Can pushing harder truly lead to better results, or does it risk burnout instead? Ben Heath delves into why sustainable practices are essential for unlocking peak performance.
Sustainable, adjective.
Capable of being maintained or continued at a certain rate or level.
In the UK alone, nine out of ten adults experienced high or extreme stress levels last year, and 20% of employees had to take time off work due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress. Remote, hybrid, and office workers all feel increased levels of pressure, although approximately 40% of individuals engaged in remote work find it challenging to disconnect from their job responsibilities.
In terms of impact, it is easy to see the correlation to burnout, but there is also a financial cost that should make employers uneasy. Workplace stress has a substantial impact on the US economy, costing an annual average of around $300 billion.
In business, chasing the bottom line is often the cause of increased workloads, poor work-life balance, and high-pressure environments which can quickly lead to workplace conflicts. This inevitably reduces morale and impacts mental health. One study shows that over 60% of work absences are due to psychological stress. Interestingly, results show that work-related stress is more prevalent in front-line workers, steadily reducing towards upper-level employees.
Teams adopting agile ways of working are particularly susceptible to this, given their focus delivery. It is very easy to overlook the methodology’s eighth guiding principle — “Agile processes to support a consistent development pace” — guiding teams to establish a repeatable and maintainable speed at which they deliver work in favour of just getting it done.
Using John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership model, what problems do we face when our focus on these three areas is out of balance?
Naturally, there will be times when each must take primacy — although the continued focus on one will always be at the detriment to the others. Agile uses ‘sprints’ to focus efforts on a particular set of tasks or deliverables within a time-boxed period. This creates efficiency, expedites conversations around decision-making, and enables adaptability. This concentration of effort, however, is not sustainable, hence the name ‘sprint’. On task completion, priorities must be refocused to allow balance. The key, then, is to optimise this balance by appropriately prioritising work (Task), maintaining pressure at appropriate levels and showing catering for individual needs (Individual), and communicating a unifying purpose and optimal operating environment (Team).
Almost half of employees (48%) attribute workplace stress to their lack of involvement in decisions.3 We’ve seen that agile ways of working help expedite and include employees in decision-making, but this isn’t enough. Barriers often still prevent employees from challenging decisions, speaking up if they are struggling, and being their true selves at work.
Psychological safety is “the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking” (Amy Edmondson, 1999). It is a foundational element in high-performing teams and creates resilience. Quite simply, fostering a psychologically safe environment means reduced stress levels, fewer associated mental health problems, less time off work, reduced staff turnover, and more sustainable performance.
We can see this done well at Spotify. Referred to as the ‘Spotify Model’, here the company creates sustainable performance by balancing high-performing sprints with employee well-being, focusing on squads and autonomy, flexible working, regular retrospectives (focusing on what went well, what didn’t, and how can they improve), and rest and recovery.
Psychological safety is foundational to their culture, developed through transparency and communication, trust-based leadership, feedback loops, and inclusivity. Employees are encouraged to take mental health days to support well-being, adopt coaching practices to improve team dynamics, and conduct ‘Hack Weeks’ that allow employees to step away from their regular work to focus on passion projects, fostering creativity and reducing burnout.
What would a sustainable pace look like in your team? What can you do to ensure an optimal balance of Task, Team, and Individual needs?