Hello and welcome to another edition of the restart from.
Aiga the professional association for design.
I'm Li Xiang zhuang. The restart is a Content series
devoted to helping the design and creative business
communities. Forge a path forward in this,
radically changed world, the theme for this episode is hybrid
work and happiness. And our guest expert is dr.
Tracey Brower. She is a PhD sociologist, who
studies the sociology of work future of work workers.
The workplace. Tracy is a principal with steel
cases, applied research and Consulting practice, and she's
also the author of the secrets of happiness at work and
bringing work to Life by bringing life to work.
She's a contributor to forbes.com and Fast Company
among other Publications, and now on with our show about
hybrid work and happiness. Thank you so much for joining us
Tracy. Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it. Looking forward to our
conversation. Yeah, so to kick things off.
I want to know. How did you get into the topic
of happiness, in your research? Oh, my goodness, you know, I
think it's just really interesting.
It was kind of a natural outgrowth of all of my work
around work life and alternative ways to think about work-life
balance because I think so often people think of work as drudgery
or unhappy times and work. We can be the source of plenty
of joy, and happiness. And so that kind of led me to
this field. And it is so rich in terms of
the amount of research on happiness, and the opportunities
to create the conditions for happiness, through work and
through the rest of our lives as well.
So you put balance in air quotes.
I noticed. So, is there a better term that
you prefer G1 to redefine? What balance looks like?
Yeah. I think it's probably a little
bit of both. I know, balance is kind of the
way that we think about About it in our vernacular, but I always
think that balance is a little limiting, you know, like it
suggests that work and life are on two different planes and
really work is part of a full life and balance suggest that
there's some precariousness and we have to do it, right?
Or we'll get unbalanced and I think that it's better for us to
think about it as navigation or integration or finding our own
ways to kind of negotiate through the different tabs.
Flows of our stages of life and stages of our work and how work
fits in. What if you found in your
research about how people are navigating the last
year-and-a-half. Obviously, there's been a lot of
challenges both to individual workers who are also parents and
have other responsibilities at home.
But also to employers and managers and dealing with teams.
I know this is a huge topic that covers a lot of different
groups, but just curious to hear a little bit about what are some
of the things that you've been seeing in, Hearing about.
Yeah, I mean, I think that we're in this place where we're pretty
exhausted and I think it's really healthy, but we
acknowledge that this has been hard times, you know, like we've
taken on so many new roles. Our worlds have become a lot
smaller in some ways, as we've been kind of relegated to homes.
We just think we can get back out, and things are becoming a
little bit more regular, and then we're kind of bumped back.
Again. We empathize with people in
different regions. In countries across the globe
where the virus is surging and so those can be really
exhausting. So I think it's really fair that
we look around and go. Yeah, it's valid.
That this has been a struggle and I think we're in this new
beginning like there's really interesting research that
compares this period to the Roaring 20s.
And the Roaring Twenties were the most significant moment of
economic Global growth and personal.
Oil and organizational Global growth ever in history.
And so there's a belief that we have a bit of a pent-up demand.
And so we have this new optimism as well.
And I think we had this opportunity to kind of look back
and learn what have we learned about?
What's worked in terms of working from home.
What can we learn about the need for presents and slowing down
and being together? What can we learn about how we
imagine the future in new ways. So I think we're in this moment
of new. Beginnings and restart.
So I love your themes as well on this topic.
So what are some of the things that you're optimistic about in
the NuvaRing Tony's? Yeah, really the new Roaring
20s. I think we have this great
opportunity to focus on well-being.
That's one of the trends that we're seeing is companies and
leaders and individuals colleagues thinking of the
holistic, nature of well-being, physical, and cognitive, and
emotional. I think we're at this new point.
Point of potential empathy toward what people go through in
terms of work life towards some of the mental health challenges
that we've had. So I think we're on this new
opportunity for wellbeing. I think we have a new
opportunity to think about work life and how people navigate
that individually and how we can give more flexibility and more
options that are balanced. With the need to meet teams and
organizational requirements and accountabilities, which is super
fair and positive that organizations want our
Traditions, I think we have a wonderful new opportunity to
think intentionally about community and belonging like so
many people have talked about loneliness and social isolation.
And there's this Paradox where in some ways we've gotten more
intimate with each other and we may have built relationships
that are more distant and we've invited each other into our
homes. And at the same time, it's been
fairly isolating. So I think we can think about
community and how we reconnect and how we get a sense of
belonging how we contribute. And then finally, I think we can
think about performance and kind of new ways that we bring our
best, right? Like, how do I work best on?
What do I work best? With whom, do I work fast?
What kind of culture is best for me and for the organization?
So I think those are some of our new beginnings and great
opportunities. Yeah.
That's wonderful. I kind of What's up a little
bit? At the end when you set
performance because I love the other things about well-being as
well. But I'm just trying to think
about inhabiting the role of maybe a more quantitative type
of manager who's looking at the ROI of what are the results of
all of this. And when you say performance,
like, okay, that's exciting. Not that, I don't care about the
health of my employees, right? But it's like, okay performance.
So what have we found about performance in this mostly
remote or more and more hybrid kind of work setting that
actually affects performance. Oh, I love this question, too.
I think this is so interesting because I think sometimes
performance gets a bad name, right?
Like performance is about holding people to account, or
somehow holding feet to the fire.
But actually performance is a beautiful thing.
I just finished a book called transcend, which really looks at
Maslow and the, in the ways that we gain meaning from life, and
we all want, You contribute, we want to perform.
We want to know that our contribution matters.
And so I think one of the things we've learned about performance
is that performance is part of the community, right?
Like part of my performance is me doing my best, but it's also
me contributing to the community and that is very validating.
Another thing. I think we've learned about
performance has everything to do with leadership.
The best leaders have always been the one that manage to
objectives manage to outcomes, but without being able to see E
people in the office. Every day we get even more of a
sense of how critical it is that we engage people and hold them
accountable and do that effectively without being able
to see each other every day, it just by for Monday through
Friday. The other thing I think we've
learned about performance is that it is multifaceted.
I think we count productivity. A lot of times, great example of
a customer, we were working with them, their velocity, which is
the measure of their productivity and increased 18%.
But they saw during the last 18 months, of 30 percent.
Turnover of their staff was kind of, not just about how many
widgets. It's also about engagement and
retention and having people working together, effectively.
And so performance is multifaceted.
In the last thing I would say is that, I think we had this
committee myth of productivity like we can be just as
productive as home as, you know, as we can in the office.
In reality, there are key things we can do brilliantly at home.
Wrote work routine, work, truly alone work.
If we have space to focus at home, but the things that we
need to do face-to-face, are the things that are more complex,
more ambiguous often based on speed and urgency.
Those are based on some type of scientific studies.
So I think we can think about where we do our work and what
kind of performance we want and, which space serves Us best.
Yeah, that has me thinking of some of the specifics of design
work but also applicable to other creative Industries where
there's definitely part of it. That's a craft right there,
requires quiet time. Like I don't want to be in an
open plan office. I want my headphones on or I
want my own private space to work on this logo that I'm
working on, or, edit photos or whatever visual task I'm doing.
But then there's parts of it where I want to be in a team,
whether it's for a brainstorm looking for, new creative ideas,
or Or looking at work, right? Reviewing work critiquing work.
There's a immediacy to doing that in person that you can do,
say, online on a virtual whiteboard, but it's not quite
the same thing. And so, how do you think about
this or what sort of advice do you have for design leaders and
creative Industries? Like how do they think about
this balance? Now that hybrid is kind of the
cat is out of the bag, right? And it seems to be in demand as
a new normal. Yeah, the cat is out of the bag.
That's a quotable quote. I love that this creative work
is so interesting. I just did an article that came
out Sunday and I looked at the research that relates creativity
and happiness. Like when people are involved in
more creative Pursuits, they tend to be happier.
And the opposite is true. When you're happier, you tend to
feel more creative confidence, you tend to want to create more.
And so, there is this. This really important
relationship. So I think about creativity and
I think about the other thing that's important.
And you point to it is that not all creativity is in groups with
Post-it notes. And, you know, Divergent
thinking there is also both work and rumination and marinating
and all of those important convert and activities that have
to do with creativity. So, I think part of it is being
really intentional about the kind of process that we're going
to. Doing like what part of the
creative process early going to be in the midst of?
So the work is a key. I think another key is our
preference. Like my preference might be to
be all by myself when I'm working on a really tough
problem. And I need to be essentially
creative about it and especially creative about it.
Your preference might be to be with others and so that personal
preference and I think curating are spaces and curating your
choices is so important, you know, like maybe there's a
moment when In our home offices, or maybe there's a moment when
we're in a work club or a moment when we're in our offices at a
former workplace, and I think if we can curate those choices and
as Leaders, I think it's giving people as much choice and
control as possible and setting expectations for when, in the
project flow. It's going to be most important
for us to work together and then also modeling the way, you know,
leaders are as whether they mean to be or not said exactly.
Balls, whether they mean to or not.
And so when they're modeling the way toward this intentionality
of their own work, they go far toward Leading The Way for their
staff. Yeah.
I want to learn more about what you wrote about creativity.
But first, I wanted to follow up on this theme of giving your
team members control, but also belonging and run by a scenario
would be very concrete scenario that I've seen a lot which is
companies moving to this kind of hot, desking.
Skin environment, right? Where nobody has a permanent
work space and maybe folks are working from home most of the
time, but if they come into the office, it's bringing your
laptop and first come first serve, which is how a lot of
co-working spaces work, but at the same time, you don't have
that sense of belonging there because you can't leave your
plant or that picture of your dog, or your kid, or whatever
that is, right? And so, the office feels like a
kind of transitory almost sterile environment, and I know
there's trade-offs between Flexibility and belonging and
things like that. But how would you deal with
this? Scenario like this?
If an employer asking for your advice?
Yeah, I think there's a happy middle point because I think
just what you described can be a huge challenge.
Like I always say I've traveled so much over my career.
I always say hotels in my experience are the loneliest
places in the world. It's just some transient.
Everything is transient. Right?
But I think one of the things that's interesting is if we can
create places where We have neighborhoods.
So I may not go to the same workstation every day, but I
might go to the same neighborhood every day.
And I think about has the benefit of I know where to find
my co-workers and feel together and I can kind of be an ambient
awareness about the space around me.
I can do individual work, but I can kind of pick up and ask
questions of the people around me and reconnect, right?
And people know where to find me.
Like, I think that's another thing that if you want Community
people need to be able to connect.
I think that you're saying the bad neighborhood idea gives us
is some sense of certainty. Like The Human Condition
neurologically is that we shy away from ambiguity and
uncertainty and we really want certainty.
And there's so much uncertainty in the world right now, but if
we can go to work and kind of have some certainty about where
we're going to squat that day and who were going to run into,
that's a big deal. There's some very interesting
work going on with more clubs to where there are apps that are
going along with the word clubs where you can see transparently
into other's intentions for the day.
So instead of just picking a work Club.
I might pick a work called where you're going to also because I
know I want to run into you that day.
So I think it's about picking places that work best for work
and it's probably about picking people and who we want to run
into and get work. Done with that day.
Yeah. I love that metaphor of the
neighborhood's. It actually kind of reminds me
of my high school with A long time ago, but we had a cafeteria
my high school, but during lunch hour, you could get your food or
if you brought your lunch could basically eat it.
Anywhere on campus and they were basically like different places.
Different groups of kids would hang out, right?
Like the theater kids would be in one hallway in the band, kids
somewhere else, the god, kid, somewhere else.
And it was these kind of de facto known things of like this
is where you go to lunch. And so it kind of reminds me of
that in a work context, but with people's laptops, that's really
cool. It reminds me of this.
Concept of social identity, which I'm really excited about
right now. Belonging isn't just being with
other people. It is having a sense of social
identity with other people and we significantly get this on
some social identity from work, and they actually started during
the Industrial Revolution. Interestingly, and the
industrial revolution has lots of problems.
Like there were terrible conditions during the Industrial
Revolution. However, one of the interesting
things is that people had traditionally gotten social
identity from Farm and, you know, they'd be churning butter
with their friends and neighbors and harvesting grain with their
friends and neighbors. And then they moved into cities
in all of a sudden social identity came less from friends
and family and it came more from people.
They were working with. They spend a lot of time,
shoeing horses side by side or you know, kneading bread
side-by-side. And so I think that is so
relevant for us today that you know, like who am I going to
work side-by-side with and how does my social identity arise
from the purpose of my company? The purpose of the work that I
do the purpose that I fulfill uniquely all those things are so
important. Yeah, that's a really powerful
word their purpose. How do you help people think
through their purpose? Obviously, there's the
institutional or organizational purpose of where they're
working, but individual people have their purpose and their
agendas and hopefully there's some overlap in that Venn
diagram. How do people negotiate that
especially at home when there's maybe childcare concerns or Dog
care concerns of my case. But like, all of these things
that we're doing all at once. The kind of, we think about
aligning purposes between the personal and the professional,
especially when these things are so blurred now.
Yeah, so blurred and Alignment, I think, absolutely the key,
like, we know from happiness research, the more you feel
alignment with the purpose of the organization that you're
working with the happier. You will be the more fulfilled
you'll feel the more joy, you'll feel not that you're going to be
happy every single minute of every single day.
But in, Terms of the ABS and flows over all contentment.
You'll have more happiness. When you feel more alignment of
that purpose between you and the organization and between you and
kind of what's most important to you.
Like, I love to think about the model of what do you have to do
in your job? And what do you love to do?
The other thing? I think about purpose is that, I
think we need to think small about purpose.
Like I think a lot of times we think about Purpose with a
capital P, and We feel like if we're not solving world peace or
solving world hunger or judgy about ourselves.
Am I really getting enough done? And I think purpose can be how
do you make your best contribution?
Why do you good at? What makes sense today?
What makes sense? Don't next month?
Do that. Next thing that makes sense.
The other thing that I learned recently, which I think is
fascinating, is that diversity of interests also tends to
contribute to happiness. So, you know, Do something on a
volunteer basis. You do something with your
family. You do something at work, the
more you can express yourself in diverse ways, the better and the
more those are integrated the better.
So like I don't know, maybe I love doing presentations or
something, and I can do that in my volunteer work at habitat and
I can do it at my kids school or my dog training class with my
dog with the other participants, or and I can do it at work.
So, more integration is a really good thing and you make exactly
the point the More alignment. We have the better.
Yeah, I think that diversity of interests are applying your
interest in your talents to different.
Contexts is so key. It's often a challenge.
I think, for Creative people, where we get into doing design
work because we're passionate about it, but when I'm designing
for clients all day long, like I don't want to go home and do my
passion project. That's also design, right.
I want to just cook something or take photos instead something
else because it's just too much greater.
I'm like using All that creative energy for my clients for my day
job. And so do you have any advice
for somebody like that? And I think a lot of creative
people are in this situation where they get into their field
because they're passionate about it.
But then like the last thing they want to do when they get
home is to do a hobby related to that.
Exactly. I have that exact thing.
Like I think about work all the time.
And remember, when not the show, The Office was big.
It was like the last show. I'm just I'm sure it's a great
show, but I I want to watch a television show about what I did
all day. I think that it's partly about
finding, how do you ladder up to that next big thing?
Right? Like the design work that we do
on a day-to-day basis might be about expression.
And so then if there are other ways to express, so your spoke
expressing that kind of design, you're expressing that passion,
but you're doing it in a different way and you absolutely
call the now, maybe I'm doing Design work during the day and
I'm taking photographs later or I'm singing or I'm sculpting or
I'm I don't know, building sand castles with children.
I think it's about like figure out what is it about.
Your vocation that makes you passionate and interested and
energized and then ladder that up to?
What is that about you? That is fundamental.
And then come back down to what are the other ways that you can
express that? And I think it's really fair.
Fair that we just give ourselves space.
Like one of the things, I mean, I love the topics that were
talking about and I love to read my thing that I do on the
weekends. As I read, fiction, fiction,
fiction fiction, and I listened to nonfiction during my commute.
So it's my way to feed my interest, but then also to have
some space that just gives me Rejuvenation and time away.
Because creatively, right? We need that Rejuvenation and
that time away desperately. Yeah, definitely.
I've read so many design books forward because I'm interviewing
authors at aiga. And so I find myself listening
to audiobooks for fun and things that are not designed related at
all of them, walking through the woods or on the beach, listening
to those things. And so I'm getting my step count
and I'm kind of getting some mental stimulation as well.
It's exactly if that's the integration of those interests.
And the other thing that's super interesting, is that feeds
creativity so deeply because all of all of those diverse ideas
come together in new ways. So I love it.
Yeah, so back to creativity, which you wrote this article
about published yesterday. What are some of the other
findings from that research? So really interesting findings
more creative. Pursuits tend to make you
happier. They tend to literally have
people experiencing more connection, more joy, more
senses of awe, which I and wonder tend to Us to feel
happier. They also tended to make a more
creative when we do more creating and when we feel more
happy that tends to create a reciprocal Loop.
And so we tend to want to create more when we are happy in a
creative Pursuit. We tend to get more blood flow
to some of the pleasure centers in our brain.
That's interesting. There's also, some lovely
research on exercise that, when you physically putting out
effort, you're Ting literally or figuratively.
And in this case literally you tend to feel happier because of
the Endorphin reliefs, but you also tend to get a creative
boost because your ego defenses scientifically, that's what
they're calling them. In that particular, study your
ego defenses. Go down, you're putting energy
toward the physical aspect, which allows your mind to wander
and connect unlike ideas. So all of those things have
everything to do with the pursuit of creativity and
happiness and the reciprocal. That occurs.
That's wonderful. You guys.
You mentioned energy a few times and I feel like that's something
I wanted to learn more about of how to manage and harness that
energy. So much of what we talk about in
Creative, Pursuits is a lot about like time management,
which is important, but I think the energy management part of
it, kind of Falls by the wayside.
So to be more mindful of our energy levels, or what energizes
us, how to kind of balance that out.
Is a really helpful lens to look at the stuff.
Yeah. I totally agree.
Free. I mean, you think about the Flow
State when you're in best creative mode, you lose track of
time and, you know, you get so much done.
Like I've literally said out loud.
I feel like I'm in a time work. Like I've got all this time and
all the time, sort of Falls away and you can get so much done and
accomplished so much. And I think that is about energy
and passion and interest like when you're really engaged in
something, you lose track of time in the best way and I think
it's super fair that we have things in our world.
That may feel like they sap us and we just need to plan for
those in terms of our circadian rhythms in terms of our temporal
rhythms. Like maybe I do more of my
focused, coordinative orchestrating work in the
morning, when my frontal lobe is freshest.
And then in the afternoon, when frontal lobe is tired, and some
of the defenses, go down. I can do my more creative work
or maybe I feel fresher in the morning and I want to do my more
creative work in the morning. Those are dependent on
individual preference. But I think that understanding
and reflection on your own, energizer's, what energizes you.
And when you're most energized, and bringing those together in
the ways that we plan. Our days, is a great idea, to
the extent, we can plan our days, we can't always, but when
we can Italy. And so, is there anything that I
haven't asked you about that? You wanted to share with our
listeners. I don't think.
So. This is just great.
I think we, I think we have this new opportunity right for
happiness. Again, not Pollyanna, you know,
always bonbons and butterflies happiness will ebb and flow.
But we have this opportunity to be together in new ways to work
in new ways to create in new ways and all of that can
contribute to a lot of fulfillment and joy, so what's
bringing you happiness right now?
Oh my gosh, I'm learning so many new things.
This is a great opportunity to be in this field because we're
all thinking, so consciously about work and how we work.
And where we were Work and why we work.
And with whom we work through the absence of normal rethinking
more consciously. So, I just feel like I'm
learning so much lately. I get really excited about
learning new things. Wonderful.
I've so excited that I've learned so much from you in this
interview. Just as a final call to action.
Can you tell our listeners where they can find you?
Find your work and stay in touch?
Yeah. Absolutely.
So you mentioned steel case and Steelcase.com.
We've got tons of really Cool, research on place on hybrid work
on the nature of work, and so I would suggest going there.
And then I met Tracy, Brower Jack, calm.
I'm on LinkedIn and all the other social platforms.
My book is the secrets to happiness at work, and you can
find me at forbes.com as well and reach out.
Like I can only think about a little bit because I'm human and
limited, but love new and diverse thinking.
So reach out if you see things differently or have anything to
add wonderful. Dr. Tracy Brower.
Thank you. For joining us on AIG restart.
And thank you for tuning in. Thank you.
Appreciate it.