e-lab - It all started with The Third Space®

It’s 2010 and it’s just another day at the office for Adam when he is getting ready to deliver a keynote at the Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) conference. He’s a mix of excited and nervous as he steps on stage to present his concept around The Third Space. What he doesn’t know is sitting in the audience that day is Dr John Molineux from Deakin University Business School. John really enjoys Adam’s presentation and speaks to him following the session.  They hit it off talking about all things related to The Third Space when an idea hits Adam. He asks John, ‘Hey, would you be interested in researching The Third Space and seeing what impact it has on people?’ Happily, John is keen. 

For the next six months, John and Deakin University survey participants before Adam’s keynote and one month after to measure its impact. John finds that there is a 41% improvement in ‘Mood in the home’ and 43% improvement in ‘Boundary strength’. They’re both elated and like all good researchers they publish their findings.

This is where it all started.

A research collaboration that led to the formation of the e-lab. The e-lab is the research arm of our business. Its purpose is to ensure that the work Adam does is not only engaging, but also evidence based and practical. So, what is the science behind The Third Space and why was John remotely interested in researching this concept? Well, for the geeks in the room (Adam is a self-confessed geek) here’s a sneak peek to the science behind the concept.

The Third Space focuses on transitions and how we can use them to maximise our performance and connection in each interaction/task/environment we move into.  In the literature, role transitions are defined as “the psychological (and, where relevant, physical) movement between roles, including disengagement from one role (role exit) and engagement in another (role entry)” (Ashforth et al [2000]). That’s a technical way to describe moving between the different spaces that make up our lives. (You see why Adam just calls them spaces).

The transition we can most relate to, is the transition from work to home (even though we use it in many more transitions than this, such as the micro transitions in our day). Perhaps because it is the one that we all find the most challenging. How do I leave work at work and be focussed and present in my home life?  Mostly what we mean here is that we want to prevent the negative impacts of work coming home with us and having a detrimental impact on our personal lives. In the literature, this is called ‘spillover’ – and in particular we want to increase positive spillover (bring home positive experiences and emotions) and reduce negative spillover (negative emotions and mindsets from work).

We embarked on some research to uncover what is the ultimate formula to optimise our transitions. It took us a while, but we found it – an optimal transition consists of three phases: Reflect, Rest and Reset.

REFLECT

The Reflect phase is about increasing your positive spillover and reducing the negative spillover. We do this by engaging with positive reflection questions such as “What went well? What did I achieve? How did I improve?” This is no Pollyanna approach.

It is not about deluding yourself, but rather engaging in constructive reflection as this gives you a burst of positive emotion and helps you take an optimistic mindset home. The expression of positive emotions both at work and at home seems to be a powerful strategy to reduce ‘Work family conflict’ and enhance the positive impact of work into the home domain (Sanz-Vergel et al, 2010). There will always be tough days at work – but even on the worst days we can answer the above three questions and they help us show up better for people in our personal life or the next task we are moving into.

REST

The Rest phase is not actually about having a rest per se but it is about becoming present. It’s where we calm our mind and set it up to engage with the next space. The concept of mindfulness is more popular today than ever. However, when Adam developed the concept of The Third Space in the late noughties, it was rarely talked about. The Rest phase sets us up to be completely immersed in the next space.

All too often we take the mood and mindset of the previous space into the next. For example, we have a bad day, and we take it home with us. Or we have a bad meeting, and it derails our day because we can't stop thinking about it. The Rest phase reduces the chance of that carry over.

It also helps us get into Flow. Flow is a high-performance state where we find ourselves completely lost in doing something that is challenging and stimulating. We can all benefit from dialling up how much Flow we have in our day.

The Rest phase ties into the evidence that creating psychological detachment from work through different means, helps to create a stronger boundary between work and home. You can increase your Flow and create greater ‘Boundary strength’ using hobbies, mindfulness, resting, walking in a natural environment, exercising, or socialising. 

The Rest phase is all about doing something that brings you closer to the present moment. By doing this, we focus less on the previous interaction or environment. Practicing this between work and home creates that separation from work – aptly named in the research, ‘Boundary strength’. It also allows you to create time for recovery (but that’s another keynote and concept).

RESET

The Reset phase is all about creating a positive intention about how you want to ‘show up’ in the next space you are heading into. It could be going from one meeting to another, it could be moving from an emotional interaction that was upsetting, to a meeting with a direct report where we have to be caring and supportive of someone else in that moment, but in this case it’s heading home. It’s the transitioning to the next role, place or space with a positive mindset.

As we already mentioned, in the literature, this would be referred to as reducing the negative spill. It allows you to set your intention and align your behaviour to that intention.

How do we know that ‘The Third Space’ works? 

It’s all based on scientific literature so we can measure the psychological constructs that directly relate. The main construct is ‘Boundary strength’ (ability to separate work from home) and this increases after the keynote by (insert drum roll here) …..41%. In addition, ‘Mood in the home’ improved by almost 20% after The Third Space keynote (yep that’s quite literally a happier home).

Over the last 8 years through the e-lab we have continued to measure The Third Space’s  impact on various occupations all over the world and we have found that ‘Boundary strength’ can increase between 25-90% for different groups and ‘Work family balance’ improves between 17 – 25% (and some of these were run during those “fabulous” lock down days!). The real kicker isn’t just whether they feel they have balance but whether they feel their ‘Personal time is my own’ which improves on average 32% showing they are able to really enjoy and be present in their time outside of work.

So, there you have it – a sneak peek (we know you’re short on time) into just some of the science that sits behind one of the most popular concepts we have ever developed. The Third Space accurately puts the research and literature into a practical and effective concept to transition from work to home (as well as any other transitions) in a more positive and productive way.

Adam’s love of research (we mentioned he’s a geek, right?) and evidence-based strategies knows no bounds and it forms the process behind his presentations, workshops, and programs and at the heart of this is e-lab.

References:

Ashforth, B.E., Kreiner, G.E. and Fugate, M. (2000). All in a day’s work: Boundaries and micro role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 25(3):472–491.

Sanz-Vergel, A.I., Demerouti, E., Moreno-Jiménez, B. and Mayo, M. (2010). Work-family balance and energy: A day-level study on recovery conditions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76(1): 118-130