I audited my calendar and calculated an average of 25 hrs of meetings a week. Consequently, I was working 50-60 hrs a week to get everything done.

Then something strange occurred.

It went something like this (condensed):

• – We introduced an Enterprise Social Network (ESN).
• – Everyone had their own voice, their own ability to share.
• – I had my own voice, and a willingness to use it.
• – People understood better what I was up to; what I was interested in; how I could help.
• – I got more involved in those important, informal ‘corridor conversations.’
• – I began to Work Out Loud – especially in my team.
• – The team shared their work openly – we could follow along, support, critique (a)synchronously.
• – Because the team knew everything that we were working on, they could get involved in more high profile projects. We scaled the team.
• – The social relationships we grew allowed for more organic workflows, more incremental, iterative projects.
• – We developed an emergent process over a planned one.
• – Trust improved, more autonomy for us to act.

My meeting load reduced to 6-7 hr/wk; work week to 40 hrs.

Everyone is dealing with WFH, Zoom fatigue, the challenges of effective meetings and new workflows.

Brief story moral: use the tech, think about it harder.

This Much We Know.