Nick Petrie’s Post

I am heading to Singapore next week to run two Leadership Development sessions with my partners ILS - Integrated Learning Systems Pte Ltd and Jamie McIver from Adeption One session will be on our last 3 years of research on preventing burnout. The 2nd will be on vertical leadership development. If you are in the region come along. You can register here: https://lnkd.in/gPqD_MTB

In the last 3 years, we've been researching how to decrease burnout risk while improving performance. We learned you need 3 levels of focus: -      Individual -      Team -      Organization Individual level (start here) Last year we assessed more than a thousand people’s ways of working. We saw that since the pandemic, many are working in unhealthy ways. Many of us can feel this but are not sure what we can do about it. We've found that the fastest way to help people get back into balance is by giving them data and insights on their current ways of working (burnout risk, performance/ growth balance, values alignment) + concrete insights and recommendations on what to adjust. By doing this in groups for 90 minutes, people learn from each other, and focus on specific and practical changes to make. That’s a good start. Team level An individual focus is good. Individual plus team works even better. In our research, we found that most teams develop patterns of working that make healthy, sustainable performance difficult. The most common are: -      Meeting overload -      Culture of interruptions -      Lack of deep work time -      Poor work-home boundaries -      Working in the evening We saw that teams could immediately decrease burnout risk and improve productivity if they had a process for discussing and improving their ways of working. Important note – this is not ‘team building’. This is about ‘how’ we get work done. We used a simple process called Diagnose, Inspire, Your Action (DIY) learned from my partners at Adeption. Diagnose - teams diagnose which of the above challenges most impact them   Inspire - they hear stories of how other teams have addressed the above challenges Your action - the team chooses one experiment they want to run as a group (the most common seems to be increasing daily deep work hours) For accountability, I join team meetings for 1 agenda item – how are we going on our experiments? What’s working? What challenges? (10 mins) In a short amount of time, teams make surprising progress. Organizational level As individuals and teams start to make rapid improvements we've noticed that senior leaders get very interested. This is the point at which new practices and ways of working can be scaled. Some examples we share: Meeting Doomsday - Asana had people delete all recurring meetings and add back only valuable ones. The average person saved 11 hrs a month of no longer valuable meetings, 17 days a year   Focus Fridays – Slack tried no internal meetings, turn off notifications Fridays. 84% of people say they have benefited   Core hours – Dropbox decided to only allow meetings and interruptions between 9am-1pm PST. Outside of that is Deep Work time. The above might look like a lot but it's very doable if you just start small. A few workshops for individuals - and let momentum and excitement build till people say, “But, what about at the team and org level?” New webinar May 15. Learn more - https://bit.ly/4aV1gw7

There were two types of work that knowledge workers might do each day - Deep Work and Shallow Work.   Deep Work (first coined by Cal Newport) is: -      Uninterrupted time -      Important tasks -      Cognitively demanding   Examples include: Creating a strategy, writing a speech   Shallow work is: -      Logistical-style tasks -      Non-cognitively demanding -      Often performed while distracted   Examples include: Email, info sharing, most meetings   When I ask leaders what the ideal amount of time they should do deep work each day, they say on average about 4 hours.   When I ask them how much time they actually spend each day they say on average less an 1 hour (and that is often in the evening with no interruptions).   Many people tell me they spend no time doing deep work. It's all shallow. They often look crestfallen as they know how much more value they could create if they weren’t buried in shallow tasks.   It seems organizations are leaving enormous amounts of $$ and value on the table because they are not prioritising deep work for employees.   Some smart organizations already are.   Dropbox created ‘core hours’ from 9am-1pm PST each day. At this time, everyone must be available for meetings & collaboration. Outside of that is ‘focus time’. You don’t schedule meetings during focus time and you don’t interrupt people. This is protected time for staff to do deep work on high-value tasks.    Slack wanted to increase deep work time each day, but didn’t want to mandate when. So, they requested teams not to do more than 4 hours of meetings per day. The team chooses when works for them. The rest of the time is deep work time.   Asana felt their people were overloaded with low-value, recurring meetings. So, they did a Meeting Doomsday. They had people cancel all recurring meetings and a week later only add ones back in that they considered valuable. People on average saved 11 hours a month of no longer valuable meetings or 17 days a year.   I am working with organizations and teams at the moment to increase the amount of deep work they do each day (for the smallest possible effort).   For each team, there are 3 steps: 1.    For 45mins I teach them about Deep Work and how other companies are increasing it 2.    In 15 mins the team comes up with 1 experiment they want to try to increase deep work 3.    I join team meetings for 1 agenda item – how are we going on our experiments? What’s working? What challenges? (10 mins)    It is proving remarkably easy for teams to increase their deep work hours. I think it’s because: 1.    They are very motivated to make progress in this area. 2.    The regular check-in means there is light accountability, learning together and a sense of progress.   For most people blocking out just one hour a day for Deep Work makes an enormous difference. Just start small and see what happens.   If you’d like to explore how to increase deep work time in your team or company email admin@nicholaspetrie.com for more info.

Here is how we're turning 3 years of research findings on preventing burnout into practical tools and insights for leaders and teams. A key insight we got from interviewing people who burned out was that they missed the warning signs. They were on the path to burnout but didn’t know it. Pilots in planes have instrument panels. There are visual indicators (altitude, speed etc) that help pilots maintain control and identify any potential issues at a glance. Similarly in cars, we have a GPS which tells us where we're headed. You type in a destination and it finds the fastest path, avoiding traffic and hazards. We saw in our research that people in workplaces were driving themselves extremely hard, but without a GPS or indicators to show them where they were headed, if they were running out of fuel or driving themselves into burnout. They were flying with no instrument panel. We wondered if we could help by giving people a dashboard that measured their current ways of working. Based on the research we found 4 key indicators that people could track throughout the year to help them perform and grow, but keep them out of burnout risk. We call this your G.P.S. (Grow, Perform, Sustain) Dashboard. The GPS is made of four key indicators. Intrinsic motivation – the extent to which the work you do excites and energises you (your fuel for the journey) Values alignment – whether your work lines up with your most important values (your internal compass) Perform/ Grow balance – the balance you have between doing familiar work (perform mode) or having new, first-time experiences that challenge you (grow mode) (your trajectory) Burnout risk – the extent to which you are working in a way that is unsustainable (your warning lights) We saw that when people had this information they gained insight into why they were feeling the way they were about their work. It also showed them where and how to make adjustments and course correct. The G.P.S. takes 15 mins to complete and you get your results and report immediately. People can then participate in a 90-minute workshop to learn more about their results, explore key insights from the research and learn how to improve their scores. It is specifically designed for busy people – minimum time, maximum insight. In the last 3 months we’ve run the GPS workshop for: -      Investment bankers -      Fortune 500 executives -      Sports organizations -      Consumer goods leaders -      Tech companies -      Executives in banks The GPS crystallises 3 years of research into practices for staff to get back in control of their performance and well-being. We see people make improvements very quickly. We then move on to looking at improving the organizational conditions so people are operating within a healthy system. I'll share more in my next post. If you’d like to explore bringing the GPS to staff in your organization, send a note to admin@nicholaspetrie.com and we'll send you more info.

In the last 3 months, I've been interviewing high performers who have very low levels of burnout risk. As I listened I noticed they had 8 habits in common. When I heard these habits I didn't think, "Yeah, that's what I do ." I thought, "That's NOT what I do..... but those seem like good ideas." The question was how to start putting them into practice. In working with leaders this year, I've found the best approach was not to copy the 8 habits, but for leaders to create their own version of them. This helps each person develop a customised set of habits that fit their situation and personality. To help people do this 'we' (kudos to designer Ellie O'Sullivan) created the below worksheet. Here is the process: 1. Look at what most people do (left-hand column) 2. Look at what exemplars with low burnout risk do (right-hand column) 3. Write down an experiment you could try for each area (middle column) Then choose 2 - 3 of those experiments that feel motivating + doable (you could see yourself doing them for a week). And begin. This will help you get onto a sustainable performance path (and away from a burnout path). I hope it helps. It's working for me. Feel free to download the worksheet to use or share with others - https://bit.ly/49KxHwX More info on the 8 patterns here - https://lnkd.in/dyxZX_Sq

In 2023 we assessed over 1,000 people on their ways of working & burnout risk. We learned that most people were struggling with: -      Switching off at the end of the workday -      Blurred boundaries between work and home - Feeling overloaded However, about 5% of the people we assessed had very low burnout risk. Why? This year I've been interviewing them to find out. These 'positive deviants’ ranged from CEO’s to supervisors. Here are the 8 things I learned that they have in common (nb - these are individual factors. In the next post I'll talk about org level factors): 1.    When they are at work, they work very hard - They are not lazy - They are driven - They are high-performers 2.    They’ve reflected on the best/worst ways to work (and live) - Nearly all used to work in unhealthy ways and suffered as a result - They stepped back, examined their approach and made key decisions about how to work in a sustainable way - They are disciplined about sticking to their new approach 3.    They made peace with not getting everything done - Early in their careers they prided themselves on completing everything each day - As they got into bigger jobs they learned they had to let that go - Now they prioritise in the morning, do all they can, and leave what's incomplete for tomorrow 4.    All have a ritual to switch from work to personal mode - Activity: Mike reads a book on his bus ride home (never looks at his phone) - Mantra: Mary runs through a checklist before saying ‘shutdown complete’ - Visualisation: Tony mentally hangs his work uniform on a lamppost in front of his house 5.    They have clear boundaries between work and home In the past, nearly all had blurred boundaries and suffered - They are now vigilant not to think about or do work at home - “I don’t work at home. I wait until the workplace to think about work” - “My spouse and I agreed not to talk about work at the weekends” 6.    They grew into multifaceted people - Most used to be one-dimensional career people, but saw the downsides - They now have many identities, interests, and 'opposite worlds' that absorb and recharge them e.g. Dancing, running, quilting, volunteering - “You (Nick) talked about people needing a hobby. I have too many hobbies.” 7.    They have a ‘phone strategy’ They observed the negative impact that phones had on their well-being. They became 'digital minimalists' - They're very disciplined about their phone use at home  - Nearly all put their phone out of site and don’t check it till morning “I no longer feel drained. I'm far more effective at work and home” 8. They keep work in perspective - They watched absolutely dedicated people get laid off and how it shattered their identity - They see the impermanence of jobs - They now work hard but do not fuse their identity to a role "My boss told me I should be dating the company, not married to it." Download the 8 patterns worksheet https://lnkd.in/geakPtPM

In the last three years of research, I've seen that smart organizations align three levers to encourage sustainable performance for their people. I call these the 3 M’s: -      Mechanisms -      Mindsets -      Modelling   1.    Mechanisms – a practice or process that encourages desired behaviors   It is not enough to tell staff that you want them to spend less time in meetings and more time doing ‘Deep work’. Because everyone will keep inviting them to meetings and interrupting them all day anyway.   Smart organizations create 'mechanisms' that protect people's attention.   Example: Dropbox wanted to increase the amount of time that people spent doing ‘deep’ rather than ‘shallow’ work. So they created ‘core hours’ which is a time (9-1pm PST) during which everyone needs to be available for meetings, collaboration and quick chats. Outside of this time, you can't schedule meetings as that is people's time to do deep, focused, uninterrupted work.   “If you give people from nine until five to schedule meetings, they’ll fill the day full of meetings leaving no time to get other work done.” Brian Elliott, vice president of Slack’s Future Forum   But mechanisms alone are not enough. You also need to align…   2.    Mindsets – shared beliefs about the best ways to work   To implement sustainable-performance mechanisms people, especially senior leaders, need to believe that the mechanism and the behaviors they drive are worth it.   If you don't get the mindsets aligned with the mechanism, senior leaders will say A but do B. Which leads us to….   3.    Modelling Senior leaders must be seen to be doing the behaviors they're asking others to follow. If the company implements a core hours mechanism, but senior leaders keep calling meetings outside of that time, the whole thing falls apart.   A positive modelling example comes from Netflix where staff have unlimited vacation time (the Mechanism). This is because CEO, Reid Hoffman, and other senior leaders believe strongly in the well-being and productivity benefits of long vacations (the Mindset).   This backfires in organizations where the vacations mechanism is in place but senior leaders don't follow it, since it makes staff feel like slackers if they actually take long vacations.    At Netflix, senior leaders from Hastings on down are expected to not only take long vacations but to tell everyone about them to signal that long vacations are what we do here (Modelling).   “If you want to remove vacation limits lead by example. I model taking six weeks off a year and encourage my leadership team to do the same.” Reid Hastings, Founder and CEO of Netflix   If you implement the 3 M’s in your organization will things work perfectly? No – workplaces are messy.   But I’ve seen in the organizations I’m working with that when you align the 3 M’s you can nudge the whole system towards performing at higher levels, but in healthier, more sustainable ways. That to me feels like the organization of the future.

Yesterday I invited people to register for a webinar on our latest research findings on burnout and sustainable performance in organizations. The 100 seats sold out quite quickly and I've had quite a few emails from people. Thanks :) So I'm offering a 2nd session on Feb 20, 3pm EST. Same content so just register for one of them. Topics: - 8 strategies we learned from high performers for how they keep their burnout risk very low - Strategies organizations are using to create optimal conditions for their knowledge workers Register by clicking on the image below - SOLD OUT

After 3 years of researching burnout, growth and performance I am worried about the state of our workplaces. They don’t feel designed for the world we now live in: smartphones, emails, WhatsApp, zoom, back-to-back meetings, constant interruptions, overflowing inboxes, no offline time, no permission to switch off at night.   Every so often in history you reach a point where the old approach hits its limits. There is little more to squeeze out of it. At that point, you either persevere with the old paradigm or build something better. I think it’s time to build the next version of the workplace. To thoughtfully create the conditions in which knowledge workers can create more value with less cognitive strain.   Just as sports franchises create the conditions for athletes to physically perform at their peak, wouldn’t a smart organization create the conditions for knowledge workers to get into a productive state of flow? How much more value could be created for the organization?   From what we saw in our research, to create the optimal conditions for knowledge workers there are 6 organizational challenges we’ll need to overcome:   1.    Meeting overload 2.    No time for ‘deep work’ 3.    Working in the evening (lack of boundaries) 4.    A culture of interruptions 5.    Multitasking 6.    Commitment overload   In the last 12 months, we’ve been learning from and working with organisations interested in creating optimal performance conditions for their knowledge workers. I’ve been inspired by the commitment to their staff’s well-being and their willingness to explore better ways of working.   In upcoming posts, I’ll share the approaches they are trying and some of the results they are getting.   If you’d like to discuss these in a webinar join me on 13 February at 3pm EST register here. I'll share what we have learned but I am equally keen to learn from you. Topics: - 8 strategies we learned from high performers for how they keep their burnout risk very low - Strategies organizations are using to create optimal conditions for their knowledge workers Register here - https://lnkd.in/ghGarh53 SOLD OUT Given the interest, I will run a second session on Feb 20, 3pm EST. Registrations limited to 100 people. Register here - https://bit.ly/3OEPUnj SOLD OUT  

How would we design a workplace that caused knowledge workers to be at their least effective?   1.    Constantly interrupt them – don’t let people focus so that they can do ‘deep work’. Instead, as soon as they start to make progress on a task, interrupt them and nudge them to switch to a new task   2.    Cram the organization full of distraction technology – email is a powerful distractor but we can do better. What if we added smartphones, instant messaging, Slack, Teams, Zoom, alerts. The more tech the better. That way people can contact each other at ALL times   3.    Collapse the work/home boundary – Don’t allow people time to switch off in the evening. They can do that while sleeping. At 5 pm there are still 5 more hours of productivity available. Keep those emails coming. Tether people’s minds to work at all times   4.    Measure productivity by activity – Pay attention to how busy people are. If people are busy, they must be creating value right? Don’t pause and ask if we are working on the most important things. There's no time. Just keep working hard on….. anything.    5.    Don’t prioritize – prioritizing means deciding on the ‘vital few’ and focusing people’s energies on them. Don’t bother – prioritizing is hard! If people ask what the priorities are just say, ‘It’s all a priority’. Honestly, do you think Apple became the most valuable company in the world by focusing on a few core products?   6.    Make 1-hour meetings the default – how long is needed for a meeting? Who knows? Just make all meetings 1 hour. Even if the real topic of the meeting only takes 20 mins, you’ll always find something to talk about   7.    Don’t create time for ‘deep work’ – Knowledge workers create the most value when they can work: uninterrupted, on important, challenging work for 60 – 90 mins. Don’t let them. Design the workplace so that there are so many distractions, meetings and requests that there is only time for ‘shallow work’. If people want to do deep work, they can do it in the evenings. In their own time   8.    Don’t try to fix the above – Even though the above can all be addressed at the team and organizational level, tell yourselves you are too busy. Stick with the status quo.   Thankfully, we don’t create workplaces like the above. Or we’d all feel overloaded and exhausted!   (OK that was a bit tongue in cheek. But it also reflects how many workplaces have become. It's no one's fault. It just emerged that way. But because we're not designing the environment to fit knowledge workers, it is burning us out. However, it's fixable. Any organization can improve on the above by trying a few experiments. In the coming months, I’ll share what we are learning about how teams and organizations are doing the opposite of the above and experiencing the benefits. I'd love your help. If you have examples of orgs addressing the above please let me know via nick@nicholaspetrie.com or in the comments.  Thks!