As we head into the new year, one question remains at the top of everyone’s minds: what will the future workplace look like?
Having lived through the biggest remote working experiment in history, many companies are now well-equipped to accommodate telecommuting arrangements.
However, as the number of COVID-19 community cases continues to remain at zero in Singapore, we see safety measures being relaxed and more people allowed back into the office. This poses yet another challenge for companies as they now need to adapt to a hybrid workforce, where only half of employees are working in the office, while the other half work from home.
For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), these frequent changes can dampen their productivity and efficiency. Compared to their larger multinational counterparts, SMEs have fewer resources, and oftentimes, employees need to wear multiple hats.
For instance, it’s not uncommon to find an administrative clerk doubling up as an office manager due to limitations in manpower. Thus, these frequent changes in workplace regulations can disrupt their daily duties, causing a dip in productivity and efficiency.
Moreover, through working with our clients and staff, we noticed that having the right digital tools is not enough to keep companies nimble and quick to adapt to today’s ever-changing work environment. Instead, there needs to be a fundamental change in the way the business operates.
To help SMEs tide through the crisis, we have found three proven business methodologies that SMEs can implement to stay leaner, operate at faster speeds, and be more agile. These methods include Parkinson’s Law, Kanban Board and the Agile Method.
Parkinson’s law
According to Parkinson’s Law, any given task requires as much time as it is permitted. Simply put, if you’re given two weeks to complete an assignment, you’ll most likely take the full two weeks to finish it, even though it could’ve been done in five days.
Now, imagine the amount of time you could have saved if the deadline was reduced by half! Thus, Parkinson’s law forces leaders to question how they set their deadlines and rethink how to best manage projects.
There are many ways SMEs can implement Parkinson’s Law in their business methodology. For starters, try cutting all allotted time for tasks and meetings by 50 per cent. Chances are you’ll find that many of these tasks can be accomplished in half the time.
Also read: 7 ways to increase productivity at work
However, if you find that the new deadline is too short, you can always extend it as you see fit. The key here is to experiment in searching for the optimal deadline times.
Parkinson’s law is especially relevant in today’s hybrid workforce, where physical oversight is virtually impossible. Leaders can’t stand over the shoulders of a team member as tasks are being performed, and hence implementing Parkinson’s Law can help to reduce time wasted on tasks.
Kanban Board
Kanban has slowly but surely become one of the most popular methodologies in modern business. This is because Kanban is a very visually representative methodology, requiring a big board either physically or digitally.
At its core, Kanban starts with three columns labelled “requested”, “doing”, and “done”. Each card is passed through the columns as it gets completed, but the kicker is the limit for each column. This forces teams to address problems if a card is stuck in “doing” for too long, creating a bottleneck for the next series of “requested” cards.
Many of today’s most popular productivity applications such as Lark have Kanban capabilities built-in, allowing users to quickly implement this methodology on a company-wide scale, departmental level or even on an individual level.
The Kanban is an effective method to help you understand issues your organisation may have with existing processes. The visual nature of Kanban means that you will naturally recognise bottlenecks when you see a column where tasks arrive faster than they leave and allow you to take appropriate steps to deal with the issue.
Furthermore, the strict work-in-progress limits imposed by the Kanban Board also push you to focus on completing existing tasks before taking on more.
Agile method
The last methodology is the agile method, which emphasises delivering products or outcomes in small increments. This incremental delivery comes with many advantages, as it allows teams to bring new products to the market faster, incorporate feedback along the way, and easily experiment with new features.
With the agile method, teams are also encouraged to continually test out new ways to see what does and does not work. This makes the agile method suitable for an environment where change is constant, such as in a post COVID-19 world, and helps teams remain nimble and adapt quickly.
Also read: How to manage energy and improve your productivity
While startups and computer software companies would be most familiar with this method, it’s starting to gain popularity in other industries as well. SMEs can also stand to benefit from the agile method, as its incremental approach allows companies to pivot quickly according to changes in the environment or market.
Overall, these three methodologies can be adapted and scaled depending on the size of the company. However, it’s crucial to note that above all, embracing change is key in today’s uncertain world. Whether that change stems from adopting one of these methodologies or from one of the dozens across the ecosystem, the process differs from business to business.
Finally, while we may not be able to predict how the future of workplace looks like, one thing is for certain: the way we work and collaborate has changed and will never go back to exactly how it was.
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