The Geography of Efficiency

Last week I saw an article that spoke about how 72% of South African CEO's are saying that they support a full return to the office over the next three years. About two scrolls later I saw a post by renowned #IndustrialPsychologist Adam Grant saying "Ding ding, the 5-day office week is dead." I'm not saying I'm comparing apples with apples in this case, but it did leave me thinking about how SA relates to the international world of work, particularly with concepts that many countries consider outdated.

If you had asked me several years ago what I thought about working from home, I would have told you that it was a ridiculous idea and people needed to be in the office and they needed to be watched. How things have changed! I'm busy typing this on the couch in my office. My dog is asleep at my feet. My skin is still warm from sitting in the sunlight in the garden where I was eating lunch. No matter how many times I look back on my thought process and try to dig into the reasoning I had at the time, I keep coming to the same conclusion- the problem wasn't the geography. The problem was the communication.

When everyone is clear on deliverables then everything falls into place. When I talk about deliverables I don't just mean what has to be done, I mean what has to be done, when it has to be done by, who is required to contribute, as well as what the required standard is. Your leaders need to be equipped accordingly- they need communication skills, they need confidence in terms of the law and they need to take responsibility for connection with their team- because although we don't have to BE in the same space, we must be connected.

If you get the members of your team clear on these points, and your leaders equipped and confident to lead according to the deliverables... then geography doesn't matter in the slightest.