Are Tim Cooke And Elon Musk Generating The Right RNA For Their Back To Office Push?

When the CEO of one of the most powerful and valuable companies in the world, Apple and Tim Cooke says, “we are running the mother of all experiments,” around the idea of what work is going to look like, you have to celebrate the brazen honesty in that statement.?Elon Musk last week declared a mandate of back to work in the office for forty hours a week or it was time to leave Tesla. While Cooke acknowledges that we are living in the mother of all experiments when it comes to back to the office (BTO) Apple’s $5bn Apple Park HQ has got to feel like a potential piece of sunk capital in the current world of work in the office. That $5bn costs is the amount the IMF set aside for Ukraine in June 2020 to help it recover from the effects of Covid-19.?Knowing what we know now, what was the better use of $5Bn??

I do not envy a CEO of a major company with significant investments in office space and a commitment to a got back to the previous the office first, strategy.?This is a very difficult period to navigate through. but listening and learning with employees is probably the best route. Look at the reaction Apple’s staff had to the company's plan for a hybrid return to work.

Are They Stepping Back Into A Time That Has Left Us??

In a series of completely unscientific polls on my LinkedIn account, I have asked on a number of dimensions how people feel about BTO.?With responses from connections and visitors from most of the largest technology companies in the world, three tenants are clear.

Signal #1: You Have To Sell Them On The Why You Have To Get Back To The Office. Because, And I Said So, No Longer Work.

The signals here are interesting. I asked. “Is there a job opportunity that you would return to the office full-time, 40 hours a week for, in your field?” It was very clear (328 responses) that 60% said never. There was no job (ideal or otherwise) that would get the back into the office for 40 hours a week. only 12% said the current job they have met that 40-hour criteria. A high, 28% said yes, that for the job they have, the idea of being in the office for 40 hours a week sounded fine.?Put yourself (not too closely) in an elevator of ten people and you get three fractions.?Six people are adamant that the 40 hours in the office world is over unless they are forced to. One person (you cannot have half a person) is very happy to go back to 40 hours in the office and three people would go back to the office for an ideal job. That is a house divided on a number of fronts. Now think of the fact that 20% of employees probably started a job with a new company during the pandemic years then you can see that their normal was in fact out of the office and not in the office for 40 hours a week. One in five of us has not experienced the need for back to the office. That makes it a tough layer to break unless we can show how, not just why it matters.

The secret here is to sell the advantages of being in the office and not to assume employees must do it. Talk about what can be experienced in the office that is far better than doing it remotely.?Find very specific examples at a departmental level. Remember the vast majority of u have not experienced these things for over 600 working days.?It is really easy to forget this pattern must be re-learned and adapted. CEOs need to invest in the why and far less on the mandate.?This is not business as usual or as was usual before. CEOs need to invest money and time in illustrating the why BTO, day in and day out. For example, have very public channels for feedback about what is working, and what the good parts of this new BTO feel like. The power of meeting colleagues for lunch, (social posts, zoom channels). Help us re-establish new patterns because the old ones will no longer work for 60% of us.

Signal #2: We Live In A House Divided As We Have A Bifurcated Workforce In The Same Company Spaces.

Lets’ make one assumption. Nobody has the perfect formula for BTO, but we should be sharing the learning process together as we all collectively build a new RNA for the back to office. BTO is in effect a new work experience for us. We have to share how we learn together as we rapidly re-engineer how we work in a world where some want to go back to the office, and some (slightly) more do not.?This is not normal, partly as the group that does not want to go back group Is extremely vocal about it.?Ask yourself if your colleagues are all into BTO or are all out on the subject? This is a house divided at all levels of employees. We need to bring people together on this subject.

Signal #3: Humans Adapt Stunningly Well But It Takes Time. We Need To Storm And Form The New Future

For many companies, their results under Covid-19 were stunningly good for tech, pharma, online delivery, etc.?Given that incredible adoption from teams, the question becomes why to go back to the office, because productivity and outcome gains have been exceptional. Labor productivity grew in?39 US states in 2021.?If we learned how to work out of the office we need to learn what working in the office will be like.

When we worked from home before we went from 2% of people at home full time to 19% there part-time to 90% of us at home full time. We each had to navigate how to do this as teams, managers, and leaders. The complexity of co-mingling home and office life, new technologies, or even super dependence on existing technologies (video conferencing) changed us.?Adaption happens based on learning, failure, reflection, and adjustment cycles.?There should be groups that are set up to sculpt this learning process for everybody. Almost like BTO coaches and committees ideating, coaching, learning what is working and what is not working, celebrating learning moments, and sharing as much as possible best, or better practices for success.?

It was good to see Tim Cooke’s comments about living through this experiment, especially after the severe and very public reaction to Apple’s BTO mandate in late April.?There still has to be a question about the core strategy these executives are taking when their workforces are so bifurcated in their newly found belief about the value of BTO.??To assume that Covid -19 did not affect the way we think about work, and work in the office is na?ve.

The CEO and the leadership team need to persuade, educate and build a learning culture for BTO to deliver on what they hope for. Mandating is not a strategy that reflects the environment now. It is a belief that the tradition of 40 hours in the office is timeless, and is in effect an illusion of permanence.

BTO is a journey, not a moment and it needs substantial investment in energy, learning, and a capacity to collectively get uncomfortable navigating a new set of norms.