Addressing workflows and strategies is key to keeping up with the changing pace of work.
Collaboration should start with documents rather than meetings, using structured templates for better productivity.
Deep dives
The Shift to Remote Work and the Need for Change
The podcast discusses how the pandemic rapidly shifted many professionals to remote work. However, the speaker highlights that while the location of work has changed, the way people work has not. This has led to negative impacts such as increased burnout, decreased job satisfaction, and a slowdown in innovation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of evolving how we work to match the new context of remote or internet work.
Principles of Modern Work
The podcast introduces Almanac's principles of modern work, which are based on extensive research and interviews with high-performing teams. By analyzing their processes and insights, Almanac has derived generalizable principles that can be applied by any team or organization. These principles focus on optimizing collaboration, efficiency, trust-building, and work performance in the new normal of remote or internet work.
Focusing on Outputs and Outcomes Instead of Hours Worked
The podcast delves into the importance of managers shifting their focus from measuring hours worked or messages sent to measuring outputs and outcomes. Almanac's CEO suggests that transparency and accountability are key in this shift. By using tools like requests and templates, teams can establish clear tasks, track progress, measure quantity and quality of output, and ultimately build trust and connection between managers and team members.
Collaboration Starting with Documents Instead of Meetings
The podcast highlights the principle that collaboration should begin with documents rather than meetings. Almanac advocates for the use of structured document templates tailored to specific processes or projects. These templates serve as the core surface for collaboration, allowing teams to write, iterate, seek feedback, gain approval, distribute knowledge, and track progress. By leveraging documents as the central collaborative tool, teams can reduce meeting overload, save time, and increase productivity.
The way we work has never changed quite as much as it did during the pandemic. Sure, you probably knew a couple of people with home offices or flexible hours, but after lockdowns, remote work went from a rarity to the new normal. When everyone was suddenly forced to stay inside, we all realised we could get by with tools like Google Docs and Zoom.
But what if we were wrong?
Adam Nathan, the co-founder and CEO of Almanac, worries that where we work has changed, but how we work hasn’t caught up yet. We’re using tools created for a different time, he says, and simply updating the tools won’t do the trick.
Adam shares Almanac’s ‘modern work principles’, and explains why addressing our workflows and strategies is the key to keeping up with the pace of change.
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