value. 

The key message in Ubuntu is: “To feel true belonging, we must acknowledge humanity’s interconnectedness.”

Truly seeing each other, as emphasized in Zulu culture, is emotional nutrition. When we do not get enough, it manifests socially as loneliness (including in the workplace). “36 percent of Americans, including 61 percent of young adults, report ‘serious loneliness,’” according to a survey by the Making Caring Common Project at Harvard.

Wow! Let’s each commit to changing that through our daily activities. We can do it. 

In her book, Everyday Ubuntu, the author Mungi Ngomane notes: “Ubuntu challenges us to flip our thinking. Instead of using other people as a point of comparison, it invites us to focus instead on what someone else brings to our lives. Their contribution might be small – a stranger holding the door open for you, or huge – a loved one caring for you while you’re sick. As soon as we shift our thinking to how someone has contributed to our lives, we let go of our notions of lack and competition. By looking outward in a positive way, we start seeing how connected we are to the lives of those around us. And this sense of belonging brings us comfort.” 

If we simply employ this principle with EVERYONE, we will move the belonging needle forward and reduce loneliness. See everyone for what they have and will contribute to our lives! We are all related. 

Also, It’s important that psychological safety/belonging, and job security, are NOT to be conflated/confused. They are NOT the same.

Conditions requiring massive restructure for survival can happen overnight. At the same time, all of us should expect to work in a psychologically safe environment. We should be able to bring our authentic selves to work and fully contribute in imperfect ways, without fear of repercussion. While it may feel hurtful, we need to know that our membership is subject to rapid and often unexpected change. One day we may be asked to take on a different role or to leave altogether. 

Organizations and teams that are leading the way in terms of performance and engagement are investing in belonging and psychological safety.

Numerous studies confirm belonging creates a lower prevalence of mental health issues, less unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, not exercising, not getting enough sleep, and too much alcohol/drugs.

From an organizational perspective, belonging means one is also meaningfully engaged by intentionally finding ways of giving to others. Employees are even more connected when they activate a powerful purpose!

We BELONG to an organization where purpose is about transforming lives and creating a place of belonging in a local and global community.

How cool is that?

Each of us can make the journey from diversity to inclusion, to psychological safety and ultimately to REAL BELONGING. If you have that continuum, we promise you a more productive and engaged workforce and a more joy-filled life!

Let’s do it together.

In the west, particularly in the U.S., there is a massive need for infrastructure investment.

There is bilateral political agreement on the necessity for classic overhaul; bridges, roads, airports, etc. Recently, a 9-1-1 call by a bridge inspector closed the I-40 bridge between Memphis, Tennessee and Arkansas.

No bridge means no connection between thousands of people daily.

We at Belongify believe organizations need to invest in overhauling their metaphorical bridges, too.

John Powell is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. He is also an articulate advocate for bridging.

Bridging is the simple act of just seeing each other for who and what we are, without rendering judgment or trying to change anyone’s perspective.

There is huge power in the intentional act of bridging, and listening to the personal story of each other. This is also an important step in creating conditions for belonging. 

Powell cites a recent study that 70 percent of Americans feel they don’t belong.

That’s a lot of people feeling disconnected.

In case we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Lorne Rubis and I am one of the co-founders and the Chief Belonging Officer here at Belongify. Recently, I read an HBR article: A CEO’s Guide to Planning A Return To The Office and frankly, it made me a little edgy. I think it is flat out pandering to CEOs, and I think it is misguided.

What’s really positive is that leaders and employees at every level are talking about getting past the pandemic. I am seeing two kinds of conversations and I want to encourage you to lean one way versus the other way of talking about the post-pandemic situation.

Some people are talking about “returning to work”, and if you frame it that way you might not end up in a gratifying position. If you think the other way, which is, how might we “move forward?” That’s how I suggest framing it: moving forward vs returning to.

So let me talk about why this HBR article ticked me off.

One, it’s suggesting that CEOs be very close vested about this issue about remote working, and to be cautious about listening to employee surveys that are, frankly, overwhelmingly in favour of remote work. The reason it’s overwhelmingly favorable for employees is they want to have autonomy and flexibility to be able to work in ways where they have more control of where they show up and when they work. I’m talking about knowledge workers mostly. I’m opposed to the concern that “they’re not as productive”, or “we can’t see what they’re doing”. That’s a misguided, one-sided employee view.

I think thoughtful, caring employees want to create value, they want to do a great job, and they want to have more control around when and how they can do it. And they realize there’s a lot of waste for many of them on mindless commutes to and from a workplace. 

The second part of the article that really bugged me, was that it suggested that CEOs should listen to their managers more than their employees: 

Do you feel like you can respectfully challenge the people you work with on almost anything? And do the people that work around you feel that they can challenge you? This is about the right way to challenge. 

When you reflect on your career and your time with people that you love to work with and people that love working with you, like us, do you like the idea of belonging? Love the idea that you’re in a place where you can really learn. A place like us, where you love to spend more time. You can take away all that waste that goes with blame and being defensive. Bring your full self and contribute. 

Lorne, our Chief Belonging Officer has been reflecting on the fact that he gets so much joy from the liberation and freedom that comes from being able to challenge others and asking others to challenge him. 

Dr. Timothy Clark from Leaderfactor has written about the 4 key stages of psychological safety and how key it is too high performance. He talks about the importance of Challenger Safety, feeling safe to challenge the status quo, and I can really resonate with that. 

Look, when you’ve got good people around you that can bring their best thinking, and that sometimes means that it is different than yours.

How great is that? We know that when people can help us think about things differently when they challenge the assumptions we have, that we are the biggest benefactors., It will also impact the greater good of what we’re trying to accomplish because it’ll help change your perspective. There’s so much goodness that comes out of investing in creating conditions for psychological safety.

The one thing often we don’t give enough attention to is this wonderful environment that we get as part of bringing our true authentic self. Part of the permission we’re given, is to freely, thoughtfully, respectfully challenge. It is a liberation of the finest kind. 

In order to really consider our real authentic self as a gift to others, is only when, we can get out of our own head, and not succumb to the power to protect our own image, position, and credibility. It’s a tough foe to overcome and make ourselves vulnerable.  However the more you open up with your team, well the more ‘human’ you become and the easier it is to create real lasting connections.  

We’d like to challenge you to think about small nudges you can put in place to keep working on creating conditions for people to have this space rather than challenge you. To create conditions for belonging for psychological safety.

Our formula, (Connect, Contribute, Clarify) + Differentiation X Execution = Belonging [C3 + D x E = belonging]  is based on experience and science, and it works. We’re investing in it because it just gets great results. 

The formula gets results for everybody, and it advances people. How great is that? Be part of that and come hang out with us. 

Think remote, start small, act now (remotely), 
Lorne Rubis

The majority of us are working remotely, which in the future, will continue to happen for many of us that call ourselves knowledge workers. One way or another, it appears that remote working will be a continuous part of our life. For many of us, it’ll be the only way that we’re going to work. For a whole bunch of others, it’s going to be a hybrid kind of a way.

Nevertheless, what are some things that we should not do? Let’s jump right into the don’ts. Thoughtfully we should be investing in the ‘do’ kind of way, but this is going to be a very quick and rapid-fire couple of don’ts.

Do not suffer in silence.

This is very important and applies to whether you are working on a project, a work situation, or a personal situation. The one difference is that when we’re around campus, or around an office environment, and people see us regularly, even when we don’t meet with them, they can often observe if we’re not having our best day or when we are struggling.  It’s a little tougher on these digital platforms because you jump in and out, so it’s incumbent on you, and me and leaders (this is a double emphasis for you) to ask for help. Do not suffer in silence.

Suffering in silence stops you from taking these three actions:

• Increase confidence, relationships, and trust. Authenticity to these increases psychological safety, because it makes you open to just getting help.
• You can and you should invite others to do the same thing.
• You need some help, and so you get it.

Don’t be afraid to set clear boundaries.

Set boundaries around your remote workspace with people at home. We’ve been told, and you know we need to set boundaries around working time, and of course, we don’t want to be 24/7 on our devices. People get that, so you have to shut it off and unplug at the same time.

When you’ve got people around your workplace, setting boundaries can be tough when you’ve got toddlers. I get it. Right now, we have a grandchild, she just turned four and another one that’s on her way to three. They understand, they know when you gently nudge them along — they get it. You just need to set the boundaries for everybody. And yes, every once in a while, you want a four-legged critter on your lap, and that’s fine. But at the same time, you do need some boundaries. No need to have yellow construction tape around your area. 

Please, please, please do not celebrate long hours.

Every once in a while, it’s important to acknowledge long hours. Right now, for some, it’s tax season. People in the finance tax world are working crazy hours, or you know sometimes, you’ve got a project that you’ve got to get over the goal line, you’ve got a board meeting coming up, so yeah, of course, acknowledge that you know when something has to be done. But please don’t celebrate to the point where it now looks like that’s the primary way you would reward people for their work.

If you do that, it means that people will just do extra crazy stuff, and focus on that instead of focusing on results, right? So be cautious about that time. Start to change that mentality around just measuring hours as some kind of a dumb metric.

Start thinking more and more of the environment you want to move into going forward, both as a follower and as a leader.  

Think remote, start small, act now (remotely), 
Lorne Rubis

Working remotely can often have a negative impact on co-worker relationships. Here’s how to avoid feeling disconnected.

(Previously published by Entrepreneur Magazine)

With so many people working remotely, it can be a challenge to make real connections so people feel like they belong to a community. Leaders need to create safe places for people to bring their authentic selves to the table. It all starts with a connection and allowing people to be distinctively unforgettable.

Humans, by nature, have a primal need to belong. But a severe sense of isolation has become the bane of human existence. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the remote environment, while appropriate and practical for many types of work, was not conducive to building relationships among co-workers. 

The most successful businesses are run through real, authentic human connections. Positive relationships develop through common projects, but common values are what drive organizations to continually improve and serve their clients well. The bottom line impact is that being connected to others is not only healthy for staff members but great for business. People want to work with others they trust, even when they don’t share common ground. They want to be valued for what they bring to the table and work with others they truly know, like and trust. These close personal connections create extraordinary and highly adaptable cultures.

With more and more businesses becoming dependent on remote and virtual operating platforms, business leaders are having to focus on not only the mechanics of business but how to build connections within and between teams. When some team members work from home and others work on-site, or everyone is working remotely, leaders need to develop and encourage excellent communication skills to build the business’s sense of community.

No matter the means of conducting business, its ultimate foundation rests on the shoulders of the people within it. Customers don’t build connections with the business itself. They build connections with the people who represent the business. And, the people who represent the business function best through internal connections. The challenge for today’s leaders is how to create a sense of belonging within their membership or team. And it all starts with building a connection.

There are proven practices for building connections among team members. They include:

1. Being vulnerable. When leaders show their real selves, others are prone to follow suit. People are more likely to open up about their desires for purpose, their skills, interests and their hopes within the realm of the business when leaders are transparent — when they share something of themselves. Start meetings off by sharing how you’re doing and what’s on your mind instead of delving directly into the agenda. Encourage others to do the same without taking the meeting off the rails. Allow real-life stories to enter the relationships between team members. I start all my remote team meetings with a check-in with my team.

2. Recognize the positives. Make sure you are regularly taking time to recognize the awesome work of others around you. When staff members work in isolation, recognition of a job well done or amazing progress on a project is more important than ever.

3. Create opportunities for one-on-one interaction. Even a 10-minute direct conversation held virtually can build a stronger relationship and increase the strength of that person’s allegiance to the values and mission of the company and, of course, the work itself.

4. Be present in the moment. Understand and value the difference between hearing and listening. When communicating remotely, we are surrounded by distractions. It can be challenging to focus on the conversation at hand. When we pause to clear our minds and actively focus on the conversations or matter at hand, we will make greater forward progress. 

5. Build trust. Trust is everything. Every relationship and team is built upon a foundation of trust. Investing time and effort in building trust is often the most impactful use of time. Whether communicating in person or virtually, ask people how they’re really doing and open yourself to being trusted with their answers. Creating a safe place for them to be authentically themselves is a key element of growth for everyone involved — and ultimately the business. 

6. Be proactively inclusive. Everyone on the team should have a right to be heard and contribute. No one should be made to feel invisible. When people feel respected and valued by your reactions to them, they will become solid contributors to the company’s mission.

Globant, a digitally native technology services company, released a study on how to power a people-first culture. According to that study, 62 percent of employees wish they knew their co-workers better and 83 percent believe that knowing their co-workers better would make them a more engaged team member. It is the responsibility of leadership to develop the strategies to make this happen.

Entrepreneurial leaders who develop the communication skills to build interpersonal relationships with their team members and connections between team members will create a sense of belonging and continue to be the leaders of the future. Practice the powerhouse principles here and stay focused on collaboration. Bring your authentic self to every communication, live or virtual, and your business will reap the rewards of encouraging and creating a safe place for connection and a sense of belonging in the workplace anywhere.

By, 
Lisa Patrick
Chief Entrepreneur Officer at Belongify
Contributor at Entrepreneur Magazine