Recently, I wrote a blog about how the process of reframing might invite Amazon to ask some better questions about their return to office goals, leading to better ideas than “everyone back to the office!”
I hope Amazon might give it a go. But let’s be honest, the odds of the company changing course seems low. So that means Amazon employees are facing a real and frustrating situation in January that they need to address.
In our work, we refer to a common pitfall of problem framing called – the gravity problem.
A gravity problem is a problem framed around a space where you as an individual, have no agency. The question that is on many Amazon employees’ minds is: “How can we make Amazon reverse this decision?” Unless you have the ear of Amazon leadership or are in a position to organize a strike, this is a gravity problem. For employees impacted by the decision, there isn’t much that can be done to turn the Amazon ship around. Ranting and raving lets us blow off steam. It can feel good. But it doesn’t address the underlying needs we have in an actionable way.
So what do we do?
In the face of a gravity problem, we start with acceptance.
“In the short term, I cannot change that Amazon is going to make us all come back 5 days a week.”
Accepting doesn’t mean that we like the decision, agree with it, or that it can’t be undone in the long run.
It means we acknowledge, in this moment, that changing the situation isn’t possible given our existing resources.
Once we’ve accepted, we get to frame new problems, around our underlying needs. Here are some underlying needs that might be driving emotions around returning to the office:
I would like to spend little to no unproductive time in transit
I need space for deep and focused work
I need affordable housing (and therefore have moved far from the office location)
I need to be able to attend to medical and personal needs
I need to collaborate effectively with my co workers
I would like to get to know my coworkers and be friends (or at least friendly)
I would like balance in my life and to have time for things outside work
If we take that first need – I would like to spend little to no unproductive time in transit – we might frame some questions around it:
How might I use my commute productively?
How might I shorten my commute?
How might I connect with others during my commute?
How might I work productively given my commute?
How might I incorporate my commute into my work day?
How might I use my commute more effectively to improve my life?
How might I make my commute fun?
How might I maintain balance and have time for things outside work given my commute?
Now we are in the space of agency.
You can feel how ideas come out of the questions above more easily…
I could listen to podcasts and books on my commute
We could move to recording meeting audio and I could listen to meetings on my commute
We could enact phone meetings during commune hours as a group practice
I could bike to work
I could take public transit or Uber and do work in transit
I could call friends during my commute
I could use my commute for mindful meditation
I could use my commute as conscious ritual to stop working and step into personal time
And as we generate ideas and questions, we get clearer on what the real problem is.
The commute question is really just part of the underlying need for balance for me.
So lets look at that last question –
How might I maintain balance and have time for things outside work, given my commute?
This framing points to the need for boundaries, given the finite time we have during the day, and might lead to ideas like:
I could tell my colleagues that I check email only during work hours.
I could have a work phone and a personal phone and turn off the work phone on my commute
I could book non-work activities near work during peak commute hours and travel after traffic has abated
I could work with my group to create norms around when we send emails (not after 7pm, nor before 7am)
I could carpool with friends so I get social time in transit.
The act of framing questions where we have agency is freeing. It allows us to take control, even in situations where constraints we don’t like have been imposed upon us.
I hope that some folks will continue to tackle the “How might we get Amazon to reverse course?” question, as I agree with the Forbes article that hybrid work yields superior results. But in the mean time, for those of us that can’t turn that ship, give reframing a try. It might help.
– Kathy Davies CEO, DYL Consulting
