Almost overnight and now for more than a year, a truly enormous amount of work has been performed not-at-the-office. There's a running joke that Covid19 has done substantially more for digital transformation than all executive teams combined.
As vaccinations are now being given across most of the world, the conversation is turning to what a new normal will look like for companies. Will they go back to the office? Will they be fully remote? Should they follow some sort of hybrid model? All valid questions - and given that we've never done this at scale before, easy to understand why most companies are missing a very important piece of the puzzle.
Chris Herd recently tweeted it in the most succinct manner I've seen so far:
As vaccinations are now being given across most of the world, the conversation is turning to what a new normal will look like for companies. Will they go back to the office? Will they be fully remote? Should they follow some sort of hybrid model? All valid questions - and given that we've never done this at scale before, easy to understand why most companies are missing a very important piece of the puzzle.
Chris Herd recently tweeted it in the most succinct manner I've seen so far:
People don’t care about ‘the future of work’
What they care about is ‘the future of living’
If we don't use remote work as a bridge to a higher quality of life we've wasted the opportunity of a lifetime
Companies, or rather, executives, with short term operational/shareholder $focus are just worried about "getting back to normal". Their employees, or certainly, those who are knowledge workers, have a different perspective. This nuance is critical.
The last year has shown us that we can be effective without the office. That commuting isn't a good way to use our personal time. That being able to work whenever suits us best makes for a much better life. That maybe we don't need to be micro-managed after all. If we can sympathise with lawyers calling into a court session by video, with a cat filter on, then there really aren't many excuses left.
Most importantly for employees - the number of potential companies we can work for is about to explode - as long as remote working* is offered.
It's not hard to see that knowledge work is going to become a sellers market, where the game board just went from "anywhere within commuting distance" to "anywhere in the world". That's something most companies are going to struggle with. Those who get it right, will have super effective dream teams of A players.
In the startup world, investors say that "team is everything". An A-team can make anything better. Whereas B-team will take brilliant things and screw them up. Why would you limit yourself to only the players that live within a physical commuting radius?
I'm creating the book and podcast series for people who want their small or medium business to make more profit and better impact. Take a look: https://sixtyminutestoimpact.xyz
Are you still wondering about the difference between working remote, from home or hybrid? Do you believe that back to the office is the only way for your company? I'd love to chat to you about it. Send me a message, let's have coffee.
*and I mean, proper remote working, done well. Not the amateur "Don't go to the office, but work exactly as though we are in the office" stuff that most are doing today.