Luggage and baggage: learning from the COVID-19 lockdown, by Stephen Gregory

Stephen Gregory is a team leader at Welsh Government Information, Library & Archive Services, and is Honorary Secretary on the GIG Committee. Stephen has worked at the Welsh Government for 14 years and has prior experience in the legal, further and higher education and health care education library sectors. Stephen writes in a personal capacity here.

In this second posting Stephen Gregory seeks to initiate discussion on learning from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Which changes might we take forward and embed in the “new normal” of our future working lives. What are we going to jettison from the “old normal” and from lockdown working? This posting uses the concepts of luggage and baggage suggested in a recent AcademiWales document (How can the concept of new normal help us transition the best possible future? June 2020)

 

Luggage – things to take forward…

• We have all become much more familiar with online communication platforms. There has still been lots of email and instant messaging, but the prevalence of video and audio calling or indeed use of the telephone has increased. (In one government organisation video calls prior to lockdown amounted to fewer than 3000 per month. During lockdown over 3000 video calls were being made each working day).  We can work effectively as dispersed teams if we use these platforms to communicate, to co-create and to share content. Somehow face-to-face communication, even if having to be done online, has seemed easier. Finding a meeting room or a suitable space has been far less of a barrier. The quality of direct engagement with our clients may well have improved during this period because of this and is something to definitely take forward.

• Greater awareness of our preferred working conditions - the work environment that helps us to be our most productive, innovative, time efficient and focussed. Or, conversely, an improved awareness of the working environment where we find it difficult to concentrate, to be productive and to be happy. We may also have an improved understanding of how our colleagues might be impacted by their working environment. Will we see a renewed focus, and organisational encouragement for, more flexible working arrangements in order to maximise productivity? Will there be greater transparency in our diary management, clearly indicating when we are available for interruptions and discussion, differentiated from “do not disturb” times when we are working on something which needs its own space and concentration, or has a tight deadline? Will we be pro-active in scheduling tasks and work for times when we are able to do them more efficiently and effectively?

Image source: Pixabay

• More shared / small team tasks / collaborative working. A renewed focus of allocating work to a small team of colleagues, rather than to just one individual as a much longer piece of work. Small team working provides scope for considerably more energy and creativity than tasks completed individually. They also help to overcome the social isolation of lockdown / working from home, and can support working at pace. You will need to ensure that communication channels are effective, that everyone knows exactly what they need to do, that duplication of effort is avoided, and that time and responsibility are allocated to carefully collate, de-duplicate and edit the final end-product. 

• A renewed energy and permission for innovation, experimentation and a willingness to try new things. Experimentation may not always be completely successful, but there is often lots of learning along the way. Even an unsuccessful experiment can provide a new platform from which to develop  positive change and progress. Increased working from home (time saving) combined with the communication and collaborative technology tools may be key practical enablers in this context. However, changes to organisational culture, favouring and encourage innovation and experimentation may also be required, if not already apparent. Across government responding to COVID-19 has demonstrated that change can be implemented rapidly and that appropriately risk-managed, abbreviated impact assessments, governance and assurance processes can still be adequate and effective. Will we take forward new, more compressed timescales for change whilst maintaining important dialogue and consultation with key stakeholders.

• Automate routine information handling. A data management project in one UK Government Department, used Microsoft Power Automate to establish automated workflows to efficiently and correctly store the vast array of incoming sit-reps (situation reports) during the global pandemic. Additional uses for Power Automate have since been developed in the Department on the back of this success. Are we beginning to see the true benefits of integrated cloud-based applications and storage and the creativity to solve real problems with these tools? 

 

Baggage – things to leave behind…

• Commuting / unnecessary travel. As one Permanent Secretary has said: “Travelling for hours to attend a 30 minute meeting will definitely be a thing of the past”. In the short term office occupancy levels will need to be minimised in order to enable social distancing. In early stages occupancy levels may need to be around 20% to ensure safety. So regular periods of home-working for most GKIM staff is going to be a continuing reality.

• Presenteeism – tackling the fallacies that being in the office is somehow more important, more worthy or more productive than being a homeworker. A significant aspect of this will be ensuring that homeworkers do not miss out on those communications that usually occur by being in the office and by being in close proximity. This means holding meetings jointly in-person and online, actively involving relevant colleagues who are currently working at home. It may also mean concerted efforts for more regular and inclusive team catch-up meetings and other channels for communication.

Image source: Unsplash

 

Challenges 

• “Chance encounters” - How do we replicate those spur of the moment, unexpected and unplanned conversations that can be really useful? With remote working how do we re-create the “water-cooler moment”, or the opportunities for delivering the “elevator pitch”? If we cannot undertake and benefit from these, what do we need to be doing instead? 

• Missing the clear boundaries provided by an in-office working day. Physically going into work provides very clear boundaries, space and time to transition between home and work life. As a commuter I benefitted from this long transition phase. For me, my commute provided invaluable thinking and planning time, preparing for the day ahead, or reviewing how the day went. Sometimes this was a social time, with opportunities to chat with people from different organisations with shared, or sometimes very different, challenges. My train journey also enabled me to check my personal emails, to read for pleasure or even catch up on sleep. I have not yet managed to re-schedule an equivalent time into a lockdown day. 

• Digital vs hard copy. 

o  With significant levels and periods of working from home, digital information resources have gained increased acceptability even amongst those most strongly wedded to paper. Having some access to a digital resource even if the format isn’t quite as intuitive or user friendly, is always going to be better than having no access at all.  This creates challenges for future procurement of resources, budgets, training and development, how you make access to a range of resources as easy as possible and how to successfully market and promote a latent information resource. There are also challenges for end-user efficiency of use. Many users, myself included, are still only using single display screens. We may all need to become far more adept and confident in using multiple screen environments. A further challenge of effectively managing to squeeze benefit from any residual hard copy resources is also apparent. 

o   For records management the transition between the hard copy official records and the more recently adopted digital records presents significant challenges. A significant proportion of records management staff time will need to be allocated to processing historic hard-copy records: reviewing, selecting for retention, archiving or destruction, sensitivity reviewing, cataloguing and cleansing for transfer. For security reasons these activities have previously been office based. With restrictions on time in the office, social distancing and infection control requirements whilst working and consideration of parity for all GKIM staff, these activities pose a significant management challenge.

 

This is provided as a thought piece, a catalyst for further ideas and discussion. We welcome your ideas, experiences and comments! Which pieces of luggage, features that we should develop and take forward, have been omitted here? Which items of baggage will you be pleased to leave behind under “new normal”. Is “new normal” even relevant or worthy of further consideration? Please share your views: add a comment to this posting, or drop us a line. 

We would also like to compile a range of “potted summaries” on how you or your service has managed during lockdown. This will help provide an historical record of this significant period. Please do contact us on info.gig@cilip.org.uk or on Twitter @gig_cilip https://twitter.com/gig_cilip with your content, comments and ideas.