Remember When You Were a Work Family?
Missing That Feeling of Family
Working hybrid is a work in progress. Most teams have figured out some technology that works for them at least adequately. Work is happening pretty well, and there’s a feeling of a “new normal.” There’s also nostalgia, a sense of something missing from work life in the “before times.” We’ve heard a lot about missing the “feeling of family,” like, “You know we’re a family here, and it’s hard to stay as connected as we used to.”
Long before Covid, we heard our clients describing their workplace as “family” and it has always made us cringe, just a little bit. On one hand, what they’re describing is something that feels good to them, a positive, strong bond, sense of support, and friendship among colleagues that can transcend work. People go to happy hour, dinner at each other’s houses, go to their kids’ performances, lean on each other when things are hard, and share moments that matter like they might around a family dinner table.
Why Not Call It Family?
On the other hand, there’s a strong argument for the family metaphor being the wrong one for the workplace. Why?
There are a lot of dysfunctional families out there.
The social contract in a family is different than it is at work. We can’t fire our family members if their performance isn’t cutting it.
Families aren’t necessarily set up for everyone to be contributing to a common purpose.
We don’t pay family members to show up and produce outcomes. Although maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea? Just kidding, that’s not a good idea.
That level of family feeling bond is a hard one for new people to feel welcome into.
No one wants to work for “Mom and Dad” and no one wants to be seen as “the kids,” especially if “the kids are misbehaving” (this one comes up shockingly frequently).
How do we create healthy boundaries between work and life outside of work if we work with “family?”
A Better Metaphor
So what is the right metaphor? Is there a way to think about our workplaces that describe a healthy, friendly, warm, caring, and meaningful bond among colleagues while also honoring the structures that best support humans working together toward a shared purpose? We think so.
Community
We’re hard at work building a framework to help leaders and workplaces see and understand themselves as communities. Why?
Human beings are wired to be in a community. It’s our nature, it’s how we feel, work, and live best. We need other people biologically, emotionally, and evolutionarily. When we’re in a community, we feel all those positive feelings that people describe when they describe work as a family: trust, care, support, belonging, purpose, and meaning.
What Communities Can Be
We form communities in every part of our lives based on shared needs and shared experiences. Healthy communities leverage the assets: skills, strengths, resources, and relationships of community members to make something useful and meaningful happen. What you receive from a community largely correlates to what you give to the community. Communities are made up of and fueled by social networks where knowledge and information, connection, resources, and values travel among community members. Communities are a container for people who share similar values, purposes, and experiences. There is room for people to participate in different ways, to grow and evolve, and to understand themselves in the context of a larger good.
Our Hypothesis
Our current hypothesis/question is: If we started not only understanding workplaces as communities but leaned into structuring our workplaces as communities, would we see people thrive in ways we haven’t ever seen before? Would we see belonging and engagement increase? Would we see initiative, ownership, and accountability go through the roof because people would be invested in the success of a community that matters to them? Would we see more compassionate, thoughtful leadership and policies? Would we see well-being metrics go up dramatically because we’re structuring workplaces to match how our brains and bodies are wired?
Workplaces as Communities
In the coming months, we’ll keep sharing our thinking, our framework, and questions that come up along the way for you to test out with your teams. In the meantime, let us know what you think about workplaces as communities. What do you see as the upsides and downsides to designing work as a community?
Would You Like to Test a Manager Playbook?
At Thrive at Work, we’re pulling together our favorite tactics into a “playbook” that we can share with other leaders. If you’d like to be one of our early adopters/testers, please sign up here, and we’ll connect with you.
Looking to Connect?
If you’re looking for more help in any of these areas, send us an email or book a time to chat further. We love problem-solving with you!