Into the future...

As the pandemic slowly becomes the "past", a question I often ask myself is: what have we learned from it? In my industry, I see a lot of companies acting as if Covid never happened. Like "Ok, it's over, we can go back to our old, tired ways". I feel this is wrong. A crisis is a always a source of opportunity, of innovation. Sad as it was, World War 2 brought many innovations that define the today's world. Computer networks. Radars. Jet engines. Rockets. Advances in medicine. Covid is the same: we must ask ourselves: what are the positives we can learn from this ordeal?

At Novarama we have learned a few things. In fact, our reality is so different, we feel we are never going "back to the past": we are jumping into a new, exciting future. Here are some learnings I wanted to share, maybe they can be useful in your organizations. Or, who knows, maybe you wanna come and join us. We're a bit crazy. But creative. And we're having a lot of fun.

Remote is here to stay

Before covid, I was totally against remote work. I thought: people won't communicate. The creative dynamics won't be there. Maybe because of that, we at Novarama invested a ton of effort in finding the best tools and the best people to make sure we could keep being agile, creative and crazy. And, you know what? It worked. No, we're not going back to the office. You kidding? Hey, I'm 48 years old. I have two kids and a wife. My commute time was about 60 minutes. Now? 10 seconds. I spend more time with the family. I do more sports. I've lost 10 kilos. I've find more time for hobbies. My life, in a nutshell, is better. So yeah, we do have an office (an amazing one, by the way, come check it out!) but our team can work from anywhere they want. Their home. Some have travelled to other regions (even countries!) and worked from there. We don't care. If you work hard, we don't care where you are. Oh yeah, feel free to work in your pajamas, if that's what you want.

The "Novarama way" can be summarized in 5 big "philosophical" changes:

• Management is a service to our employees, and our guiding principle is: if it works, don't force things. There's no hidden agendas. No secret committee setting the rules. If our employees are productive this way, and everybody is happy, why should us, the management, change that?
• Discord is our company comms tool. Sorry, nothing comes close. With Discord, we don't have "meetings": we are always together. There's no difference between work and social: work IS social. I chat with maybe 10-15 employees PER DAY. And they know I am one click away.
• Presence, presence, presence. At Novarama, there's no "oh, I'm on my own, I disconnect for a bit". During work hours, everyone is online, all the time. Because we want to keep being the social, creative company we were, where you can chat with anyone, anytime.
• Respect for time off. If someone is absent on Discord, that's it, it's over for the day. No, no calls. No stupid meetings at 7 PM. No crunch.
• If you're one of us, you live by these rules. With power comes responsibility, as the Mighty Stan would say. So, if you disappear from Discord, if we see you not taking your job seriously... then you're not one of us. Wanna work at Novarama? Fine. No one is gonna be watching you over your shoulder, you're at home. But we assume you are working hard. That's who we are.

Racehorses vs mules

Are you a CEO? Ask yourself. What is an employee, for you? is he a racehorse, or a mule? Racehorses get the best possible stables, the best food, they get to rest. Because they are the best-in-their-class. A mule? No one cares about her, poor beast. She carries a heavy load, and is not very well taken care of.

All too often I see companies that yeah, they pretend they treat employees like racehorses for marketing reasons, but they are stuck in the mule mentality. Forcing them to do long hours. Forcing them into the office. Crunching. With bossy CEOs who listen to no-one but their ego. That's all part of the past.

In the post-covid world, talent is THE key to success. Treating talent well is thus critical. Need hardware? Dont' worry, we'll send it over. Need a day off? Sure, come on, take 2 if you need. Need parties, so we all socialize and have fun? Yup, we'll do them. Because you guys are racehorses. And, within our possibilities, we'll pay the best salaries, and we'll allow everyone to contribute ideas to the projects in a "horizontal" management style, and now we're talking about benefits... Again: in the post-covid world, keeping your talent motivated is most likely the #1 success factor.

We need more human companies.

Tech tech tech

Another thing we have discovered (the hard way) is that a full-remote company requires much more underlying tech to foster creativity & communication. Miro Boards. Hack'N'Plan (you guys rock). OpenVPN. Plastic. Of course Zoom. And tons of other tools we now rely on more than ever. Our people are the engine that keeps the company going. Tech is the oil that keeps everything flowing.

Work hard, Play hard, See the morning sun

Let me share a personal note. Some months ago I had a small health scare. I was down all day, I felt tired. I consulted with specialists. I wasn't getting enough sunlight. I wasn't partying enough. I wasn't socializing enough. I was working too hard. And no, I'm not kidding. Your dopamine, circadian and serotonin cycles depend on certain patterns. As we have moved on to full remote, the balance is clearly positive: people enjoy much more family time. Enjoy a more relaxed work environment. Productivity is the same or even better. Let me be clear: Remote is amazing.

But we need to combine remote with all the other good things our bodies need. Make sure we go out. Smell the flowers. See the summer sun. We're doing parties every month. Now we're gonna start doing tabletop gaming sessions. And sports with other company peers. I am spending more time on my bycicle. Doing astronomy. I've beaten my 10k record. In a way, remote gives me more free time. We need to use it wisely.

Because remote is a fantastic way of working, but we need to balance that with physical activity. Let's face it: we're pioneers. This is all very new. We're writing the rules of the book as we speak. It's exciting times.

The law must change

As we move into this exciting new world, many legal changes are needed, and fast. How do we deal with Social Security when the employee is not in the office, he's actually at home, or even working from abroad? How do we route payments to people who are not even in the EU? How do we comply with privacy regulations when information is flowing in such a dynamic way in a company that does no longer have a central headquarters? The law has always been slow to react, but I doubt we can afford this slowliness now. We're dealing with a post-covid world in a pre-covid legal framework.

Partners who believe in you

These changes are significant. It's about the way we work. About the way we socialize. About how we reinvent responsability. You can't do this if your network doesn't believe in you. Speaking with many people across industries, I always hear the same mantra: oh, we would do this, but central headquarters wont' let us. Oh, we'd do this, but it's against company rules.

We're lucky to be in good company. Novarama is now a studio invested by Tencent. And that is actually great. Aside from the obvious reasons (financial, access to massive know-how), Tencent is based in China. And has offices all over the world. Amsterdam. Liverpool. Homg Kong, Shenzhen. Shanghai. So, for them, remote is not a fad or a trend: it's the way we all work together. I have fantastic relationships with many people across time zones continents and cultures, all remotely. And we share best practices continually.

We coulnd't have chosen a better partner for this new exciting adventure.

Parting thoughts

The world is dynamic. And adapting is a key skill. The pre-covid world doesn't exist anymore. So, adapting to that world is a recipe for disaster. We must all stop thinking "I want to go back": there is no "back". There is "future". And, once we understand that future and adapt to it, a million doors open. Doors to be more creative. To have a deeper relationships with your team. To enjoy more time with your family. If all this sounds appealing to you, and you are an Unreal God, hey, come on board. Send me a PM. Let's chat about exploring the future together.

And yeah, I can't wait to show you what we're working on. But not today.

Dani