Innovation in Workforce

Rethink Your Workspace

Today’s office space is outdated, better suited for a paper-friendly time.

Younger workers who started their jobs remotely during the COVID shutdown can’t fathom the old system: Someone actually wheeled a cart from office to office to collect hard- copy signatures?

“Modern office buildings were created for a human being to sit there and do work alone, with a bunch a people around them,” said Amy Hamilton, Senior Cybersecurity Advisor of Policy and Programs at the Department of Energy. “Is that the future of work, though?”

In her view, agencies should combine all the “wonders” of working in a remote space with the benefits of a physical space.

People’s lives changed during the pandemic, she said, and employees learned they could be successful — sometimes more successful — when working outside the agency office.

One option for a workplace makeover is shared quality time.

Hamilton explained that everyone logs into a virtual meeting, and each employee says what they plan to achieve in the next hour, or whatever amount of time you schedule. Then everyone works individually — with their cameras on. When time’s up, the team leader calls everyone back and asks them, “Hey, what did you accomplish?”

Hamilton said that “the people who value shared quality time, they’re going to appreciate you, and you didn’t have to go into an office to do it.”

There are times when in-person interactions are appropriate, so agencies should consider turning some office space into meeting space to encourage on-site collaboration, she said. But regardless of how you manage in-person interactions, Hamilton believes that “you [need to] figure out what is the level of cadence you will need to meet [on-site],” she said. “Is it different for a team, versus an entire department?”

Help People Belong

Feeling welcome — like we belong — makes us happier and more motivated, and makes diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives more likely to succeed.

Belonging essentially means that people have a meaningful voice. You can call it a “state of intimacy felt in relationships with those within a particular group … [and it] involves the ability to show up authentically in any space.” In the workplace, a belonging culture makes people more resilient and more likely to stay.

But creating a sense of belonging isn’t easy, and in fact the Washington state legislature found so much fragmentation in how Washington agencies addressed disparity that lawmakers created a dedicated Office of Equity in April 2020.

The office helps the state’s public and private sectors be more uniformly hospitable. Among its many endeavors — e.g., data collection and analysis, legal compliance, toolkits and training videos, community outreach, and more — the office offers consulting services to transform state agencies and their partners into more “innovative, just, and equitable” places.

For instance, the office can help agencies develop unique “Universal Access & Belonging” strategic plans and policies. These focus on how various state organizations use language, accommodate disabilities and implement technology. The office exists, it said, because “inequities based on race, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics continue to be deep, pervasive, and persistent, and they come at a great economic and social cost.”

Be Social

Remote work has many potential benefits, but there is a drawback: It separates one colleague from another — physically, psychologically and emotionally.

People often overlook how problematic that is, said Keson Khieu, the Business Intelligence Chief in California’s Department of Health Care Services.

“Socialization is more important than it sounds,” he said. “When we’re at home, we’re isolated. We don’t call each other up to chitchat.” We lose the rapport that in-person work builds.

So, Khieu has created a daily check-in for his team — the virtual equivalent of gathering around a water cooler — in which coworkers talk about personal matters (e.g., their children’s school play, a dog they adopted, the latest plumbing disaster).

Those 10 minutes each morning help drive and embrace reform because “you cannot change any processes if … [people’s] hearts are not behind it,” he said. And a well-socialized workforce allows Khieu’s more collaborative, lateral management style — what he calls “Trust and Inspire” — to thrive. Rather than government’s usual top-down hierarchy, his approach focuses on positive reinforcement, he said. Khieu trusts his employees and gives them a voice, so they reciprocate. “Show people respect, and you get what you need to,” he said. “You will get collaboration and friendship.”

This article appears in our guide “How to Change Things up (and Make It Stick).” To read more about ways to innovate successfully, download it here:

Illustration by Calista Lam