“Process masking” is a brand new buzzword for an previous drawback: workers performing busyness with out essentially being productive. Assume: typing loudly, scheduling and attending unnecessary conferences, or spending means too lengthy scrolling by means of e-mail. As a rule, it’s a product of a task-based office tradition as an alternative of 1 that emphasizes collaboration and innovation.
In different phrases, job masking is a symptom of a bigger organizational drawback that prioritizes individual outputs over collective outcomes. That is excellent news, as a result of it means it’s inside the group’s energy to repair it – and to guide the shift from a task-based tradition to at least one that’s pushed by concepts in service of shared targets.
The visibility entice behind task-based workplaces
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In some ways, a task-based work tradition comes right down to an organizational obsession with visibility. That’s when organizations both implicitly or explicitly conflate having the ability to see workers working with a job nicely performed. An emphasis on employee visibility additionally reinforces the presumption that workers work higher below direct, in-person supervision.
It’s no coincidence that job masking seems to be a very scorching subject now that many corporations are cracking down on distant work and prioritizing office presence. In a 2024 Workhuman survey, practically 70% of managers stated that “faking exercise” had change into widespread on their groups, whereas 36% of workers admitted to doing it.
Why visibility doesn’t predict effectiveness
The visibility-first organizational mindset – and the task-based work tradition that emerges from it – is a cussed holdover from a time earlier than trendy expertise made distributed teamwork doable. It’s straightforward to overlook how, till comparatively not too long ago, information staff needed to present as much as a bodily workplace with in-person colleagues in an effort to do their jobs, in any respect.
However proof means that the give attention to seen employee outputs doesn’t essentially translate into engaged and modern groups. Right here at Atlassian, for instance, employee effectiveness has been on the upswing since we turned a completely distributed firm in 2020. The truth is, 92% of staff members say our distributed work coverage lets them do their greatest work. Atlassians additionally credit score the coverage for a 32% enchancment in focus.
A recipe for burnout
In fact, there are professionals and cons to each office setup. However no matter whether or not groups work collectively in an workplace or as a part of a globally distributed workforce, a give attention to seen or measurable productiveness can take a severe toll on employee engagement and morale.
As Culture Partners Chief Technique Officer Jessica Kriegel put it in a current LinkedIn post, making an attempt to be seen on a regular basis is exhausting. It even discourages deep work, or “the form of work that takes hours of focus and focus, which regularly isn’t seen to anybody till the ultimate product.”
Which brings us again to job masking. “When workers really feel like they should always present what they’re doing to show their price, they’re spending time on performative actions fairly than precise productiveness,” Kriegel writes. “It’s a surefire method to create burnout.”
From particular person productiveness to collaborative innovation
For organizations to shift from being task-based to ideas-based, leaders should first settle for that they want a brand new strategy to technique that may higher adapt to fast-moving, unsure environments. Meaning stepping again from the instant-gratification loop of measuring particular person staff’ obvious outputs and, as an alternative, specializing in the right way to facilitate their groups’ effectiveness over time.
An agile strategy to strategic overhaul
Stephanie Ockman, the Founder and CEO of Agile Socks LLC, proposes the next 4 key pillars as a information for shifting towards a much less task-based, and extra ideas-based group:
- Take a look at completely different approaches. An iterative and versatile mindset is essential. Attempting issues out, studying from the outcomes, and adjusting course alongside the way in which permits for better-defined targets and clearer paths towards attaining them.
- Targets are extra helpful after they give attention to outcomes as an alternative of outputs. Specializing in outcomes helps be certain that a corporation’s efforts result in actual affect.
- Metrics are data for navigation. Measures of staff efficiency and effectiveness aren’t about declaring success or failure. As an alternative, they’re studying instruments that supply suggestions on present progress and course. They’re like a GPS for locating the way in which towards attaining firm targets.
- Contemplate a spread of views for measuring worth. It’s necessary to remember each the group’s capacity to ship worth right now and its capacity to maintain delivering worth into the long run.
“As an alternative of a plan-driven, predictive means of working and main, leaders want to make use of an empirical, value-driven means of working and main,” Ockman says.
A extra modern, engaged, and ideas-driven workforce solely occurs when leaders let go of the false promise of “busy” staff and assume when it comes to working collectively towards widespread targets.
