How we work: a summary

Part two

How we work: a summary

by Felicity de Lang

07 Jun 2021 · 5 min read

Our approach to how we work attempts to balance our team's desire for flexibility with our commitments to each other and our clients. Providing clear expectations around where and when we work is an important foundation to get right.

The experience of how we work - as a team and with our clients - is at the heart of our business, as it is many others. We believe that creating a great collaborative experience leads to better quality work and, of course, a better time had by all.

Our approach to how we work attempts to balance our team's desire for flexibility with our commitments to each other and our clients. Providing clear expectations around where and when we work is an important foundation to get right.

Guiding principles

We hope that our guiding principles for how we work allows our team to make decisions themselves that make sense and that align with our values.

Wherever we are, our priority is to provide exceptional client experiences
We are better through collaboration and know that good communication and respect for each other’s time is key to that.
We will always look for ways to improve by optimising our approach and producing work in an efficient way.
We want to remain connected as a team and show our care and support for each other.
We trust everyone to do a great job and provide flexibility and autonomy to work in a way that works for you. We expect this is met with taking responsibility to reliably deliver what you’ve committed to.

Where we work

How great is it to be able to ask yourself the question, “where will I best get this work done today?” We want to be intentional with that.

We know that for many of us, working from home (or a cafe or co-working space) provides great focus. The ability to work in this way also allows flexibility to carry out other commitments in our lives.

InlightHQ offers a great space for collaborative efforts, creativity, and connection opportunities as well as a focused space for people who like to mix up their environments and switch into "work mode."

When is it better to work in person?

Our office is great for in-person meetings; with our team, and with clients. We've toyed for a while now facilitating hybrid meetings and have decided that they suck and best to be avoided when we can. That means, for the most part, we're all in (person) or all-remote (even if in the office together). There a range of activities (e.g. road mapping, client kick-offs, and showcases) that if invited to, we expect people to travel into the office for.

Staying connected as a team is also something that's important and we want to continue to prioritise. We’d like to see everyone in the office at least 12 days/quarter, which can be worked however works best for people. There is a great deal of flexibility with how people spread that time across each quarter; 1 day/week, half days, blocks of time.

Extending ‘work from home’ to ‘work from anywhere’ opens up a range of opportunities. It's great to be able to consider tacking an extra few days onto that weekend getaway and work from regional Vic or - when it’s a possibility again - working for an extended period interstate or overseas.

Work from anywhere requests should be first self-assessed; is there any impact on the team, clients, project, and the work? And then cross-checked with anyone impacted or often as a courtesy to those that you're working with. Lengthier requests are still assessed on a case-by-case basis, understanding what anyone involved would need to do to make it work.

When we work

We have contracted our core hours to allow people greater flexibility in structuring their days.

The core hours of 10am to 3pm is when everyone is available for meetings.

This change is a big adjustment and something that we will introduce on a trial basis to make sure it works for everyone. Two-way flexibility will be a key part of its success and imagine that discussing, and agreeing, when it might make sense to meet outside of core hours, e.g, a client meeting in another timezone or a longer collaborative effort like roadmapping.

Tools like Slack and Calendar will also be crucial in helping everyone know when to expect people to be available and asynchronous communication will continue to play an important role in our changing expectation of how we work.

We know that a key part of this is to keep experimenting and adjusting how we work, responding to what makes sense for us as a team as well as acknowledging the central role that trust and collective responsibility play in making this work.

About the author

Felicity de Lang

Performance and Culture Lead

Felicity de Lang | Performance and Culture Lead

Felicity leads the search for finding great people to join the team. She is passionate about Inlight's culture and in creating an environment where people collaborate and produce quality work. That means leveraging the different perspectives and skills of our team and creating experiences that connect people’s work and interests to Inlight's purpose, generating shared meaning and value.

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