WorkLife Balance; Integration?
by Adam Chan

WorkLife Integration is a trusting relationship between the staff and organization. It is an exchange of freedom and responsibilities. It is aligning personal vision and the organization’s shared vision.

Passion drives both work and life. Sure there are people you have come across as possessing little or no passion in life. This largely due to the inaccurate paradigm these people hold. They may be holding a well constructed Singapore street map but trying to navigate in Chicago.

The Journey Towards WorkLife Integration
At the core, everyone wish to be able to perform his work at the time it matters most, right? Fundamentally, time is not controlled by us and this would nullify the mentioned wish, right? There are numerous books written on seizing control, managing the 24hours you have, etc. I should share with you at this point of time that I am not a proponent on the “control” paradigm. The simple reason is control will revert us back to fixation subconsciously. That is not what we want to do. While I don’t advocate control, that doesn’t mean we leave things to chance. Instead of living by a time table that most of us have failed to adhere to, let view WorkLife Integration as guiding principles towards blending the seemingly unmixable Work and Life.

Principles of avoidance are common in this world. For example for dieting, most advices prompt the subject to avoid certain food and adhere to certain regimes in order to succeed. We know all to well the chances of making it. Another common principle is illuminating the wrong-doings. This doesn’t encourage the practitioners to do better but reminding them their faults. This isn’t a fine feeling to carry especially when we are trying to climb a hill. Such principles act as laws to expose our imperfections, moreover we set up these laws only to realize we can’t keep up with them. In essence, both principles have failed to liberate the practitioners or subjects. It does little to provide any passion for us to pursue the vision.

Instead, we should create a vision that will pull us towards it. Extracting from Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline, the chapter on shared vision;

In the movie Spartacus, an adaptation of the story of a Roman gladiator/slave who led an army of slaves in a uprising in 71 B.C. They defeated the Roman legions twice but were conquered by the general Marcus Crassus after a long siege and battle. Crassus told the thousand army slaves; “You have been slaves, you will be slaves again. But you will be spared from crucifixion if you turn the slave, Spartacus over to me.” After a long pause, Spartacus stood up and claim identity as Spartacus. Another man next to him claimed identity too. Following that, the entire slave army stood up and claim identity as Spartacus.

We could attribute the response to Spartacus’s leadership. However, underlying his ability to inspire lie the shared visions of gaining freedom and not to be enslaved again that were so compelling to everyone, at all cost every slave responded by standing up, a reflection of being pulled towards shared vision.

Rallying everyone’s commitment is imperatives for WorkLife Integration to succeed. Leaders play the critical role in endorsing the principles as the beacons whilst the organization is navigating towards the vision. Setting a clear vision of WorkLife Integration can never be overly emphasized. Using widely accepted vision statements will not only be forgotten but it may even turn into a cliché. Without passion in the statement, there will be no visible actions. Since blending Work and Life is controversial, the vision statement should provide similar edge to keep the passion alive and it must sticks. Consider this; “coming to work late but knocking off early.” Isn’t this a vision to go for, to be attracted to?

Any freshly created vision statement is like the having skeletons, we need to add meat for its completion. It is therefore necessary to form the guiding principles of the mentioned vision statements; this will prevent any mutation in the future. Below are some general principles that will most appropriately describe WorkLife Integration.

- Trust in return for freedom
- Leading and Following by principles
- Focus on where to go, not what to avoid
- More inquiry, less advocacy
- Commitment, not compliance
- Encourage personal mastery in every staff

These are not all there are; the fundamental to living WorkLife Integration is not applying control, setting up fixated boundaries, having thousand of guidelines, non-stop scrutiny, etc. The basis is about freedom to exercise responsibilities that is built on the foundation of trust.

Reflecting It In Work Processes
Having general principles can help to create the excitement for this new vision also the impetus for people to get committed. However it will soon fade away if the visibility of WorkLife Integration is not reflected in the daily work processes and procedures. Therefore, it is important to look into the existing work routines and make necessary adjustments to create the visibility. Here are a few examples,

• Introduce flexible work hours
• Team accountability versus individual
• Organize lifestyle related activities
• Gazette time for staff development and personal mastery
• Give recognition to personal mastery achievements
Again the above list is not exhaustive, it is important that personal choice is respected as the basis. Certainly living in the non-ideal world, it is important not to convert personal ideals into expectations. This will send our minds back to stone-age where things are as a matter of fact. As we move with time, the notion of working will inevitably evolve but the guiding principles towards work and life should not change. Let’s live a life with passion and not fixation.

Prev 1 2 3