“What if” Experiment

With the kind of management, I work with, working from home was never an encouraging

option, whether employees are based in the Middle East or in Europe. The current lockdown

situation caused by the pandemic has affected the way we work & operate. The virtual

environment is like untested ways, a totally new culture we need to try, test, and experiment as

that’s the call to sustain in the business and overcome the current crisis.

Purpose: To develop and build an environment and culture of the utmost trust, continuous

alignment to the management vision, to thrive to the extent to which employees are empowered

to be engaged, feel valued, be heard while working virtually. The intention is to resolve internal

problems, rooting up within departments as no one is sharing ideas nor is raising concerns. To

know what’s happening, and to achieve the purpose I suggested and explained the management

ABC model of engagement, after a lot of brainstorming, we agreed to have a clear, candid and

compassionate approach. My team was assigned the task to experiment using the ABC

framework with the help of managers. We choose Sales and Service teams for a test run and to

overcome the challenge we are facing with specific action we could take for different items. We

agreed to conduct the experiment and notice the outcome by using the virtual platform trying to

become closer to the people, which is not possible in regular days. The need is to evaluate and

respond to constantly evolving situation, and leading response efforts to overcome the current

scenario.

Hypothesis: “What if” we empower teams with autonomy, ownership, and the full responsibility

for setting up the project milestones, the submission deadline for critical projects with increased

approval limits and setting clear authority matrix during this phase. By this, we expect people to

be motivated, confident & engaged, and as the management team, we are successful in achieving

our purpose and know the inside story.

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Actions Taken: Since we never had virtual interaction it was important to explain employees

about an entirely new interactive experience, which requires adapting their perspective, habits,

and tactics to make them work effectively – Was done officially via emails and over the phone-

so employees understand what’s expected, how to be productive and how their performance will

be measured. (The management team in collaboration with department heads undertook the task

and I personally spoke to my team explaining what’s management is planning, why virtual and

our expectations, as their support and collaboration are must succeed.)

With IT, we gathered data to ensure employees have resources for virtual setup, as employees

work on desktops than on laptops. IT played the key role, we reimbursed employees for getting

Internet connections and requested them for using personnel computers/i-pads for official work.

IT team installed specific software for remote access, so we overcome the situation of non-

availability of adequate resources for continuous workflow.

Next, we had some ad hoc meetings for test purpose to discuss running projects, and to identify

problems faced in virtual sessions, the idea was to observe employees’ behaviors without making

any changes to existing workflow and we noticed that most of the employees were not engaged,

nor came prepared, had no major contribution, anxious and insecure. We even faced problems

for setting up a meeting that suits everyone (different time zones), voice clarity, no visuals due to

low bandwidth (we also understood that looking at each other to have better conversations &

greater understanding is an important aspect), no allocated workspace at home - To overcome

Technological issues our IT team installed software’s like Microsoft teams (to blur background),

provided high bandwidth and employees were asked preferences poll for choosing time slots and

we requested them to have a dedicated quiet corner in their homes to have no distractions.

In our existing office culture, having department meetings without department heads are not

possible, and to experiment, we wanted to run a parallel meeting, where employees are free to

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share their views & opinions. This was quite challenging, as needed to ensure department heads

do not feel offended, and most importantly, to take them into confidence, the managing director

took up this task quite well. To keep employees engaged & motivated during conversation and

maintain their interest in work, to ensure they are productive while working from home & be

successful with the task assigned, and reports to be completed smoothly and timely. Thus, in

virtual meetings, we took the liberty and purposefully had two sessions on the same agenda with

a clear goal and action plan with declared incentive, inviting employees in meetings with and

without bosses to get insight on all activities we kickoff the experiments. The teams were

encouraged to undertake projects as per their terms with the only condition of weekly feedback, a

briefing by different team members ensuring company standards are met with the highest

standards of customer service. To motivate & keep teams engaged we even set up rewards like

top three best performing teams will get to choose their own dealers & distributor channel,

getting an opportunity to strengthen relationships through workplace celebrations, by enhancing

skills & employee’s competences, performances by giving more flexibility, adaptability, and

autonomy.

What were the effects of the intervention on intended target’s behavior and demeanor? We

noticed a drastic behavioral change and shift in attitude, employees who were shy in speaking,

opened up freely, teams came up with great solutions, thoughts, concerns & risk on problems

they face, possible solutions, cost-effective means, and shortcuts they use to overcome issues,

shared valuable feedback to different teams based on their knowledge and experiences. The

meetings were interactive, teams were relaxed and the purpose of giving authority to team leads

really showed up exceptional skills of team management, members were quite supportive and

enthusiastic about presenting reports, by allowing employees to speak up in case of

disagreement, many were ready to take on new items they’re passionate and interested. Now the

employees are self-volunteering for new challenges, are readily being part of other teams on

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various projects, more dedicated, engaged, and confident to apply their competencies and skills

with full autonomy and belongingness to projects and the teams. Thus, a culture of trust and

confidence is being built. The experiment of empowering people has positively impacted the

progress and employee engagement, they are more aware of the company, happy being heard

with improved productivity. Thus, establishing a crystal-clear connection of employees

perceiving themselves as an asset and as a part of company success.

How did the results of the experiment shift your attitude or challenge your assumptions? The

experiment has worked to regain my trust and confidence in the team. The caliber and potential

of our teams are truly incredible. I never relied on the potential of some and considered them as

low performers, as either they were shy, introvert and never shared their ideas/thought process,

and I never put efforts to know why, but this experiment worked as an eye-opener and I got an

entirely new perspective about them, now I can be delegate task and responsibilities with

confidence. The outcome attributed in shifting my attitude and behaviour towards those I thought

were less/ last runners and it helped me in recognizing people at every level and regains trust and

open communication with the team, to acknowledgement, appreciate and enhanced resilience.

If the results of your experiment did not turn out the way you had expected, explain why?

Experimenting with the ABC model turned out to be more positive than expected, it’s effective,

and proving successful in utilizing employees’ competencies with a better contribution. We were

looking for signs of creative business building, to respond to the crisis with innovative solutions

born of necessity, now possible by team efforts, and even the customer’s responses are positive,

they are receiving all specs and technical designs beforehand. This even enabled us to identify

hidden talents and skills, even got the next line of authority, ready to take over existing roles

independently, so management can focus on new avenues & ventures, making a place for

expansion as many new leaders and team have emerged from the existing experiment. We will

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now experiment ABC technique in other departments and expect to achieve a more and more

positive impact on the organization working together and come out strong once the things settle.

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