The One Where I Reintroduce Myself

It's been 2 years since I've written a newsletter to introduce myself. Since I received the LinkedIn #TopVoice blue badge, there has been an influx of new followers and connections so I think it's a good time.

Although I love the LinkedIn newsletter, I'm also trying to build an email list as all social media is rented territory. I can't access any of the subscriber information if anything ever happens to LinkedIn. If you want to make sure I can keep in touch, please get yourself on the list. I promise to send different, useful periodic communications than I do here. PS...please congratulate me for conquering procrastination finally - I've been avoiding email list building for 4 years!

Who Am I?

I'm Nola Simon. I live in Keswick, Ontario, Canada. It's a small town about minutes geographically north of Toronto on Lake Simcoe. I grew up here and it's an essential part of who I am. I've spent most of my career commuting to Toronto for work. This is an important fact to know because while the distance can be traversed in minutes, the reality of Toronto traffic saw my commute grow to 2 hours each way even though I never changed companies or moved. My family lives here - I'm married to a general contractor who does home renovations for a living - he can literally work from anyone else's house except ours:) We have 2 teenage daughters and a giant goldendoodle.

Professionally, I've worked for 5 large enterprise corporations in Canada, primarily financial services, focused on customer service, training, coaching and sales. I pioneered a work from home pilot in 2012 and when my employment relationship of 17.5 years was restructured, I realized that designing, advocating and implementing hybrid/remote strategies was the most meaningful work I've ever done. I founded my B2B consulting business in 2022. I'm a keynote speaker and podcaster - the podcast has 80 episodes and it's called Hybrid/Remote Centre of Excellence .

Want to listen to a recent episode? I just released a few last week and this one is bold:

Malicious Compliance, Deviant Conformity - The Culture Red Flag No One Talks About

Don't forget to comment, rate, review and share. That's how we get people talking. Difficult conversations don't get better with time.

That's one thing you need to know about me. I have bold vision about what the future can be and how leaders and organizations can help design and implement change. I challenge the status quo because I've never been the status quo. The unknown, the ambiguous and the hard stuff - this is my jam.

What is a hybrid/remote futurist?

When I first started using this title, I was the only one you could find on LinkedIn. It reflects my dedication to distributed work and the fact that we need to design and implement in such a way that it fuels the present but also builds for the future. What does hybrid/remote look like now but also 5 or 10 years from now?

So let's use AI for this one, just for fun. I asked Microsoft CoPilot to define the term:

"A hybrid/remote futurist is someone who peers into the crystal ball of work dynamics, blending the best of both worlds: the remote and the in-office. Let’s break it down:

1. Hybrid Remote Work: Hybrid remote work is a flexible model that combines in-office and remote working days. Organizations practicing this model maintain physical offices for certain days, while allowing teams to work remotely on others. It's like having a foot in two different worlds: the structured office environment and the cozy home office.
2. Why Employees Favor Hybrid Remote Work: Balance and Flexibility: Employees get the best of both worlds—focused time away from the office and face time with colleagues. Productivity: People feel more productive and experience reduced commuting-related stress. Work-Life Balance: It allows for better work-life balance.
3. Hybrid Remote Futurists: These visionaries explore the future of work, considering how hybrid models will evolve. They analyze trends, tools, and strategies to create a harmonious blend of remote and in-person work. Their mission? To make work happier, more efficient, and adaptable to changing times.

In essence, a hybrid/remote futurist is like a conductor orchestrating the symphony of work, seamlessly blending the notes of physical presence and virtual collaboration. ????"

Personally, I feel like the lack of the crystal ball emoji is a miss. I get the music notes go with the conductor metaphor by why does sun represent physical presence? Other than the emoji issue, it's not a bad summary. Essentially I'm a B2B consultant working with organizations who want to set both their employees and business up well for the future of work.

Tim Creasy, the Chief Innovation Officer for Prosci, the leading organization that trains change management practitioners around the globe, released a newsletter about research and foresight initiatives that will inform change strategy for the near future. 6 of the main topics are:

1. Technology and Digital Transformation
2. Regulation and Compliance
3. Sustainability and Environment
4. Talent and Retention
5. Culture and Organizational Change
6. Customer Expectations

My work touches 5 of these 6 topics.

“For instance, the shift to remote work is a shift that is both cultural and operational, beyond mere logistics that impacts how teams communicate, collaborate, and maintain productivity. It necessitates a re-evaluation of traditional work models and the adoption of new strategies to support a dispersed workforce. Similarly, creating clear development pathways and investing in skill building are critical for fostering an environment where employees feel valued and see a future for themselves within the organization.”

I created a playlist of short videos last year answering FAQs about the work I do at Nola Simon Advisory NolaSimon.com .

Nola Simon Advisory FAQS

The core of the work is trust. How do I define trust?

Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown. - Rachel Botsman, trust researcher, Oxford University

How do I know if my people are working?

Do you know where to buy a mouse jiggler? I have to keep my status green.

I'm so tired of back to back meetings. How can I actually get any work done when we are constantly in meetings with our cameras on?

We are monitoring compliance with our return to office initiative by monitoring badge swipes.

How many of these quotes seem familiar to you?

A lack of trust is at the centre of each of these issues.

If leaders and employees focused on being more trustworthy, many of the issues would resolve themselves but trust is complex and poorly understood. My approach centres trust, respect and psychological safety.

What problems do I solve for organizations?

I make the complex clear.

I identify blind spots hindering employee investment and financial performance.

I reframe current reality to see future opportunity.

I challenge the status quo and help leaders understand the mindsets and worldviews that are preventing them from investing in the people-centric opportunities that will fuel growth opportunities for the future.

I connect strategy and implementation via effective change management.

I role model unconventional, future focused leadership.

What Got Me Here Won't Get Me There

For the last several years, I've spent a lot of time laying the foundations for my work. My focus has been on establishing credibility and trust by building a strong personal brand and professional reputation. Much of the work has been free - social media, national media interviews, my podcast, a bit of public speaking.

This year, I need to level up my impact which means descending my inverted service pyramid pictured above.

More community.

More public speaking.

More consulting.

At least one board role.

Less free.

Less visible.

The universe keeps redirecting me. Yesterday I got a troll to remind me that visibility has it's costs. I'm fortunate that I'm rarely attacked and he was swiftly blocked but the fact that it happened at all told me that I'm misdirecting my energy.

This has got to be my mantra: RTO is not for you.

As Taylor Swift said, I'd very much like to be excluded from this narrative.

The office is a tool, just like any other technology we use. We've assigned meaning and purpose to it that may not be valid going forward. You want to mandate return to office? Go for it. You probably are not my ideal client.

I also don't believe in surveillance. Even if recording is required for regulatory reasons, you don't have to use it the way that organizations have been using it for years to micromanage. Just because that's what you've always done, doesn't mean you have to continue doing it.

Who Are My Ideal Clients?

Although my career has been centred in telecommunications and financial services, my experience with various industries is actually quite broad because of the context of my work. As a dedicated account manager, I was deeply involved in the people functions of hospitals, banks, aerospace development, paper products (yes, I mean toilet paper. Who knew that would turn out to be valuable during the pandemic?), colleges, Indigenous communities, high end hotels, collection agencies, dentists, obstetricians, dentists, third party administrators, financial advisors, a box factory (actually located in Springfield. Queue the Bart Simpson jokes), manufacturing plants and so many others. I once helped my client fire the state senator from his day job. What I'm saying is that my experience is broad - industry doesn't matter. I can work with anyone.

Generally the work has to be contracted and sponsored by someone within the organization who has access to budget and decision making abilities along with influence in the C Suite. Often these people are HR leaders or involved in digital transformation. It looks different in each company. The change that we are talking about is organizational change - distributed work (whether you call it hybrid/remote or something else) is systemic. It cycles through strategy, communication, implementation and touches every person and process. This is a visual representation of my approach but again it will be customized for every organization. Some companies have been working some version of hybrid for decades. Some only started in the pandemic. The first step is assessing where you stand.

As an aside, the work I do can be done as a consultant or as an employee. Some companies hire in house for this work - examples are Atlassian, Dropbox, 3M, Allstate. I'm open to this discussion - there are pros and cons. Here's an article that's useful to reference if you are interested in exploring the idea before we chat. DM me or email me [email protected].

Proof of concept: A Workforce Futurist - In House or Consultant?

Remember, the leaders of the future are likely not the people who hold the formal leadership titles right now. Everyone has the opportunity to influence the future of work. It's a co-creation process.

In my world, leaders aren't people that have a formal title or position. They're people who move a system, a group, a company, an organisation from it's current state to hopefully something better. - Herminia Ibarra, professor of Organizational Behaviour, London Business School

One of my gifts is being able to connect and relate to anyone anywhere within a system or hierarchy. I had a boss once who used to tell people I would talk to anyone and this is true. I've been known to Rick Roll CEO's in the name of employee engagement but also advocate and lobby government officials for much needed legislative change. I'm also the person people often call when they have an idea but have no idea how to execute. I'm often facilitating connections and breaking down silos. Network science is fascinating to me. Did you know that 3% of a network can influence the other 97%? Those are the key people you need to identify - they often aren't the formal leaders. I'll talk to people who are regular employees while walking my dog and then go home to be interviewed by national media, weaving in the authentic concerns confided in me. I'm great at playing devil's advocate and considering alternate perspectives. Great strategy needs to be workable on the ground - you only know how it works by consistently talking to staff and testing and tweaking. I combine deep research with the reality of daily operations.

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Questions to Ask Yourself:

What future pain do you avoid by investing in effective hybrid/remote now?

What difficult conversations are you avoiding?

What beliefs are preventing your organization from successfully implementing distributed work?

How do you define trust?

How do you demonstrate respect?

What undermines psychological safety in your organization?

Orphan problems that no one owns often highlight the culture blindspots in your organization and are a cause of unnecessary friction? Have you identified your orphans?

If any of these resonate and you'd like to chat more, contact me.