Week one in the Living Job has been amazing!
Being at the heart of where this idea is growing legs has really helped contextualise what’s involved, and required, to bring this concept to life. It’s a huge shift in how we view work, employment and talent – and I get the impression that this change scares some people.
What it looked like for me:
I was introduced to the landscape by existing team members. They filled me in on what’s on the radar, then our manager asked us to pull together a 90-day plan. Talk about deep end! However, it turned out it was this structure that allowed me to make sense of what we had planned, identify some priorities, opportunities for quick wins and create a long-term vision for where we’re heading. That was Day 1!
To be fair, the only reason this was possible was because of the comprehensive work that had been done already. My strength as aResource Investigator allowed me to use the great ideas already curated and bring some order and structure to our team plan. This process was also invaluable in bringing me up to speed in a very short amount of time.
From this plan we were able to identify key pieces of work to be led by each person and the rest of the week was spent on bringing my pieces to life! I felt productive, valued and valuable from the outset. Further,my organizational knowledge and networks have really smoothed the way to making progress quickly. It’s been an amazing experience so far!
So, what does this mean for the Living Job in the big scheme of things?
If we want an agile workforce, we need to ensure that pieces of work are shaped up well prior to bringing others in – unless the role is to actually undertake that shaping up.
Appointments to portfolios of work need to be cognisant of overall team requirements and functioning. My strengths add to the teams ability to get our stuff done. The value of this can not be under estimated. High performing teams need to be comprised of folks that complement each other to achieve positive outcomes quickly.
I’m loving my new team and our work environment. I’ve been missing the autonomy to progress ideas and initiatives quickly, though I recognize that as we roll out this idea further, we will need to ensure that all teams are supported to maximize other opportunity of the living job, by reducing fears that result in resistance to change.
The Ripple Effect
There are concerns in my current team following the announcement of my secondment. Understandably, folks are somewhat worried about what this change means for them. So, following on from my ‘Shaping up’ post, I’ve spent a bit more time thinking through the dilemma of the ripple effect. The way I see it, there are two major process issues contributing to the ripple effect that are creating this sense of unease:
1. The process is long-winded. As I’ve said previously, at present, secondments require a transparent process to attract interested and appropriate people to a “role”. This takes time. In my case, the position was advertised internally for a week, followed by a week-and-a-half of negotiations and scene-setting until I was formally made an offer. Following this, a similar process was initiated over 2 days, to find someone to step into my substantive position. This is currently being advertised internally, and is open for 7 days. Given that we only advertised internally, it could be assumed that this process will be repeated again, to backfill whoever steps into my role… and so on. The bottom line: this is not efficient. As a result, staff are left ‘hanging’ while arbitrary processes are carried out in the interests of transparency.
2. The process is driven by ‘roles’. The ripple effect continues as long as the focus is on shifting people into roles, rather than looking at ways that the functions within a role can best be picked up. This contributes to the lengthiness of the process and thus the negative feelings experienced by staff.
Questions:
While the process ensures transparency and equal access to opportunities, what needs to change to enable staff to be more quickly responsive to emerging needs/workstreams/projects in an organisation?
What are the opportunities of a function-oriented approach to backfill?
What is needed to build portfolio work into an employment agreement/position description?
What are the risks to employees of this type of work?
Who already does it well? What can we learn from them?
Photo Credit: dmelchordiaz via Compfight cc
Shaping Up
The Living Job involves collaborative, self-managing teams. In this context, the strengths and behaviours of team members need to be complementary in order to achieve goals/tasks/outcomes. To make the most of the next 5 months, we will need to define specific focus pieces, an end goal and really leverage the strengths of our team to get things done. I’m liking the sound of this more and more.
As a prototype of the Living Job, it has become clear that we need to get much smarter about how we pull people in to different portfolios of work. My secondment is having a crazy ripple-on effect! The requirement to be transparent, fair and reasonable needs to be faster so we can achieve agility and responsiveness as an organisation. At present, this involves posting up a request for expressions of interest (internally, for a week), then there is a period of sifting and sorting (as with any appointment) which took over a week in my case, followed by time spent on negotiating terms of the contract. The problem is, when you source internally, backfill is required. In this situation, we are looking to repeat the process internally, most likely for a number of iterations, which means the cost of shifting someone to work in another space for a short time seems to blow out quite quickly… So, what’s the alternative? This is something I’m definitely keen to sink my teeth into!
On the radar today:
Social Leadership
Margaret Wheatley
Belbin Team Roles
Living Job Capability Development
Strategic Capability Building
Cross-unit collaborative development
Online Toolbox development
And that’s just the surface!
Questions:
What do I contribute to this team?
What do I need to develop/learn to pull this off?
How do we make compliance and regulations sexy? Or at the very least engaging?
Who do I know that can help us shape up this work?
While waiting for things to land, is it appropriate to resource the “boring” parts of the piece?
How can we frame this up like the Poutama?
How does social leadership fit with my practice? To what extent does it matter if my inner values and leadership practice are at odds?
I like coherence… how can I marry up fun parts with boring parts to cover off the whole gamut? Is this a reasonable approach?
Feeling a bit like I’ve bitten off something massive and am starting to choke on it… But am loving the adrenaline charging through my veins!
Me and the ‘Living Job’
I have just been seconded to work in Organisational Development until the end of the year. Yay! However, apparently there have been some disgruntled mutterings about me securing this opportunity… So, what makes me a good fit for this role?
While I have little, formal, theoretical knowledge of OD, I feel 100% confident in my ability to integrate my knowledge and experiences in new settings. With 11 years experience in this organisation, I have demonstrated this ability through various roles and projects, achieving change and improvements in everything I’ve turned my hand to. Further to this, and something that has never been explicitly asked for or valued, I am absolutely committed to helping us become the best we can be in our field and because of this, I feel strongly about wanting my role to have strategic impact as we embark upon a huge transformation agenda.
Using Rogers’ Innovation Adoption Curve as a reference, I sit somewhere between being an Innovator and an Early Adopter… I deem myself “easily excited”, but there’s more to it than that. My Innovator characteristics include an ability to cope with ‘vague’; uncertainty excites me because I see possibilities and opportunities to create, adapt and try new things. In addition, I’m venturesome. I’m willing to take risks and give ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ a go. From an Early Adopter Perspective, I am well-connected across the organisation and have some ability to leverage relationships to bring others on board. Just as I’m keen to try new things, I am equally determined to provide sound, valuable and honest feedback on whether ‘new’ is also ‘improved’, or not.
With that in check, I feel completely empowered by this notion of the ‘Living Job’.
Will I be operating from a strengths base? Yes!
Is this an opportunity to co-create and evolve practice? Yes!
Is my portfolio of work clear and well-defined? Yes!
So here’s my story… as it unfolds.
Living the 'Living Job' 
