Work anything, all at once, everywhere

Recently Zoom set a policy for Zoomies like me who live within 50 miles of an office to come in 2 days a week. This has grabbed?headlines becoming of a WFH talisman .?

For most of the past 20 years, I’ve worked remote. Including for Zoom since the middle of the pandemic. But during the last two months, I tried something new. Coming into the office most days. Voluntarily. It’s weird. I’ll explain.

There’s a thing about Zoom most people don’t know (yet). We’re not just supporting how the world works, educates, and even heals through remote Meetings. We have these things that work in conference rooms. In fact, we create the best solutions available for people who work in offices with other people. Who happen to work with people that are in the office, nor not.?

These things were made when you’d likely have a team in a conference room and have to dial in the remote guy. Or meet in a room with someone on the other side of campus because you both had to be there and were lazy. Back when Prius’ were cool, so someone borrowed the word Hybrid.?

Now we call it that, but it’s just normal. It’s just work we haven’t adjusted to yet. Now you’re more likely to have an equal amount of people in the conference room as have have dialed in. And there’s?amazing AI things that make everyone an equal participant . There’s two Zoom Apps, what I do, that are part of this mix.?Workspace Reservation ?for desks and conference rooms. And?Zoom Rooms Controller , so you can seamlessly control a Rooms device from your laptop or mobile phone. Also, Zoom Apps will soon be fully supported across both personal and shared Zoom Rooms devices, the Rooms controller device that sits on the table and Digital Signage that waves to you in the lobby. My favorite Zoom feature of all time is Switch, so I can hop between my desktop, mobile for a brief walk, settle back into a Room, whatever wherever.?

So coming into the office has not only been good for my personal hygiene, but I found all the bugs. Back when I co-founded the first wiki company and help pave the way for other distributed teams, I’d quip: “we’re a distributed team because it forces us to make the product work better.” And it was true. We lived in a kind of future that suddenly arrived for everyone.?

And a new kind of future arrived shortly thereafter. Like our customers, we’re partially in the office. And feeling that pain. Not everyone (most Zoomies will continue to be remote), but all of us we have a better understanding of most of our customer’s pain and be in a better position to solve it.?

Multiple times in the office the serendipity has resulted in results and better connections. A legitimate breakthrough occurred when I intercepted the CEO on the way to the bathroom. There will be advancements in tools for the Hallway Conversations. But the metaverse is bullshit, and perhaps not everything will.?

Making 100% remote work is hard, it requires practices and management that are beyond the scope of tools. I’ve done it, admire those who do, and Zoom is an essential part of doing it best. 100% of knowledge workers in the office is in the dustbin of history. And for most, in-between, the future of work is settling. Where you can work anything, all at once, anywhere.