Nano transitions with Dr. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales

[Lori] Hello and welcome to Two for You. So today on Two for You have Dr. Gonzalez-Morales who is an associate professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University and the director of the Worker Wellbeing Lab. Welcome Gloria to Two for You.

[Dr. Gonzalez-Morales] Thank you, Lori. I'm really happy to be here.

[Lori] Yeah. So "nano transitions", that's something that you guys came up with the Worker Wellbeing Lab in the past few years, so can you tell us what are nano transitions?

[Dr. Gonzalez-Morales] Well, we found them because we were interviewing employees that were suddenly working remotely because of COVID. And we were interviewing them and we realized that people were not working nine to five continuously. They actually were taking nano transitions between work roles and personal roles. Nano because they were in the space of their house, they didn't have anywhere to go.

And nano also because it will be like 30 minutes to go for lunch or or another one hour to go for just a quick run and then come back. So they weren't transitioning in and out of work.

[Lori] Yeah. So when you when you looked at these nano transitions, were there aspects of it that made it more successful or it can have useful type of transition.

[Dr. Gonzalez-Morales]That actually was an interesting finding that we found that not only people were taking these, but also there were a lot of diversity in how they were transitioning. And the people who actually reported that they had like a balanced day, or a productive day. They were the ones that we're taking these transitions in an AIR way. That's the acronym that we use A-I-R. They were autonomous, intentional and regulated.

Meaning that they took them when they felt that they could. They were intentional because there was an intention to why they were transitioning from one role to the other. And they were regulated, meaning that they chose to watch one Netflix episode and not the whole evening of episodes. So if it is not regulated, then they're going to be bad for you because then you may need to work later or work more hours than me because you have taken not a, not a nano transition, but a huge transition out of work.

[Lori] Yeah, I love this concept. If you think about community leadership, what are some important things to think about for community leaders that they're integrating or thinking about nano transition and work-life?

[Dr. Gonzalez-Morales] Yeah, so community leaders can think of these, applied to them. And then understand how employees and people that they work with also need to have that autonomy, that room for being autonomous, and intentional in how they manage their lives, that it is getting complicated. And it doesn't look like it's going to get less complicated as we move forward with this. So just think of ways to infuse AIR in your employees' lives instead of taking it away.

[Lori] I love it. So thank you for joining us. And there you have it. Infuse more AIR autonomy, intention,  and regulated moments into your leadership as you live and lead with intention.