An introduction to the social model of personalised work

Systems exist throughout our society as ways of organising people and shaping our fundamental beliefs about certain topics. Queuing, for example, is something we are proud to say we do well here in Britain. We don’t particularly enjoy queueing but we collectively respect the rules that accompany it, in the spirit of fairness and in honour of our established culture. 

Such systems are the invisible foundations of the societies we live in, and are therefore incredibly difficult to see, and even harder to change. However, human breakthroughs throughout history have taught us that our futures depend on us to evolve as the world around us changes. To dismantle outdated methods and establish new ones. Such change needs to become embedded in our lives in the same way as we have become accustomed to updating the operating software of our computers- routine updates to the basic operating system of life.

Through our partnership with the UKs leading disability charity, Scope, we have learned about such an important update-  the social model of disability. This is a view of the world, developed by disabled people to reframe disability. Scope explain that;

“People are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, like buildings not having accessible toilets. Or they can be caused by people's attitudes to difference, like assuming disabled people can't do certain things. The social model helps us recognise barriers that make life harder for disabled people. Removing these barriers creates equality and offers disabled people more independence, choice and control.”

This reframing of disability helps us to understand that the systems that underpin our society have been historically built to serve the majority of people but in so doing, will always be disabling for others. The way in which society is disabling for people is unique to each person - being a disabled person isn’t single-sized, it is highly individual. 

When we apply this same logic to our systems of work, we can see that a one-size-fits-all model of work that was designed for the majority of people more than 200 years ago, is increasingly disabling for people today. 

Ask 89% of working parents about their thoughts on rigid working hours and they will tell you that flexibility has a positive effect on their wellbeing. Parents with access to flexibility are half as likely to have had their mental health negatively impacted due to the difficulty accessing childcare.  86% of parents also say that access to their preferred workstyle (flexible working pattern) makes them more productive at their job, and 9 in10 parents said they would feel more loyal to an employer who offered them flexible working opportunities. (source)

The social model of disability has been revolutionary in driving legislative and cultural change to improve the lives of disabled people. A similar revolution to our system of work is necessary - a social model of work designed by workers that would see one-sized work replaced with personalised work. It is time to add personalised working onto the list of features present in our next update to the operating system of life.

In contrast to the disabling nature of traditional, one-sized working, the personalisation of work for each person is enabling. For everyone. 9 out of 10 people want flexibility. (source)

Personalising work for each person can bring significant benefits to the millions of people currently excluded by one-sized working norms. It will also benefit the country through its impact on economic activity - bringing people back into the workforce. More importantly, it will bring measurable improvements to people’s overall quality of life and work as well as significant performance improvements for the employers who embrace it, such as improved innovation. Research by McKinsey & Company found that in recent years, companies that were able to increase their innovation generated economic profit that was 2.4x higher than other companies (source)

Building work on the foundations of personal choice increases individual autonomy for workers who have more say in how their work is done. This level of autonomy is proven to positively impact motivation and personal performance. Those dependent workers of the past become independent workers of the future, benefiting from significant improvements to their personal wellbeing and productivity. (source)

It doesn’t end there. Increasing independence among individuals also benefits team performance, through a greater level of dependability. Members of teams are able to trust each other more, which can shift their relationships from a state of co-dependence to a state of inter-dependence. This new level of human collaboration improves team performance (source)

So, there you have it. A socially-responsible update to the operating system of life that might just bring about a performance revolution at work as well.