Silicon Valley is famous for its boom-and-bust cycles, and it sure seems like we’re in a bust phase right now. If you’re not actively managing a layoff, you’re likely leading people who are worrying about one or helping someone deal with one. 

We’ve been through a few of these cycles ourselves and know how challenging it can be to lead stressed and distracted teams. Read on for some professional skills development ideas from our popular workshop “Finding Resilience in the Face of Change” to help your team navigate during this difficult time.

A Model for Navigating Change

We like frameworks and we’re process people, so we put together this flowchart to describe a path through the uncertainty that comes with change.

When a stressful change comes along, we always recommend helping your team understand what’s happening and why. Understanding the change lays the groundwork for them to manage their responses in a more positive and less stressful manner.  

In the context of a layoff, it clearly matters and is not subject to influence by your team.  Therefore, we’d like to focus on: 1) reframing the experience to find some positives and 2) acknowledging and accepting the new reality.

How do you reframe a layoff?

Is it possible to see a different perspective that highlights some benefit or positive outcome in a layoff? That’s a tall order. 

But let’s say that your org didn’t directly lose headcount due to the layoff, but reductions elsewhere in the company impacted their responsibilities and project assignments.

• Celebrate the successes before turning to new activities and challenges. This helps them step back and remember what they’re capable of.

• Identify new skills and experiences they’ll have in their new assignments. Maybe they’ll have a chance to work with a new tool or technology, learning a valuable new skill. Or perhaps they’ll expand their networks and resources by working with new people.

This isn’t about trying to sugarcoat the situation. It’s looking for the big picture that enables you and your team to keep perspective and turn an unwelcome change into something that, if not positive, is at least neutral.

What does it look like to acknowledge and move forward?

Reframing only goes so far. A layoff is a big deal. Everyone will likely experience shock and loss. 

• Acknowledge exactly how things will be different. What have you and your team lost? Guide them through those losses through private and group discussions. Allow yourself and your team the space to experience whatever emotions come up. Consider creating a non-work-related activity that gives the team a chance to productively express themselves.

• Explore worst-case scenarios and do some contingency planning. One group of project managers we recently worked with was able to put some of their distraction and worry aside when they realized the most likely outcomes wouldn’t be all bad.

• Help your team move forward. When you model “It is what it is” and focus on making the best of the current situation, your team often will follow. For example, if a systems project was discontinued because of the layoff, you may have to improve existing processes without the planned technology. Focus on making those process improvements the best they can be to move the team forward. 

Change is indeed constant and inevitable—especially in tech. Helping others understand the change and focus on what’s next can go a long way toward bouncing back.  

We want your thoughts! Do you have specific examples where you’ve helped your team navigate an unwanted change? Share your story below!

According to layoffs.fyi over 142,000 U.S. employees lost their jobs so far in 2022 and it is climbing every day.  Cnchbase News estimates that over 85,000 of them are in the U.S. tech sector as of today (the links are updated - click through for current estimates).  This may be a first major downturn for some.  For others of us we look at each other and say, “here we go again.”  

As the impacts of layoffs hit, typically the workload of those remaining increases.  Many companies make efforts to prioritize, but as we saw from the whiplash of firing and hiring at Twitter (as a hyperbolic example), reality does not often match theory.  Layoffs are often tied to reorgs and uncertainty. Flush off a full employment economy, “the great resignation” and summer of “quiet quitting,” it may feel like the idea of a balanced life was a blip.  

This is the time to be ruthlessly efficient with your choices.  There’s no reason to pull late nights or eat at your desk.  You deserve a balanced life.  

CWTC's Top 5 time protectors

1) Ruthlessly Prioritize

Push back on your manager and their manager.  Push back on yourself (if you’re one of those people who find it difficult to say no).  I used to prepare for these types of talks with my manager by creating a list of my priorities and literally “drawing the line” of what I could and could not realistically accomplish in a given time period.  

Another way to prioritize is to make it practice to ask for input on whether something should be traded…not added when someone asks you to help them out.

This can be particularly difficult when you’re in a cross-functional role.  How frustrating can it be when you depend on someone who is not in your direct work group and they follow my advice?  This is the time to tie your needs to the strategy and priorities of the organization as whole. 

2) Be a Project Manager

We lifelong project managers joke that “life is a project.”  Right?!  Make the up front investment of time to plan out your deliverables so you have a realistic view of what it’s going to take.  Don’t stop at estimating how much of your time it may take, but also include people you will depend on from your team and other teams. 

What if you have unknowns?  Put placeholders in.  The goal is to have a sense of the big picture.  Across all of your priorities and not to get caught up in the minutia of planning. 

3) Eliminate Meetings

Be ruthless about your meeting choices.  If you’re asked to attend a meeting, ask yourself if you’re adding value?  If not, decline. Can someone else represent you?  If so, decline.  Can you provide feedback through an asynchronous document?  If so, propose it!  If live collaboration is critical, then keep the meeting.

If you are creating a meeting, keep the invitation to those who add value.  If someone wants to join you to stay in the know, record the meeting or take summary notes that you can share afterwards. 

4) Turn off those Notifications

It’s easy to get distracted by Slack, texts, emails and the like.  Block time for meeting free, heads down time to focus. I turn off all non-critical notifications and set aside time to scan and catch up later.  

You might even choose a channel for truly urgent requests.  For example, you could use Slack for everyday comms and train people to use your cell phone for urgent texts.  Let them know you’ll be out of pocket.

One last thing - I like to acknowledge receipt of information, but really. Do you need to? if there's action required, take and and don't file it for later. That helps you and reassures the requestor.

5) Take a Break

There's nothing better than taking a move break, even if it's a short walk around the block (or the office/house if the weather isn’t cooperative).  Fresh air does a body and a mind good.  You’ll be sharper when you return to your desk, I promise. 

I'm not making this up. Many studies have shown that walking boosts creativity.  Check out this one from Stanford University, which found that “A person's creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.”  I’m a biker and I get all kinds of creative ideas when out on the road by myself. 

I love efficiency and could go on and on, but 5 seems like a nice round number.  Pick a one or two to try over the next week and see if it works for you.  Maybe even come up with a few of your own or chat with some co-workers about what they’re doing to stay sane. 

Bottom line?  Be strong!  Be careful with your commitments!  Protect that vibe of a balanced life.  You deserve it.  #worklifebalance #balancedlife

Debbie was interviewed by the cool people at Go Solo. Check out what she says about our customers, our accomplishments, and her best advice for starting, running and growing a business!

https://gosolo.subkit.com/cw-training-and-consulting/

Debbie here! I've worked with enough tech companies and startups to know that projects these days have to move fast and be ready to change course on a dime. While PMI (Project Management Institute) style planning is a good fit for many industries, the question "Why bother creating and estimating tasks?" is firmly targeted at those of you who work and thrive in highly changing environments. Why not just plow through the project?

Really? Might there be people (like perhaps your stakeholders) who want to know when your project will be done? Does anyone care if you're on track or not? Are there competing priorities? Is there a deadline? If the answers to these questions are "no," then kill the project. Otherwise, invest a little time to identify, estimate and manage your project tasks at the outset.

Expect your first swag at tasks to be a bit fuzzy at first. You can get clarity by digging into what the tasks are and how long they might take. It's not realistic for anyone to think that you're going to be perfectly accurate. Like anything, you will refine the project as the team delves into the work.

How detailed? How far should you break down the project work? A common rule of thumb is to break the work down to the level at which you can estimate effort. Another answer is, "it depends on your role." As a project manager, I like to get to the level at which I understand dependencies. As a team member, I break it down into more detailed "chunks of work" and create a hierarchy of tasks using an outline. I keep going until I feel like I understand what it will take to do the work.

By the way, I never communicate task level detail to leadership. Leaders usually want milestones, a nice summary of the tasks being managed by the team.

How do you estimate how long tasks will take? You have your tasks, now it's time to estimate how long they will take. I leverage past experience and projects to make my estimates - whether it's in my toolkit of experience or someone else's. I nearly always learn something new when I talk to peers and experts to help me with my estimates.

One common estimating technique is called "t-shirt sizing," borrowed from Agile project management. The idea is to make your best guess at whether the effort is small, medium or large before assigning detailed estimates. I strongly suggest that you define the t-shirt sizes at the outset. For example, Small is 1-2 days worth of effort, Medium is a week and Large is unclear but at least 2 weeks. T-shirt sizing is often done by a small, knowledgeable group.

Finally, don't confuse effort vs. duration. Be clear and consistent. Are your estimates for hands on time (effort) or calendar time (duration across the time available to do the work)? Project management software helps you manage both.

Are you done? NOT YET. Identifying the project tasks and estimating the effort and duration is just the start. However, if you do this well, the rest is easy.

I used a shed project as an example in earlier posts. It applies here as well. Task estimation may not seem like a big deal for building a shed. However, if you live with the potential of rain and snow it may be very important. How long will it take to order the supplies? How long will it take to build the foundation? The structure? Even the smallest of projects has many nuances and dependencies that impact how long it will take.

As my partner in crime, Jenny Warila, and I say, "If you go slowly to go fast, then you will deliver higher quality with less spin in the end." The art is in the level of detail you go into as you break down the work and estimate the effort. Not too refined, but not too high level either!

As they say, LIFE IS A PROJECT. Go practice!