20 years of a Virtual Team: No return to the office for us!

There was an article in the Financial Review recently about why working from home is bad for you and bad for business. And of course, with Elon Musk making headline news about the ultimatum he has issued to his team required to return to the office it’s a topic of interest. I make no secret of the fact that my whole team works from home and we have had a four-day work week since January 2021. It’s a conscious decision that we made as a business so we can be our best selves.

I’m sharing here a comment that one of our past team members (Anna Marshall) put on LinkedIn in response to the article about working from home.

…It takes time and effort to foster connection in a team no matter where they are - face to face or fully virtual. After having worked face to face my entire career, I joined a fully virtual global team in 2013 (BC!) and I can put my hand on my heart and tell you that it was the BEST team I’d ever been in, and the leadership and care that was shown to me was truly breathtaking. Emma Weber was leading a fully virtual team (we all worked from home) at Lever - Transfer of Learning almost 10 years ago and I shall remember the camaraderie, the sense of belonging, the incredible role modeling, and the cohesion until the day I die. In my humble opinion, WFH teams don’t cause isolation, but they sure as hell shine a spotlight on culture and leadership.

I am humbled.*

It’s my 20-year ‘Oziversary’ - as my friend Nicola has named it - this month. 20 years since I moved to Sydney, where I knew three people in total, from the UK to start my own business. It was an experiment to see if I could follow my dreams and build a business using my skills…And here I am today.

Readers of my blog will know our thing is learning transfer, helping people implement what they have learnt on training programs. We have our amazing human team, Coach M and advanced data analytics to top it all.

But why do we do it?

Well… we help people grow and change. Our tools not only deliver behavioural change for learning but they help develop the skill of slowing down and reflecting, holding ourselves accountable, growing and learning beyond knowledge into how we show up for our teams and families.

If you’d like to join us in our mission supporting your organisation or clients please get in touch. The more the merrier on this crusade.

Whether you are part of our team, one of our customers, learners or part of our community, I hope you feel the support and care we have for you - and your growth - with your opportunity to be the best version of you. Whether that’s as a leader in the corporate world or your family.

Understanding how to apply your learning by slowing down, taking ownership for change, listening to your own internal voice, and guidance through a reflective conversation will create a better world for all.

We are in a time of significant change in the corporate world where organisations have the choice to move forward or try to turn the clock back. This change calls for leadership training programs to step up and start including robust transfer strategies. We owe it to the world. As Anna says connection is the key - and I am glad we are connected.

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*If you are interested in my reply to Anna:

Anna Marshall thank you for your words - I feel quite emotional on reading this - it's the sort of comment that you want to cc your Mum in on! It's 20 years ago this weekend that I moved to Australia to start my own business and the team that I have had the good fortune to work with have made it a decision that I celebrate every day. Here's to every leader having the skills, access to coaching, mentoring and training to help them develop as a leader to be able to navigate the world of flexible, home-based working without 'forcing' people back to the office. We recruited 4 new team members recently and had 1700 applications for the roles. It was no doubt the 4 day work week and our approach to people first that makes Lever a company that they want to contribute to. Thank you again. Here's to our team, past, present and future.