The Promise of Organizational Health

Nearly two years ago, Matt and I sat down for lunch at Balboa Café in San Francisco’s Marina district. It was over lunch that Matt introduced me to some of his early musings on Peoplelogic, and the conversation has flowed ever since. Honestly, I’ve lost track of how many interesting weekend and late evening conversations we’ve had as Matt has boot strapped Peoplelogic and has since grown it into the to a venture-backed company it is today.

Fast forward to today, I don’t think either of us quite imagined what the work environment would turn into over the next two years as the globe was swept by the pandemic.

Today the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the workforce and continues to reverberate throughout conversations about organizational health and employee satisfaction, no more than ever. We all hope the trend continues to evolve towards a more manageable endemic. That said, there is little doubt that numerous industries have been transformed, while others adversely affected.

There is however a common thread - a shift in how we get things done, how we collaborate, build and sustain successful relationships. This has resulted in deeply inconsistent experiences for those early in their careers versus those more established in the workforce.

Our work/life balance is unrecognizable with studies proliferating, many of which offer a range of perspectives as to the impact. The dominant observation suggests that hours for many have elongated, but the measured hours are not mapping to improvements in productivity and output.

In fact, the time we have gained in reduced commute times have resulted in an imbalance between ‘deep work’ and collaborative working hours;. This shift results with the collaborative hours being used (misused?) for employee check-ins rather than true teamwork. The Economist correctly points out that this ends up as a raw deal for the employee. I tend to agree, but I think I’d go further. I’d assert that managers and employees remain ill- equipped in how best to handle these the “new normal.”

So, what is the new normal? It remains poorly defined, and but continues to evolve. For many, it is likely going to land with some equilibrium between a full-scale return to office (RTO), a more hybrid model with employees showing up to the office between two to three times a week, or maybe to a fully remote workforce. Regardless, companies can now operate and grow very differently than before. With new choices on who they hire, and where they can hire from, it means the available talent pool has exploded. New choices exist for prospective employees as there is no longer a critical incentive to relocate to land that dream job.

The time is right for a focus on organizational health as a yet unconquered opportunity to systematize around a challenge that no one saw coming. Organizational health is not a new topic, however, recent events have propelled it into the limelight. Together, we can tear down the barriers between employees and managers to provide the critical tools and insights so we can all work better together and be the flywheel for next generation companies. At Peoplelogic, this is what we wake up thinking about every day.

If you are interested in learning about where you sit in organizational health, we would love to give you the opportunity to get a free report of your company’s Organizational Health Factor, a concrete measure of the health of both your people and your processes.

As Chief Product Officer, I now have the opportunity to play a critical part helping to move entire industries and verticals towards that ambition. Thinking back on my career, I’ve also have found my greatest success at the intersection of data to and real- world business problems.  With the prospect of such monumental changes to the workforce, I feel lucky that I can put that to action in a space that is rapidly evolving, but and I’m humbled by what’s ahead.

I also know I will be leaning hard on the guidance, insights and lessons that I have learned from best in the business: Falk Gottlob (Commure & Salesforce), Jen Taylor (Cloudflare), Phil Richardson (Salesforce), Leslie Fine (Salesforce), Jim Rivera (Salesforce), John Goodson (Progress) and William Franklin (Sun Microsystems). I will raise my coffee each morning you all as I embark on this new journey.

It’s a now a huge privilege to bring those experiences to life with Matt and the rest of the team moving forward.  We are growing like crazy, so drop us a line. Onward!