Room changes. All the time.
Focus on the essentials enriches life.
After more than 4 months in the Covid-19 pandemic, it becomes increasingly clear to me what I truly lack in my daily work:
The personal exchange of ideas with my colleagues and my teams. I miss these short moments over a cup of coffee, spontaneously sitting together for 5 minutes to briefly describe an idea or express an opinion. These moments when it comes to sympathy and empathy in order to further develop the team as a social structure. These situations in which a team picks up, reinforces, energizes or calms individuals.
Covid-19 is a time when we have all experienced the topic of “room” in a completely new way.
Our private room suddenly became our office.
We have all worked verifiably more than 8 hours a day.
So, our business has changed our private room, and sometimes took it over.
Finally, we were all allowed to work in the home office.
For some a long-awaited wish, for others it became a bit painful.
Oh yes, some say that they learned in the home office that ergonomic work is much more than just a marketing story from the office furniture industry.
Covid-19 is the time for personal and professional reflection.
Here are my top 5 things that are relevant and essential for me:
? To meet people physically to achieve something relevant and powerful.
? Mobile Office, work regardless of the obligation to only take place in one room.
? Create work environments that adapt to daily needs and are not fixed for years.
? Create room for team sessions.
? Create room for my individual work needs.
And, also my top 5, which we should definitely no longer do in the work process:
? Business trips exclusively for update meetings, which also work perfectly with Teams, Zoom and the like.
? An office that cannot be changed in terms of design and structure in the next few years.
? Rooms that have only one use.
? Taking digitization in business and work process not seriously enough.
? Distrust employees just because they are in the home office or want to sit alone in the room.
I am actually very happy that I have had maximum flexibility in my work for many years, how, where and when I can do it. Digitization creates instruments to give the individual more freedom and at the same time to drive better team results, effectively and sustainably. At the same time, digitization shows what we can move if we can come together in a safe environment to create something in common.
It is time to support this process with strength and conviction and to design the necessary room.
What is your opinion? What did you discover as essential for you? What experiences can you share with us?
With kind regards, Oliver Kaltner
Germany's TOP Personal Branding Expert for Female Leaders in Tech I From Corporate to starting your own Business: BRIDGE-BUILDER FOR CHANGE for (future) female founders I Bestselling Author
4 年I very much like your concept of rooms that habe more than one function, Oliver. Even though I work from home most of the time,I truly missed my office in a small consulting company that I had just rented one once before Covid-19. It is the spontaneous exchange of ideas,small wins or failures that allow for a special kind of connection that is hard to replace in the virtual world.
Creative Director/Producer (Video&Audio), Talent Coach, Innovation Consultant, Project Manager, Voiceover Artist.
4 年Thanks for the important thoughts, Oliver. Absolutely agreed! The challenges for future office concepts are surely immense. But they also bring enormous chances for office ideas and work culture. Great to see ROOM leading the way. Since Covid we're trying so much (new) technology, learning a lot about workflows and will improve concepts immensely. But IMHO especially for creative tasks physical presence is just not replaceable.?Creative meetings are always emotional meetings. And emotions are exchanged mainly through presence. Yes, right: good, strong words via videoconferencing can be very emotional, too. But the impact of ?broadcasted“ emotions will never be as credible and trustworthy as a statement made in person. Physical presence is a major factor in developing unique creative results with a team. So for me and my creative work it is really necessary to work with the teams in person. That’s why I totally agree that workplaces have to change and need to be able to adapt permanently. And the another essential thing for me personally: I really miss shaking hands! A decent handshake can transport so much personality - from control to empathy, from invitation to warning. But sadly this important human interaction can just not come back to us before we’ve mastered the virus.
Managing Partner CompuSys, Co-Founder HR Buddys, CTO, Entrepreneur, Business Angel, Keynote Speaker & Father
4 年Great input Oliver - as always. Although I'm super much used to homeoffice during lockdown times it was sort of too much. No coffee talks (very important), very few physical meetings almost no personal exchange of ideas. Even the best Zoom/Teams/Hangout can't replace. But I totally agree. Let's make sure to stop these unimportant F2F, internal update BS meetings. These should all be done virtual. And we need a different building architecture in future. I'm very eager to see what #Room will deliver.
Supervisory Board Member / Advisor / Investor / Producer / Founder / Mentor
4 年Very important input - for me the design of the future workplace and system is the next journey - because there cannot be a ?one size fits all“ solution and set-up - creativity, courage, flexibility is needed - and leadership.