THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS? WE CAN DO BETTER…

My News Feed is awash with articles, which seem intent on pitting one possible ‘future of work’ against the other. The ‘Office is dead’ is offset in equal column inches by the counterargument that ‘Home working has killed creativity/led to isolation and burnout’ and as such, it ‘cannot and will not last’.

In the past week I have read that:

• Productivity has soared… and indeed, plummeted
• Wellbeing and mental health have been ‘vastly improved’ and then equally, thrown into sharp decline
• Creativity has increased and... you guessed it, waned exponentially
• Our sense of belonging, tribe and togetherness have been helped by us seeing into one another’s homes and personal lives and yet… also, shattered by our lack of ‘Watercooler moments’ and the ‘irreplaceable bonding effect of face-to-face meetings’.

This tension reflects the ultimate challenge that organisations now face: How do we choose and commit to a forward path, when the future is still uncertain?

Most organisations are grappling with the uncomfortable nature of ambiguity and complexity. Change is an unhelpful constant when it comes to strategic planning and yet this is the unwelcome new business as usual that leaders face, globally. So, how do leaders and their teams helpfully navigate this reality when their instinctive response is to ‘make a plan and then execute’? How do organisations avoid the trap of binary thinking, leading to ‘remote vs. office is best’, when this kind of divisive absolutism will lead to factions and broken cultures whose hallmark is an unhelpful ‘them and us’ mentality in which there are few real winners and many more losers.

According to a recent HBR study: “Since all-virtual work began, employee stress, negative emotions, and task-related conflict have all been steadily falling; each is down at least 10%. At the same time, employees have experienced an approximately 10% improvement in self-efficacy and their capacity to pay attention to their work. A couple of months in, employees reported that they were “falling into a consistent routine,” “forming a pattern [of work time and breaks] with my co-workers,” and “learning what makes me the most productive and how I can best manage my time and energy.”

This study suggests that our people are able to adapt and learn and offers an important data point to guide organisations as to how they might now chart a coherent course forward.

The reality is that we cannot apply a fixed mindset to the challenges we now face. Our need for certainty and fixed futures will trip us up and delay both our human and economic recoveries. The future is uncertain, and we will need to get very comfortable with ambiguity. Here is why:

1.    It is not possible to say with any certainty that working from home is better or worse BECAUSE it has happened, on a global scale, in the most extreme of all circumstances. Companies such as Github and Miro have established global distributed team norms, however, for the majority of organisations, home working at scale has taken place amidst the mental, emotional and financial backdrop of a Global Pandemic. This is NOT flexible working.

2.    The notion that we can choose to simply return to the way things were, or keep things as they are today, is fundamentally flawed. The shark is STILL in the water. People are both keen and scared to return to offices. They are both fearful to commute and scared to be home in perpetuity. Either fixed path feels extreme and many people crave balance and choice, the chance to find the best of both worlds.

3.    Surveys that suggest that ‘most people want’ offer flawed data. Humans are idiosyncratic and besides, what people want now may change. I may love the idea of returning to the office and then find that, one week in, the reality is that whatever ‘perfect world’ I hoped awaited me, a world of deep human connections, creative brainstorming and the delights of high speed broadband and a proper desk and chair are offset by the reality of the mask-wearing commute, the reality of the office.

To those organisations seeking a single source of truth and a homogenous path forward, I would suggest that it is time to work harder and smarter to create a future with many winners. A system in which there are Winners and Losers will lead to losses for all. Those forced to go back/stay home will withdraw their discretionary effort. Those who experience a two-tier system of promotion will grow resentful of the organisation and of the colleagues that seek to broker favour through the official or unofficial favoured norm of home vs office base. We cannot afford to roll back on the gains we had started to make on Diversity and Inclusion and a binary system will widen these gaps to the detriment of us all.

Conversely, those organisations that commit to the intentional design, and re-design of as yet, unimagined futures will thrive. Those with a high adaptability quotient will win hearts and minds and explore new ways of creating connection, creativity and work that works for all. They will seek and embrace multiple viewpoints and craft a future that is win-win.

I remain hopeful that this binary 'the office is dead' vs 'home working sucks' debate is NOT the stretch limits of the many more generative possibilities that lie ahead.

A few simple guiding principles might help:

1. There is infinite potential in the many hybrid models that we have not yet imagined (and won't whilst we stay stuck in binary thinking). Adaptive organisations with a growth mindset will thrive and find paths that have many winners, not just one at the expense of another. Intentional design of ‘what next’ is the cornerstone of the future-fit organisation and an experimental mindset (Test, Learn, Adapt) will pay dividends.

2. Shortcuts won’t save pennies: It is NOT (and will never be) acceptable to cut people's pay if they no longer commute - you pay them for the value they create, not for their commuter or business travel endurance levels .

3. Monitoring people will not make them more productive. People are productive when they are willing and able to expend discretionary effort. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are the vital ingredients for that, along with a presumption of TRUST.

4. Equip your people to do their very best work, irrespective of where or when they do it. Your team should have equal access, inclusion, kit, connectivity and opportunity, based on the work to be done, not on their work location or fixed working hours.