Return-To-Office: Millstones & Milestones

Confetti blasters!

It's hard to believe that PrismWork is only celebrating six months of being in business. We inaugurated our company on inauguration day, and it's been a wild ride ever since.??

In just six months, we've:

• Developed our proprietary Workplace Prism Culture 360°?to help clients revamp their cultures as they plan and implement their RTO
• Conducted numerous?HEARTI?:Leader Assessments?for senior teams to help prepare them to lead in the new world of work
• Launched our culture impact research arm working with strategic partners to conduct research that moves the needle
• Secured funding from the Tara Health Foundation for a?21st Century Leadership Lab for Men?pilot. We sold out the program within just a few weeks with senior leaders from the tech, advertising, financial services, biotech industries, and more. We can't wait to kick the program off with these trailblazing men in September.
• Partnered with?Fishbowl Live?to host a six-week leadership series which attracted over 1,200 each week

Oh, and we hired our first employee! Thank you, Alicia Goshe, for bringing your A-game to our culture innovation start-up. We wouldn't be here without you.

Some might view our work of transforming toxic, inequitable, and exclusive corporate cultures from the last century into thriving, resilient places of inclusivity as a millstone. We experience it as a joy and fantastic opportunity. The time has flown by, and as with any significant event to mark distance, growth, and time, we celebrate this milestone with awe and gratitude for our amazing clients and our incredible consulting partners.

We've done all of this using a distributed team working with clients across the globe and no corporate building. A few years ago, this might be a big deal, but in the times of COVID-19? Shoulder shrug…It's 2021 and remote/virtual working, long touted as the future of work, is here to stay.?

Will the approach be work from anywhere, or will it be some hybrid solution? Only time will tell. But, for many companies, the reality that employees are craving - in some cases, demanding - more time mastery remains a hard pill to swallow. Just ask?Apple, who continues to refuse to alter their RTO plans despite ongoing employee backlash.

Like many of our clients, you've probably spent considerable time in the last few months making facilities decisions and getting ready for employees to emerge on campus. They will join the numbers of essential workers who braved this environment daily for a year before the rest of us. How leaders navigate this next phase will make - or break - your company culture. In our?last 21st Century Leadership Letter?, Lisen eloquently laid out the biases that influence leaders to promote onsite working. I want to spend a few moments sharing some ways to keep your RTO milestone from turning into a DEI millstone for your company.?

Be Agile

A?recent study reported?that 70% of companies plan to bring their employees back to the office this fall. Many like Goldman Sachs beat that pack by a season. What happens when the Delta, or some other new variant, wreaks havoc and threatens your employees' safety? Try this: instead of prioritizing the company's challenges, put people and their safety first. We all learned that agility is vital when dealing with COVID, and sticking to the company's agenda at the expense of your employee's well-being, is neither good for your business nor good for them.?

If you can't find a way to hold off, then at the bare minimum, don't relax precautions. Immunocompromised and disabled people who enter your reopened space, from employees and contractors to customers, all want to have confidence that they have no increased exposure to COVID. This assurance is for them and the other people they interact with as caregivers, friends, and family. Are the facilities' decisions you're making prioritizing the safety and well-being of your staff to minimize outbreaks? Or, is your race to return trumping your employees' safety?

Be Inclusive

When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion, if there's anything that can make your return to office efforts a millstone, it is the prospect of your diverse employees enduring microaggressions, lack of advancement, and hostile work environments before and after an extended commute.?

Consider what a?recent survey?revealed about the in-office challenges diverse talent had to face before Covid:?

• Having colleagues touch their hair.
• Being mistaken for another colleague of the same race (a problem solved by having names displayed in video meetings)
• Overhearing insensitive commentary on or being pressured to discuss traumatizing news events such as racist violence or coronavirus outbreaks in their home country
• Fielding comments from passersby on their "angry" (actually focused) expression

No wonder?many are saying?they don't want to rush back. These issues existed before the coronavirus interruption, and companies had ample time to address these problems before the pandemic. Most didn't. Asking your Black and Brown, LGBTQ+, women, and disabled workers to return without ensuring a more inclusive culture is a recipe for failure.

If you insist on racing back, be sure you've revamped your culture because otherwise, you are likely to experience?The Great Resignation?like other companies.

Don't Go Back, Go Better.?

RTO is a case study in leadership. If you are not taking the time to uplevel your leaders' skills and put in place programs and policies to create a more inclusive culture, you're missing the moment. Follow the lead of our forward-thinking clients and make the most of this moment. Do a culture assessment, provide leadership training, and support them to map out their hybrid working strategy. At the very least, follow our four guiding principles for implementing a successful RTO:

1. Focus on guidelines, not policies.?Provide policy only when regulations/laws require, or sparingly as company culture dictates.
2. Be results-focused.?Prioritize what work gets done rather than how/when/where it gets done.
3. Distribute/delegate decision-making.?Empower each team to decide when/where/if their group should meet.
4. Empower employees with a sense of agency.?Flex to the team's needs rather than expecting the team to flex to the leader/organization.

At PrismWork, we don't plan on going back to an office, and we don't plan on going forward to one either. Our global team of collaborators knows they have the freedom to do their best work in the way that works best for them. But every company is different. Here's to hoping you can navigate these next few months with vision, intention, and grace. Now that would be something to celebrate.?

Be Great,

Corey

Corey’s 20+ career in advertising, marketing, and storytelling has created meaningful opportunities of engagement and change for companies as they interact with their employees and customers. His insights give leaders the tools to connect cultural relevance to the decisions their brands make today with a vision of impact on tomorrow.