asynco.org

In late 2023, we created an international online #communityofpractice -asynco.org - with the expert direction of our colleague Luis Suarez. Against a backdrop of increasingly toxic social networks, our aim was to establish a psychologically safe space for connection and knowledge-sharing around #futureofwork practices. So, what are we learning from hosting a community of practice like asynco? Well, we've discovered three key insights throughout this experience that's left us in no doubt that, rather than individual expertise, accessing collective intelligence has become more important than ever for navigating the evolving future of work landscape... ? ???????? ??????'?? ?????????? ?????? ???????????????? ???? ???????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ? ???????????????? ???????? ?????????? ????????????, ?????? ?????????????????? ???? ???????????????? ? ???????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????????????? ???? ?????? ?????????????????? ???????? ???????????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???????????? ?????????????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???? ???????? ?????? ?????????? ???? ???????????????? ?????????????? #businesstransformation #businesssustainability #workforceplanning #paradigmshift Cathryn Barnard ??, Luis Suarez, Patrick Lodge, Liz Clayton-Jones, Dr Naeema Pasha, Georgie Mack

"Third Spaces Matter". Yeah, we know ?????? A couple of days ago, one of our treasured community members, Beth Salyers, Ph.D., shared a stunning post ???? https://lnkd.in/eu27W-c7 in which she reflected upon an 'experiment' she conducted throughout the month of August: meeting up with 100 people via Zoom in a single month! ???? It's a highly recommended read with lots of hope and opportunity. In fact, we particularly loved this insight: "Third Places Matter. Several folks voiced to me on our chat or in a follow up email that they really appreciated the freedom of the third space that these no agenda, not colleagues, no deliverable needed spaces allowed for. They could be more vulnerable, could practice talking about things with low stakes to help with clarity and processing. And I got feedback that folks were energized by the convos. Y'all, this feedback helped me realize that I really love creating and holding these sorts of spaces for folks to practice stepping into their own agency (#nerd)" Yay! We do, too! ?????????? In fact, when Beth shared that same post internally, in our community space, one other of our esteemed community members, Valdis Krebs, responded with the following quote: "This is a great group to have accidental (not exactly random) conversations with. We have enough similarities to connect on, and yet enough differences to keep conversations interesting and open to serendipity." BOOM! ???? Of course, Beth, Valdis, Luis Suarez and a whole bunch of us are up for Part Deux, in which Beth is already planning ahead for the next round of 100 conversations for the next few weeks. Fancy joining her in that new adventure? Get in touch!?????? Oooh, one more thing ... What's your favourite "Third Space"? Can it possibly be asynco.org? Want to join us and find out more? ?????? [Yeah, we know, we know, we couldn't help it either ???????? heh]

Fancy some myth busting RE: hybrid / remote / distributed work? Oh, yes, please, bring it on! ?????? A couple of days ago, Nick Bloom shared an insightful post with a rather powerful visual ???? https://lnkd.in/eePR2SRP Does anything there look strange to you? Perhaps, even *totally* unexpected? [Hint: Take a closer look into the first bar, starting from the left ...] Here's the myth busting then ... Remember when certain folks, while trying to 'enforce' RTO mandates, use the argument to justify their decision as an opportunity to coach, mentor, advise, help & support younger generations early in their corporate career? Well, well, well, guess which one age group has got the least negative feeling about WFH / WFA 2 or 3 days a week? ?????? BOOM! ?? Pretty crazy, eh? So, now that you know the facts and the evidence, next time you hear / read / see that (pretty lame) excuse about why an RTO mandate is enforced (i.e. to help coach and mentor younger worker generations), you can answer back they are full of BS. Certain (senior) management / leadership teams should know AND do better. Follow the data, trust the evidence, listen to your employee's needs & wants and try to accommodate them accordingly. It's not that difficult, right? ??????

“Given proper management principles, rules and practices, and proper training, telework works […] Productivity increases rather than drops, the workers and teams are more creative, management loads and turnover rates decrease. These results, as well as the average number of weekly days teleworking, improve over time as all involved get more experience” In the midst of the silly, and rather futile, debates on the pros / cons of RTO mandates, here's a superb quote shared by Jack (John) M Nilles in this brilliant blog post ???? https://lnkd.in/eWccSSw8 that has helped us pose an open question to everyone, specially, senior management and leadership teams: 'So, again, what's your excuse for not embracing and adapting to #DistributedWork as our brave new normal?' ?? "[...] full time working in the office would improve productivity and enhance the company culture. My data-based experience over the past half century has been exactly the opposite" Why neglect / ignore the data, the *real* evidence, from the last 50 years, insisting in clinching to a long-gone past? ???? What sayest thou?

One of our esteemed asynconauts, Oscar Berg, has been on ?????? lately, here in LinkedIn, sharing a good number of super fun movie posters about the silly RTO mandates. At the same time, a couple of days ago, he shared this fabulous post ???? https://lnkd.in/dYTSP8Ui we thought we would recommend you all to take a good look into it. It's *totally* worth it ?????? As an appetiser, here are a couple of our favourite quotes ???? "Working remotely doesn’t mean being disconnected — actually, digital tools create a web of connections that help us stay engaged, collaborate, and build relationships. Remote work can foster a true sense of belonging and teamwork, even from afar" "[...] remote work doesn’t just allow culture to survive, it actually helps create a unique and thriving culture through digital interactions" "[...] remote work often pushes organizations to be more intentional about culture — focusing on communication, inclusivity, and employee well-being" Indeed, #IntentionalDesign, anyone? ?????? Still think it's not possible to transition into this brave new normal of #DistributedWork? We may need to re-think things a fair bit then, because it *is* certainly possible, as Oscar reflected on that superb LI post ??????

"Fully remote workers are most likely (33%) to strongly agree that they are able to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal commitments, but hybrid (27%) and on-site (25%) workers report experiences with work-life balance that are not significantly different from each other" ?? As a so-called data-driven organisation, how much longer can you keep ignoring the data and the evidence with regards to embracing and adapting to #DistributedWork? ?? Well, here's Gallup, once again, coming to our rescue at an office near us soon enough! Take a look into this fabulous read ???? https://lnkd.in/g8Egd5sP in which you would find some pretty mind-blowing stats. Our favourite one though ???? "Beyond employees’ wellbeing, fully remote (37%) and hybrid workers (36%) are significantly more engaged than their on-site peers (30%)" What's our excuse again? ???? #DigitalTransformation #RemoteWork #HybridWork #WellBeing #WorkLifeIntegration

In the midst of all of the negative rapport hybrid / remote / distributed work is getting at the moment, specially, with the heated conversations on the silly RTO mandates, it's always inspiring and reenergising to be part of a community (ejem, asynco ??????) in which community members like our esteemed Timo Mornhinweg shares this superb LI post ?????? https://lnkd.in/e5XiRAxB by Steve Cadigan with what we think is one of the Top 3 quotes of the year RE: #DistributedWork: "Remote work isn’t just a luxury; it’s a?necessity. For them, the flexibility to manage family, health, and personal time while maintaining their professional responsibilities is a game-changer" We thought we would share it across as well over here, as a lovely Post-It. A reminder of why we are here in the first place. Offering a choice perhaps based on a very specific need: Re-humanise the workplace on people's terms, because you know, without the people, we've literally got nothing! ????????

"Unfortunately some organisations and companies are thinking of trying to force people back into the work environment five days a week. I think they’re the dinosaurs of our age. The old command and control type management style". The above quote is from Cary Cooper, who coined 'Presenteeism' back in 1980s ?? “If you value and trust people to get on with their job, and give them autonomy – and flexible work is one of those – they’ll work better, you’ll retain them, and they will be less likely to have a stress-related illness." ?????? Wait, there is more ???? “If you micromanage, you won’t get productivity gains, and you won’t attract the next generation.” You can read the rest of the article over here ???? https://lnkd.in/d87PJKBZ We thought we would let you all know, in case you start seeing the lemming effect kicking in with orgs., wanting to mimic Amazon's flabbergasting decision, so you can remind their senior managers about what they are up against in their process to become the dinosaurs of our age. How is your week going, folks? ???? [Hat tip to Duncan Evans for sharing with us in the community that fine article with some great points! ??????]

'Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week. If you or your child were sick, if you had some sort of house emergency, if you were on the road seeing customers or partners, if you needed a day or two to finish coding in a more isolated environment, people worked remotely. This was understood, and will be moving forward as well.' Finally, the masks are off! We've been saying this, indeed, for a long time: The whole concept of 'hybrid work' has been a scam, right from the very beginning! As you can see from the quote shared above, we have *always* been hybrid. We've always been remote. Nothing new, really. It's all been a pretty lame excuse to pretend to be who you are not. So when you take your masks off, like Amazon did earlier on this week as per ???? https://lnkd.in/gSNt46c3, we now should know better. #HybridWork, or #FlexibleWork, for that matter, is not the final frontier. It's been there with us all the time. #DistributedWork *is* the final frontier. Specially, from a *business continuity* perspective, as organisations are being hit by external agents more often than not. So, while Amazon continues to take off its mask(s) ('We understand that some of our teammates may have set up their personal lives in such a way that returning to the office consistently five days per week will require some adjustments'), we're going to kindly ask you all to question, really hard, how you, employers and employees alike!, are going to adjust to this brave new normal of embracing / adapting to 'working from anywhere' in the midst of this ???? https://lnkd.in/geHCMm_6 Can you possibly imagine commuting to the office while you're exposed to all of that? We can't. Probably you shouldn't either. We *definitely* need to be better prepared, so be careful with the lemming effect, folks, because it's going to be a bumpy road ahead!

'Face-to-face working is hugely important to a people business like ours, and the new policy tips the balance of our working week into being located alongside clients and colleagues'. We are pretty certain you may have read this article ???? https://lnkd.in/eMTZ63X4 on what promises to be one of the most spectacular #LeadershipBloopers in the space of the silly RTO mandates we've seen so far. But have you noticed something quite interesting from the quote we have shared above? ?? If the firm is 'enticing' its employee base to go back to work, back to the office, then every day there is a wasted opportunity to generate revenue on-site with clients. Can that be that they prefer people in the office and lose precious revenue as a result? Seriously? ?? It gets better though... If the firm is demanding their employees to be at the customer site, as hinted in the above quote, and if that customer has got a rather flexible work policy by which their own employees have fully embraced WFH / WFA, then are PwC employees going to empty client sites to do work ... alone? What gives? ?? Can it be that such disappointing RTO mandate imposed by PwC is highlighting a massive issue of lack of trust? Specially, from senior management towards their workforce? And, also, how disconnected are you from your client base, if they have fully embraced WFH / WFA and you're still hanging tight to your demotivating RTO mandates? ?? #DigitalTransformation #RemoteWork #HybridWork #DistributedWork #Leadership