Re-Thinking Time

This post is the eighth in a series of ten that are currently being featured on LinkedIn in honor of the Crossland Group’s 25th Anniversary.

Back in 2021, amid the complex tide of change brought about by the global pandemic, our team began having many conversations about how we individually and collectively spend our time–both in and out of work. During that poignant time when people across the globe were re-assessing many things in their own lives, we decided to reject time as a measure of value, and ceremonially discarded our timesheets.

Eliminating timesheets wasn’t just about rejecting the arbitrary nature of time–it was about trust. Our team already believed in each other’s dedication, so tacking hours felt unnecessary. Why should I–or anyone else for that matter–care about how the work got done and how long it took as long as we met deadlines and expectations? By removing time as a metric, we reinforced trust, empowering everyone to fulfill their responsibilities in the way that worked best for them.

Moving away from time as a way to measure our worth amplified our own internal communications and reshaped how we were asking clients to invest in us. Instead of hourly rates, we began using fixed-pricing for all projects, which signaled to our clients a confidence that we knew our value, recognized their need to manage costs, and that we were “all in” with them as partners. This switch in mindset and practice has yielded not only greater trust and productivity, but also a marked increase in acquiring new business.

#Crossland25