Designing Workplace Systems For All
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Photo by Kelli Tungay on Unsplash
At work, I am known as the “tool” queen. Need a more efficient way to run a meeting? I have an agenda outline for that. Want to create a welcoming onboarding experience? I’ll send you my template. I have no shortage of tools in my toolkit.
Having a system or a way of doing things isn't always embraced by everyone I work with, but I swear, there’s a method behind my madness.
With any tool I utilize or design, the goal is that the tool or process will contribute to psychological safety, “the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking…feeling able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions or concerns” (Edmonson, 2019, p.8 ) and create a culture of mattering, a fundamental psychological need which consists of feeling valued and adding value to self, others, work, and community” (Prilleltensky, 2019). Experiencing mattering in the workplace can promote engagement, while a lack of mattering can create disengagement at work (Prilleltensky, 2022). Actively disengaged employees and low engagement cost the global economy $8.8 trillion dollars (Gallup, 2023).
The benefits of cultivating psychological safety in the workplace have been studied and documented by many; the most well-known study was Project Aristotle at Google. A team of researchers, which consisted of sociologists, engineers, organizational psychologists, and statisticians, gathered to study what made teams effective. They wanted to know what made some teams flounder while others thrived? They found that psychological safety is what matters most when building effective teams (Tamiru, 2022). It was the group’s norms, the behaviors and unwritten rules of the team’s culture, which either enhanced or diminished the psychological safety of the team (Duhigg, 2016).
For me, a good tool can enhance well-being in the workplace by supporting and facilitating the behaviors, norms, and habits to ensure consistency in the employee experience, promote mattering, and increase psychological safety. It is a way to ensure equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all.
Recently, I was with my sister-in-law on the New York City subway with my two nieces, a toddler and a baby in a stroller. Distracted, we ended up getting on the train going in the opposite direction of where we needed to go. We got off at the first available stop, which unfortunately, did not have an elevator or a ramp. Once you start taking public transportation with a double stroller, you start realizing that, one, most stations do not have elevators, and two, the variety of people who depend on an elevator or ramp to get from point A to point B is wide. An elevator is a useful and beneficial tool for a range of people—parents with strollers, folks using wheelchairs, elderly people, individuals with injuries, people carrying heavy objects. . . Unfortunately, however, accessible subway stations were an afterthought. According to the New York Times, only 27% of stations have elevators or ramps (Gold, 2022). This is tragic and too common.
Had the Metropolitan Transportation Authority utilized universal design, which is a “design that’s usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Pruett, 2017), public transportation and mobility would be accessible to all.
Universal design doesn’t only apply to our physical spaces (although that is extremely important!). It can be applied to our work culture and our operations and managerial practices as well. Just as ramps and elevators don’t magically appear in subway stations, making our cultures and processes more accessible for all takes intentionality and implementation. For this reason, I take my tools, habits, and processes seriously.
The culture of our organizations and teams is made up of daily and weekly habits and norms. Some workplaces have a daily stand-up meeting, which is a short daily meeting where people identify and provide updates on what they are working on and let other folks on the team know of anything that might be getting in the way of making progress.
I know a few people who shudder at the thought of a daily stand-up. It sounds too “micromanage-y”. But a daily stand-up or a similar habit can support employees who might struggle with executive functioning skills such as planning, prioritizing their work and achieving goals. It can also support employees with ADHD, who can benefit from short-term goal-setting and task check-ins. Daily stand-up doesn’t only support those individuals but everyone on the team by sharing the individual contributions of each team member. Additionally, daily stand-ups can help each employee not only identify how they are contributing to the goals of the team, but also to see the strengths of their colleagues and how everyone is working towards a goal together. A goal is our shared purpose. It is what brings us all together. This daily routine can increase mattering at work.
Daily stand-ups normalize asking for help or support when faced with obstacles. Having this safe space can contribute to the team’s sense of psychological safety and the idea that it is okay to not know something or to make mistakes. Boston Consulting Group found that a psychologically safe work environment can serve as an equalizer for workplace satisfaction (Yousif et al., 2024).
Daily stand-ups can also help people better assess if they are on track to meet their goals for the quarter or the year, reducing anxiety about performance. As someone diagnosed with anxiety, this is something I personally struggle with. When I don’t receive reinforcement from my manager that I am on track with my goals, my anxiety levels rise, sending me into a downward spiral. I end up investing my mental resources worrying about my performance rather than focusing that energy toward my work and my goals.
As a new manager, I have been excited to implement my Swiss army knife of tools. One of my favorite tools is the weekly one-on-one agenda. Personally, I am a big fan of Lifelabs Learning one-on-one form template, which they refer to as a manager’s single greatest resource. I have been using it for years. One-on-ones, which can promote better engagement and performance, must be frequent to be effective (Luna & Rennignger, 2021). Furthermore, predictable routines can support our neurodiverse staff. I want to break down the form that can be found in The Leader Lab; Core Skills to Become a Great Manager, Faster and describe how the design of the template and its components support employee well-being and accessibility.
Goals: At the top of the form, there is a section for quarterly goals and progress. In the book, Management in a Changing World, the authors write about how goals make the implicit explicit, contributing to clarity and expectations for employees (Imani et al., 2023). Goal setting in and of itself is a tool. Over 1,000 studies have shown that setting challenging and specific goals increases performance and motivation (Locke & Latham, 2002, 2006).
Wins: I love this one! It’s critical to celebrate the wins of each team member. This provides space for the employee to identify something they are really proud of. Sometimes people can have a hard time seeing their wins. If that is the case, I use it as an opportunity to share what I see as one of their wins. Usually, the response is, “I didn’t even think of that.” That can be because sometimes we are unaware of our own strengths! Either way, this can contribute to each person’s sense of mattering at the organization.
Priorities: I’ve also seen this written as “This week will be successful if…” Similar to daily stand ups, this supports folks to break those big goals into smaller goals and tasks.
CAMPS Score: For many people, this is the first time they’ve heard of the CAMPS score, and I think it’s one of my favorite tools within a tool! This isn’t something I go over every week with my staff, but I like to come back to it occasionally to see if their numbers have changed. You are directly asking staff how they feel about five areas critical to their engagement and sense of well-being at work: Certainty, Autonomy, Meaning, Progress, and Social Inclusion. The information staff share can help managers better understand what they, as managers, are doing well or ways that they can better support this individual.
Roadblocks or concerns: This section helps to normalize that roadblocks are inevitable and, therefore, encourages people to share their concerns without fear.
Deliberate development (Feedback and Personal Development): I’ve heard over and over again from management experts that your annual performance should not be a surprise. Why? Because each week you should be getting regular feedback from your manager that lets you know how you’re doing. So often we think of feedback as critical. As a manager, my personal rule is that I give positive feedback two times a week at minimum. One time is during our weekly one-on-ones and the other is during our weekly team shout out. I give critical feedback when needed, but it is much less frequent. Having routine times to give feedback helps to give feedback equitably. According to Management in a Changing World, biases can influence who receives feedback and the frequency that staff receive feedback (Imani et al., 2023). Having routine times to give feedback helps to give feedback equitably.
There is also space dedicated for the employee to give the manager feedback. In one of my recent one-on-ones, I asked my direct report, as I always do, “Do you have any feedback for me?” They said, “Not this week, but I know if I do have any I can share it with you.” We have co-created a space where we normalize and anticipate that feedback is both given and received.
Similarly to feedback, we could argue that due to biases, not all staff have equitable access to professional development. By incorporating routine times to give feedback and discuss personal development as managers we are ensuring that we are designing systems that will benefit everyone.
Stretch Question: LifeLabs Learning template comes with stretch questions that cover a variety of topics including digging deeper into CAMPS score, manager performance, and strategy.
The great thing about these tools is that they don’t require any additional money (so many of these tools are free online!), and if you're a manager, you have the power to utilize these tools on your team. When I wasn’t a manager, I asked my manager if it would be okay for us to use the one-on-one form during our weekly check-ins, and she agreed.
If you’re like me, a middle manager, you might have less power to influence your entire organization, but these tools can positively benefit your team by increasing clarity around expectations, appreciating the unique contribution of each individual, creating predictability, and ensuring that everyone has equitable access to grow and develop.
One tool at a time, I believe, we can design workplace systems for all.
References
Duhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html
Edmondson, A. (2019). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Gallup. (2023). State of the global workplace: 2023 report. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
Gold, M. (2022, June 22). M.T.A. vows to make subways 95% accessible. It will take 33 years. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/nyregion/nyc-subway-accessibility-disabilities-elevators.html#:~:text=New%20York%20has%20lagged%20for,that%20make%20them%20fully%20accessible.
Imani, J., Wong, M., & Ahuja, B. (2023). Management in a changing world: How to manage for equity, sustainability, and results. Wiley.
Luna, T., & Renninger, L. (2021). The leader lab: Core skills to become a great manager, faster. Wiley.
Locke E. A., & Latham G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: a 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist. 57(9), 705–717. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705
Locke E. A., & Latham G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265–268. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00449.x
Prilleltensky, I. (2019). Mattering at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and politics. American Journal of Community Psychology, 659(1-2), 16-34. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12368
Prilleltensky, I. (2022, January 4). What it means to “matter.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-being/202201/what-it-means-matter
Pruett, S. (2017, May 19). Accessible design vs. universal design (& more). The UD Project. https://universaldesign.org/accessible-vs-universal-design
Tamiru, N. (2022, June). Team dynamics: The five keys to building effective teams - think with Google. Google. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/five-dynamics-effective-team/
Yousif, N., Dartnell, A., May, G., & Knarr, E. (2024, January 4). Psychological safety levels the playing field for employees. BCG Global. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/psychological-safety-levels-playing-field-for-employees#:~:text=Now%2C%20BCG%20research%20shows%20that,fear%20of%20blame%20or%20criticism.
About the author | Leora Rifkin Edouard (C’16) brings nearly fifteen years of dedicated experience in the non-profit sector and local government. In her current role, she manages operations for Just A Start's Adult Career Training Programs. She serves as a co-chair of the MAPP Alumni DEIA Committee. She is currently writing her first novel. She resides in Boston with her husband and cat.
