The “working environment” is a factor that greatly affects the ease of working. If the environment is well organized, productivity will increase, and the motivation of each individual and the quality of work will improve.
Consider the “working environment” from two perspectives: the psychological environment (e.g., sense of security, stress, and psychological safety at work) and the physical environment (e.g., office layout and telecommuting environment).
Psychological environment
Since the psychological environment is an invisible element of how each individual feels and interacts with each other, the criteria for what constitutes a good environment also vary from person to person. But there are things we can do as a team or company to improve the psychological environment in the workplace.
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Ensure psychological safety
Psychological safety has been discussed in the Hataraku LENS article (What does psychological safety mean in the end?), a workplace where people feel they can express their opinions freely and are not blamed for their mistakes is an environment that ensures psychological safety. If you are unable to ask for help when you don’t understand something, or if you find a mistake but are not allowed to express it, your work efficiency will decrease and productivity will also decline. On the other hand, if you express a completely different opinion and everyone accepts it from different angles, you can say, “I didn’t know there was such a way of thinking! and if everyone can accept opinions from various angles and come up with an answer that fits the situation, it will probably lead to a solution to the problem.
relationship of mutual trust
Trust in a team or workplace is directly related to psychological safety. If a relationship of trust has been established, people will naturally be willing to cooperate and help each other even if someone makes a mistake. Also, when different opinions are expressed or mistakes are pointed out to them, they will accept them as “constructive feedback” instead of taking them negatively as “criticism, I believe that this can also lead to skill improvement.
Workplace Culture
Communication is essential for both ensuring psychological safety and building trust. However, if you are busy with work every day, you may not have time or the inclination to have conversations outside of work. Especially when working remotely, there is a physical distance between you and your colleagues, so unless you make a conscious effort to communicate, it is likely that days may go by without you having a conversation at all. To prevent this from happening, it is important for teams and companies to create opportunities for communication such as chats and 1-on-1s, and to have a workplace culture that creates an atmosphere where people can talk to each other.
Securing a place to stay
I believe that feeling that “you belong” in a team or company is a motivating factor in doing one’s job, and is a factor that influences performance and productivity. In other words, “a place to belong” is the value of one’s existence, which depends on whether or not one feels that one can contribute to the team and the company. If you are involved in work that is directly related to sales and you are able to achieve your goals, it is easy to see that you are contributing, but if the results are difficult to see, your self-esteem may be low and you may feel that you are not contributing and that you do not belong. However, if the results of the work are difficult to see, self-evaluation may be low, and the employee may feel that he or she is not making a contribution or that he or she does not belong.
Physical Environment
A good physical environment is also necessary to improve productivity. In an office, if the workspace, such as one’s desk, is not a space where one can concentrate, distractions can reduce work efficiency, and the comfortable temperature setting of the air conditioning may be a problem for different people.
Since mgn is a remote work, each person is expected to set up his or her own work environment. Room and space must be reserved within each person’s living space, but the company will buy a PC, as well as a desk, chair, and monitor, if desired. Some people use an elevating desk, some use two external monitors, and some find it easier to work with one external monitor, etc. Each person sets up their own work environment to make it comfortable for them.
mgn also uses Gather, a virtual office, where we have created a space similar to a real office, including a space where everyone can always gather, your own private room, and a space used for meetings. Sometimes it is better to communicate via text using Slack or other tools, but sometimes it is easier to communicate in real time, so depending on the situation, we can communicate in either way. An environment where people can communicate either way, depending on the situation, is important not only for productivity but also for building trust, and I think this leads to a better psychological environment.
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What you can do to improve your working environment
At mgn, we have a time once a month for everyone to make decisions and discuss company matters together, and this is also a good communication opportunity. I believe that by creating a physical environment and opportunities that facilitate communication, by each accepting diverse opinions, and by doing things consciously or naturally to cooperate with everyone, it will become a culture of the company and the team. As mentioned in a previous article, mgn has a “Principle”The creation of this system may also be a factor in keeping everyone working in the same direction every day. The creation of this may also be a factor in our ability to work day after day with everyone looking in the same direction.
I hope that all mgn members will continue to communicate with each other in order to create a better environment, both psychologically and physically, depending on each situation.
