Not all research is helpful (and how to know the difference)

I’ve been preparing for the Research Insights webinar of our Workplace Connect series and it struck me that, while there is a lot of fascinating research out there on new ways of working, it’s not necessarily all helpful.

In fact, all this research and can be rather overwhelming and distracting.

“What others are doing” can be helpful for understanding context, opening us to ideas and supporting business cases for change: giving precedent and a tangible example to build confidence and align a team around.

However, so often “what others are doing” is simply that, and doesn’t account for “what we should be doing.”

In order to get to “what we should be doing” we really need to do some research on our own situation. Look inwards.

• Understand what our people want and need* in order to bring their best selves to work.
• Understand what resources we’ve got available, such as space, tools ,skills and capacity to support this transition.
• Remember what needs to take place in order for the organisation, and business to succeed. Corporate objectives need to be tied to working practices. E.g. If your business success depends on best in class customer service, shouldn’t your working practices prioritise empowering employees to serve customers faster and better than your competitors?

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As an organisation, finding what’s right FOR YOU takes purposeful research and exploration on yourself as an organisation.

And while “what others are doing” can be helpful, remember to take it all with a pinch of salt.

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Yours in workplace evolution,

Georgie

*What people want, and what people need, are not always the same!