The Intangible Benefits of Creating a New Working Normal

There is no arguing that during the pandemic, as we adapted to working remotely, many organizations were able to maintain high degrees of productivity, but, at what cost? A study conducted by PWC last year found that nearly half of employee respondents “ranked mental health and staying motivated as top challenges since the start of the pandemic (46% and 45%, respectively).”

Chief among the contributing factors to these results is the loss of shared culture and team-building opportunities.?I’ve said frequently that building collective energy, continuing our journey towards more diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures and our ability to lever “collective genius” to solve the complex challenges we face today are all reasons to believe in a hybrid working model.?All these intangibles quite distinct from rank productivity which we’ve all seen can be at least matched in a remote setting.

Secondly, when we all work from remote locations, we lose our ability to meaningfully engage in activities which fully include colleagues who may need our support. I think especially of younger employees, who might be new, not only to one of our many amazing departments and divisions, but perhaps to our entire medical technology sector. Or employees we’ve welcomed from diverse industry or cultural backgrounds and may be keen to watch or ask their established colleagues for help to navigate our unique corporate working habits, norms and benefits.

I’ve also pointed out how much I personally appreciate opportunities to build on the amazing positive energy that’s generated in a wide range of interactions – some as large as a structured product development session, and others as fleeting as a quick one-on-one chat as I pass a colleague in an office hallway. Each of these instances are irreplaceable opportunities for spontaneous sharing, supporting and learning from each other.

Further to this point, Tracy Brower, a Ph.D. Sociologist and author, noted in an article in Forbes, research proves that being together has the measurable effect of making people smarter. Findings showed that “when people spent more time interacting with others – talking, socializing and connecting – they displayed improved mental function. Interactions literally increased cognitive performance.”

Getting smarter can only be a good thing, but the intangible upsides of coming together in high functioning teams, befriending and guiding a new colleague, or taking advantage of spontaneous opportunities to problem-solve around the water cooler are good things as well. Finding a way to strike a balance between remote and return to office environments is challenging, but I have every faith that we have the capacity to meet in the middle.?