When you hear your team say they are more productive working from home it means…
Sorry, got interrupted…What was I thinking about?
Yeah got it, focus.
“Hey, has client made the partial payment?”
“Whats the status of this bug?”
“Quick question, Are we having the client call today?”
“Is the issue resolved, the client called again?”
Early stage of startups is hustle and bustle. Almost everyone does everything. There is constant communication on status, tickets, features. Interruption is a norm.
And this way of working becomes the default even when there are designated people for each role.
While chaos looks like lot of work is being accomplished, it is unproductive for individuals, teams and customers.
When we have uninterrupted focus, the quality and quantity of work is much higher than with all so-called multitasking.
We can have only one train of thoughts at any time, when interruptions happen the cost of getting that back is high.
Right thing to do even for early stage startups is to let teams work without constant interruptions.
Basic process and systems will cut down unnecessary chatter.
So when you hear your team say they are more productive working from home, time to think about focus.
