Day 25 — The Most Important Things I Realized in 2020 (COVID-19)
By: Go Nakakomi
Tags: Remote Working, Henngeadvent2020, Henngeblog, Work Culture, Trust

Our team members (drawn by one of our members)

If you ask anybody what was the most significant thing that happened in 2020, I think everybody will answer COVID-19. I think nobody expected 2020 to be like this. About a year ago, I remember talking about who won the tickets to view the Tokyo Olympics. Nobody could predict that the Tokyo Olympics would be postponed.

Still, today, when you travel, many countries require you to quarantine for a certain amount of time. This year, since I went to Japan 2 times, I had to quarantine myself at home twice. In Taiwan, I had to do it twice and both the times, it had to be 2 weeks so I was not allowed to go outside for 4 weeks in total. During my quarantine, I stayed at home, not going out. (In Taiwan, my location is monitored by the GPS in my mobile phone.)

It sounds tough being locked in the house for 4 weeks. However, for me, it provided me time to think about many things on a deeper level and the whole period felt somewhat like meditating. Of course, in reality, I worked from home and interacted with other members online so that I didn’t do meditation in real meaning. But the whole process of staying at home not going out, and thinking deeper felt like a meditation.

Things got lost by COVID-19

Thanks to HENNGE which uses SaaS for every business process, I didn’t have any trouble working from home. I could do all my tasks as normal. This is amazing but it is not new. In recent years, I have been on business trips to many places so I was often in a situation where I needed to work remotely. From that time itself, it was proven that I could work from anywhere.

Although I might have worked remotely many times, most of the time, I was in the office (either Taipei or Shibuya) and I regularly had interactions with members. However, when I worked from my home, I felt that there was no vibration. When I’m in the office, even though I might not talk with the person, I can feel the vibration or sense some feelings whether the person is in a good mood or having some trouble. This feeling is important for a manager because if I sense those vibrations in a negative way, I will try to talk with the person to make sure that there is no trouble. Of course, there are times when my instinctive feelings are wrong. And, there are times when I don’t feel anything. Actually, it doesn’t matter whether my sense is correct or not. What matters is that that kind of sense triggers me to initiate some communication with members.

But, when everyone is working from home in COVID-19, I felt like I was in a dark room, unable to sense anything. As a manager, this was a scary thing. Fortunately in Taiwan, since there were fewer effects of COVID-19, I could see members at least once a week. And, this made it a lot easier for me to sense their situation. Of course, I will ask questions or status directly if there is something I really want to be answered.

Process vs outcome

There are two types of goals we can set. Process goals and outcome goals. We often say process goals are goals for actions that we can control. Working out every day is one example of process goals. On the other hand, outcome goals are goals that can not be controlled. Losing 3 kg in 1 month can not be controlled. There might be great possibilities to achieve if the person worked out every day. However, it doesn’t mean it is guaranteed to be achieved.

The key is, if there are right process goals that are achieved consistently, there will be great possibilities of achieving outcome goals. Today, many managers are conducting 1 on 1 meeting with their members. I think one of the purposes of 1 on 1 meeting is to check whether members are doing the right process.

Sometimes, we do get a big customer suddenly and we are able to achieve outcome goals. And, will get praises for achieving goals. However, without knowing why, meaning without knowing the cause or process of achieving, I feel it is just dumb luck that can not be repeated. Required to set higher outcome goals based on dumb luck is just a disaster.

In order to become confident about why we could achieve outcome goals, being confident about the relationship between process and outcome is important. But, the work from home environment caused by COVID-19 made it difficult for managers to check the process. This sometimes made it difficult to evaluate how the outcome came out.

Importance of “Track and Trust, Rather Than Restrict & Suspect”

From 2019 before COVID-19, HENNGE states in one of our cultures, HENNGE Way to “Track & Trust, Rather Than Restrict & Suspect”. I felt this is a great mindset statement during COVID-19. I think managers can have tons of reasons to be suspicious of their members. But for us, we should trust our members. And I think to track means to make sure the process is correct. As long as key metrics of the process look good, I believe how or where our members work doesn’t matter.

In the world after COVID-19 where flexible working styles become the new normal, I think trust will be a key factor to bond together as a team and as a company.

By the way, there is an argument that trust is different from reliability. I agree that reliability and trustworthiness are different as this blog article “Being A Better Leader: The Difference Between Reliability And Trust” explains by referring to quotes of Simon Sinek “Simply doing everything that you promised you’re going to does not mean that people will trust you, it just means that you’re reliable. And we all have friends who are total screw-ups and yet we still trust them. Trust comes from a sense of common values and belief.” Indeed, a machine can be described as reliable but we never say the machine is trustworthy. Furthermore, as this article explains, I agree with the concept that people can take more risks if those people are backed up by trusts.

Spending time worth it

Previously, all the training sessions of headquarters for newly joined members who just graduated from universities were held through physical meetings. Since I’m in Taiwan most of the time, I had fewer chances of participating in those training sessions. And, sometimes I held mini sessions when I went back to the headquarters. Because of COVID-19, all the training sessions become online. And because of this, I was able to hold these sessions for newly joined members, regularly.

Some people might say holding a session for every newly joined member when they enter is inefficient. Spending 2 hours of my work time for a new graduate is not cheap. However, I strongly believe this investment of assigning me to hold a session for 2 hours is definitely worth it. First of all, compared to the investment we are providing for the future potential of new graduates, my 2 hours are really cheap. Secondly, it is easier to remember names if I hold a session one by one. Plus, I can ask supplementary questions to make me remember the person well. Lastly, I believe spending the same time together builds trust.

There are only limited things I can do by myself. That’s the reason we always need a team to do it. In order to have a well-functioning team, we need to trust each other. And, since we don’t know how we will form a team in the future, building trust beforehand always helps.

Furthermore, as a person who has less time to interact with headquarters members, this session made it easier to start conversations with the new graduates when I went back to headquarters for a business trip.

In Conclusion

What are the most important things I realized in 2020? The answer to this question is, the warmth, vibration, and trust of people which connect us together. Unfortunately, COVID-19 forced us to work from different places. By missing the warmth and vibration of the people, I realized how important those elements are for working together. Plus, because we became apart physically, I realized that trust is really a crucial element to stay connected.

Thank you for reading and hope you have a great HENNGE day ahead. Merry Christmas!