The Future of Work: Where Do We Go From Here?
It seems far away, but there is a Monday morning in our future when we “return to work.” The subway is not quite as packed as it used to be and everyone is wearing a mask. People are more cautious—standing a little farther apart in the elevator. No one seems to touch anything without hesitation. It just feels different.
Up on the 16th floor, the Diligent office looks different, too. Our max office capacity is now 30% of what it used to be. Two thirds of the leadership team is working from home today. The Marketing team prepares for another big webinar, the third one this month. Registrations have never been higher.
As I walk into my office, a large-screen TV syncs with my phone. This is how I connect to the partial team in London, in Munich, in Sydney, and in home offices everywhere. Like most senior leadership, I no longer think twice about where people are in the world. Access overcomes distance. It’s a different world than it was a few short months ago.
We all know that COVID-19 will eventually pass, but we will be changed. My job in leadership is to learn from every experience. I’m no longer focused on the old company we had, but on building a new, stronger, closer-knit company. That is our role as leaders as we anticipate returning to a post-pandemic world.
Anticipating the New Normal
As organizations ponder the future, they’ll need to make decisions: What will my company look like on the other side? How do we best position our workforce, supply chain, policies, and services within this new environment? Do we have the right strategy? Talent? Culture? Do we have the right technology?
As we scale down these larger questions, we can begin to consider the day to day: In what ways will our communication channels evolve? What kind of data will we need at our fingertips? What’s the impact on relationships or workplace etiquette? These are questions we’ve already started to answer following a large-scale shift to remote work…
Navigating a Global Shift
Consider for a moment that the entire world transitioned to working from home in the span of a few weeks. This global shift to virtual work settings was not by choice, yet it has led to significant advancements in technology across organizations. Whether or not companies were ready for the transition, they’ve had to adapt. This event was transformative. No one was immune. Boards, highly regulated businesses, events, sales—everyone is adapting to a new virtual business model. Even governments and regulators, the most formal of all rule makers, had to pivot in a matter of days.
While we will forever be changed by this global pandemic, we get to choose where we go from here. Virtual technologies were thrust upon us—now how do we leverage that technology in our recovery? What dangers are lurking beneath the surface?
In a rush to enable an entire workforce to work from home, few organizations have equipped their senior leaders and board members with the tools and workflows they need to do the same.
Understanding the Risks
Security at the most senior levels requires a heightened priority in the virtual world. Tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack are powerful and broadly used across organizations, but are they appropriate for sensitive collaboration and communication? M&A strategies, furloughs, CEO updates to the board, financial documents, legal communications, sensitive discussions around executive compensation—this kind of classified information requires additional layers of security (i.e., privacy shielding, user permissioning, encryption) in order to protect sensitive information in a virtual world. A misfired email or a compromised video-conference link can lead to the release of confidential information to the world—a catastrophic event in a fragile period of recovery.
Embracing the “Secure” Future of Work
In many ways, the future of work has arrived. Now it must be examined through a lens of security and risk.
Workflows within our organizations will never be the same—and these workflows will differ depending on the use case, topic, and individuals involved. Privacy and permissions become just as important as broad connectivity and access. Information will need to flow as securely across the organization as it does to external third parties. Most importantly, the technology will be virtual, and the conversations will be seamless. SaaS applications will illuminate opportunities and drive decisions from anywhere world. And organizations need to consider security and privacy in their Future of Work collaboration and communication application stack.
The most effective organizations will patch the current gaps; they’ll leverage secure, integrated tools like Diligent Boards, Messenger, Secure File Sharing, and Secure Meeting Workflow. They will become more efficient and nimble as they protect their most important conversations and documents across the board and C-suite, then down into the organization.
In many ways, we’ll look back and see how COVID-19 accelerated change—the adoption of a new generation of tools, techniques, and organizational methods. Those that move fast will create a competitive advantage. That rule has always been true when the world changes, and it will be true again this time.
Defining the Role of Leadership
What’s the role of boards and company leadership in navigating this change? It’s recognizing that the challenges ahead are not just about technology, but how we leverage technology to build stronger organizations.
I see advancements in the Future of Work mirrored by similar strides in stakeholder communications. The best leaders will embody empathy. Organizations that thrive will leverage virtual technology to support a better flow of information to their employees, customers, and communities. At its core, this is modern governance—when organizations adopt tools and practices that enable better communication and ultimately better decisions.
As company leaders, we have the opportunity to envision the other side of COVID-19. We have the chance to shape our organizations to be better than they were before. Our leadership will emerge stronger, supply chains more nimble, and employees more connected despite the distance between. It is the responsibility of leadership to learn and grow from these challenges.
We’re a product of our experiences, and the ones we’re collecting right now are truly unique. Let’s not let those go to waste.