What’s next as we embrace remote working?

Remote working has primarily worked. The ride was a bit bumpy in the beginning, but we have adjusted well, and the big fears around what it would mean to work outside the office, were not fundamentally realised. This was after decades of failed remote working experiments (as applied more broadly across organisations and industry sectors). Sure, there have been some success stories, but nothing like what has just happened!

What made it different this time?

“This time, everyone in the organisation had to do it, and they collectively strived to figure out how to overcome the challenges.” (Bernstein E. (2020), “The Implications of Working Without an Office”, HBR, July 15).

In my first blog in this series, we spoke about how the rabbit is out of the bag – everyone is working at home – and any attempt to put it back in the bag by removing much autonomy will be fought with great risk! And in the second blog, given this is a pivotal point for bosses (and managers) it is an opportunity to stop and reflect on the way our teams are being managed and consider what’s important as well as identify possible action items.

In my third blog, we shone some light on widely written about “wisdom” around leading and managing people from past decades that could apply in our current situation. We then broke things down into 9 simple skills that enable leaders to execute this wisdom.

So, what’s next for remote working?

While conditions differ across the world around the impact of COVID (and it changes all the time), organisations are discussing at great lengths how to bring employees back into the office – if at all – and if so, what might the office “look like”. While we will be experimenting with this for quite some time, the bigger issue, I believe, is around the leadership needed at this time. Bosses (at any level in an organisation) are having to lead their teams in this changing environment. On the surface, it may seem simple compared to the immediacy of working at home, but when you scratch the surface, complexity and traps lie everywhere!

Fairly consistently, surveys are showing that employees are happy to come back into the office for a few days a week – give or take – though, digging deeper it appears there are differences in groups (more on that later). It is also clear that employees do not want to come back into a sterile office where masks are worn and people are separated or sectioned off from each other.

The Best and Worst of Both Worlds

In many ways, it is exciting to think we can co-create and refresh working life; it romances us. How will we find the mix and hybrid opportunities to embrace the best of being human, together with the best of the technologies, as we aspire to work smarter, more flexibly while allowing the people we work with to flourish?

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

However, if we are not careful, we could end up with the worst of the virtual and office-based environments!

Let’s dig deeper…

What’s worked?

Enjoying not having to do long commutes to the office
More focus time (after the initial Zoom overload)
Flexibility with family (and yes, men have gained some insight here)
Not flying across countries and around the world for meetings!

What’s not worked?

Workdays are 10-20% longer
High expectations around output given we are more online
Some restrictions around job mobility and progression within organisations
Many are missing face-to-face connection

What are we learning?

Finding the right balance between meetings and work time
Finding ways to improve communication (and taking our Zoom skills to the next level!)
Still trying to learn to not work when at home
Discovering what patterns of work/routine make us more productive while managing our time and energy
Leaders/bosses are having to communicate more effectively and deliberately

Where are there notable differences between groups?

Personality traits (and it’s not around extraversion and introversion (ask me about this if you’re keen to know more!)
Household circumstances (and the stories here abound, are broad and wide ranging and here is where we need to exercise much empathy)

What are we really losing by not being in the office?

It’s harder to on-board new hires, and easier to lose good workers as mobility increases
There is a decline of spontaneous communication and interactions (in hallways and around coffee pots/machines)
Weak ties – defined as “shallow or peripheral relationships among members of an organisation who don’t work closely with each other but have nonetheless connected over time”. These, surprisingly, have been shown to impact organisational performance (in many ways) and, yet, are very difficult to create virtually (Bernstein, E. 2020).
Fostering relationships across the organisation that normally happen in a myriad of in-person ways including in serendipitous ways!
The “magic”, which many CEOs are discussing, around being together in the workplace. Articulating this is proving difficult but the conversation is on-going.

What are we grappling with?

How to manage for equity on many fronts – some in the office and others not, compensation (when remote working from cheaper locations), home situations (which impacts certain groups of employees) to name a few tricky equity issues
How to ensure diversity and true inclusion given all these changing dimensions to the “work place”, and
Ensuring that women don’t continue to go backwards as they have during the pandemic
The potential mental health impact from the pandemic and how our organisations and leaders will need to respond

Who makes the biggest difference?

Your immediate boss!

Keeping focused on your customer

BCG, in their recent article, “Work Will Never Be the Same—Savvy Business Leaders Are Adapting to Change That’s Already Here” (by Khandelwal, B. et al) write…

“The transformation of work is accelerating toward more flexibility and customised models. This shift is here to stay. If companies don’t rapidly reinvent how they serve customers and support their employees, they will lose in the new reality”

It’s essential that organisations (and teams) look at all the activities in their value chain “through the lenses of changed consumer expectations”. Another lens BCG proposes involves determining the nature of a team’s work along two dimensions: type of work (ranging from routinized to creative), and level of collaboration (ranging from independent to collaborative).

In addition, team norms and individual preferences muddy the waters, as team bosses find ways to lead their people through what will prove to be far from simple models of hybrid working.

What’s important for your organisation and team to consider here?

In this blog we have reflected on our experience in this extraordinary experiment that the pandemic kickstarted. While this reflection has occurred at a high level, it will be nuanced for each individual team (or work group).

What has been your experience? And what has been the experience of your team (or work group)? At this point in time, what issues are emerging as important for you – as a boss or an individual? It is worth taking some time to consider this (knowing you will need to revisit this thinking as things keep moving and changing).

So, what is the best way for team bosses and teams to navigate this brave new world? This is the subject of my next blog.

And, if you need any extra support in these areas (and it’s ok to need it!) you can book a free 15-minute power chat with me to gain some clarity. See my availability.

Praxis

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