[Do It Now! note#143] Struggle for Team Time Reduction Part 1: Goal Setting

How are you doing? This is Hayashi.

The other day, when I did my quarterly review for my life management from January to March, I set "realizing time reduction within the team" as my goal for the next period, April to June.

Since the 2024 fiscal year started this week and the annual working hour count has been reset to zero, I thought this was a good opportunity to rethink how we work.

I have been working under a discretionary labor system for several years, and the idea behind the system is that even if you work only one hour a day, you are evaluated if you produce solid results.

Originally, with telework becoming widespread, I moved far away from the workplace. Considering picking up and dropping off my child at daycare and childcare, I felt that being at home during the chaotic time after the child returns home—dinner, bath, and bedtime—was better. Therefore, I felt the benefits of discretionary labor and flextime in terms of the high degree of freedom in splitting work hours.

However, I realized that I can achieve higher performance not only by having high freedom in work hours but also by allocating work to times when my brain works best, such as finishing tasks all at once in the morning when I want to focus on something.

If it were just my own way of working, I could probably continue to improve it if I manage my self-discipline and routines well, but reducing time including team members seems quite difficult.

Although society and companies are increasingly saying "let's reduce overtime work," there is surprisingly little realistic information on "how I tried this and working hours actually decreased."
Because there is so little, sharing real-time efforts and trial-and-error processes so they can be observed at fixed points becomes a rare value.

For me, regarding the management of team members' working hours, which I might otherwise think I have to leave to force majeure like "busy or slack seasons," if I think we can control it to some extent depending on how we face it, it could become an interesting experimental result.

Therefore, I will deliver the trial and error of a small team taking on the challenge of "reforming how we have people work" as a "Team Time Reduction Struggle" for the 2024 fiscal year, aiming for about once a month.

April 2, 2024: Telling members I want to reduce time

First, I gathered my team members and told the three of them why I seriously want to realize time reduction within the team, using a simple discussion paper.

My team members are a senior expert who has been in charge of the project for several years longer than me, a second-year employee who joined as a new graduate in 2023, and a veteran employee who joined mid-career last summer.

We talked about various things, but the main points I consider for wanting to reduce time are the following three.

1. Organizations where overtime work is normalized are not attractive from the outside

2. To increase productivity, shortening time is the most immediate

3. The value that "just working long hours = being unable to work" should spread even more within the company

For the first point, I talked about how "it is precisely us who decide whether the team atmosphere looks good or bad from the outside. I cannot forgive myself for being in a team that others do not feel is attractive."

For the second point, as I touched upon in my recent article on leadership, I talked about the idea that "busy people have no choice but to choose their work, and in the process of selecting work, they become able to focus on work with greater results."

As explained in detail in the article below, it is the perspective that "people who have a lot of time and are idle do not develop the habit of prioritizing work, so they cannot grow, whereas those with limited time have to prioritize and decide for themselves, so they can grow."

The third point is similar to the first, but it is about the idea that from the perspective of the company, the value that "working long hours every day without distinction is uncool" will spread more in the future.

I want to create a team that is recognized as a "group of professionals" by the company, customers, and partner companies. There are definitely moments when you have to push yourself for the sake of growth or critical moments in work, so it is important to do it until you are satisfied when you do it, but I talked about "let's be cool ourselves" who can rest thoroughly when it is time to rest.

Team member reactions

After I finished conveying my thoughts and feelings, the members also shared various things they had been thinking about.

The point I felt was most well-received was the idea that “a strong start is important.” I feel it was good for our first meeting that we were able to break this down into a concrete goal: aiming for no one to have more than 45 hours of overtime per month during April to June, right after the start of the fiscal year.

The start of the fiscal year is the perfect opportunity to reset one's mindset, with company-wide kickoffs and new members joining.

My team did not have a culture of normalized overtime or particularly long working hours last fiscal year.
However, I hope that by simply being a little more conscious of working hours—which we might otherwise take for granted—it will trigger changes in how we work, such as "let's make that one-hour meeting 30 minutes" or "let's clarify the agenda and the desired outcome before starting a meeting."

It was also good that we agreed to be conscious of each other's working styles and to speak up if we see someone working long hours.
It is not about collective responsibility, but since this goal is for "everyone on the team to have no more than 45 hours of overtime per month," it is something we must achieve as a team.

By recognizing this as a "team goal" rather than an "individual goal," I hope we can foster an atmosphere where we think of ways to improve our work methods together and encourage each other to take time off. (Last year, it was just me consciously taking long breaks and nagging everyone to take time off!)

To make this a continuous effort

We decided to review our working styles from April again after the Golden Week holidays in May.

We will look back on what tasks took too long and if there are any ways to improve our workflows, but the most important thing is that "if we can all achieve under 45 hours of overtime in April (and closer to zero is even better), we should celebrate it to the fullest and praise each other until it's embarrassing." That is what I believe.

Using this small success as leverage, how can we become a strong team where everyone thinks about how to shorten hours and produce better results?

To do that, it is important that we get carried away and enjoy the process of shortening our hours.
If it isn't fun, it won't last.

For the May meeting, we also decided that the person who worked the longest will bring snacks for the review session, and I hope we can enjoy ourselves and have a lively discussion.

And, as part of my job, I will actively share our challenges toward achieving shorter working hours within the company.

I hope to document our efforts throughout this year on an ongoing basis and share them with other teams so that we are recognized as a "team that achieved shorter working hours," and in doing so, encourage others who are struggling with the same issues.

We have only just set our goals and decided to take on this challenge as a team.
I hope to share our progress, including the things that don't go well, so please look forward to it!

Well then, have a great day today.
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