Return with Purpose, Not to Office

Return with Purpose, Not to Office

Long before a once-in-lifetime pandemic ushered in an unprecedented period of remote work, the traditional nine-to-five, 5 day-a-week office work model had already begun to shift towards more flexible ways of working.  While some organizations previously realized, and actively promoted a healthy work-life balance, along with technology improving the quality of working effectively and in new ways, I’m curious as to why some companies would want to undo the positive benefits that emerged by taking a hard stance on broad return-to-office mandates, rather than defining what the purposeful principles are for guiding in-person collaboration from a work culture perspective.

It’s been heavily noted that productively has not only sustained, but thrived throughout the remote work era, and yet, leaders are fair to reason that returning to increased personal interactions would undoubtedly be a catalyst for sparking new innovations.  The question becomes how best to strike this balance.  The notion that the need for time at the office can be defined by a top-down or global policy, and be implemented in a cookie cutter manner across all segments of a large complex, AND be well received by employees is, well… forgive me here… batshit crazy.  

Please do not get me wrong… I see great value in having in person collaboration, and I absolutely love it when I am able to be in the same room as my team.  However, with the nature of our work and our geographic dispersion, it’s not meaningful for this to be defined on a frequent or even regular schedule.  It’s more imperative that we have the give-and-take flexibility to manage our time, work, and our lives in order to meet all of our objectives, professional and personal.  

Given the complexity in the DNA of large organizations, leaders at each level throughout the organization should be empowered to implement the right hybrid working practices that best position their team to deliver on their objectives and key results (OKRs) as defined by the C-level.  That may very well mean regular on site collaboration for some teams; for others it may mean less frequent in-person interactions, but perhaps a need for periodic travel.  No one knows better what model works best for a team than the team itself.  Will it be perfect?  No. There will be some degree of trial and error to get it right, but trust your leaders to do what they do best… lead. 

This is where the OKR based approach can help to strengthen the leaders’ ability within your organization: setting the agreed expectations on results, focusing on the needed milestones, and empowering your leaders with the trust and support to leverage their close knowledge and relationships with the members of their units… This will enable them to implement and manage a right-sized hybrid work model that meets the moment.   

If the office is no longer defined as ‘the place where we work,’ then what is it? 

The benefits of in person collaboration are real, and if promoted for the right purposes at the right cadence at a team level and allowed to grow organically will lead to better buy-in by employees and better results for the company.  The workplace itself needs to take on more value-add than just a physical space for doing your job alongside others, and the old perks of food, gyms and baristas aren’t going to be enough to entice all employees to eagerly return to the office.  

The workplace of the current needs to emphasize communal spaces where we come together for purposeful interactions that cannot be fully realized through a screen broken into 3×3 two-inch video grids.  It is a hub for teams to come together to strengthen bonds and identity, strategize, and ideate in a way that enables the nuts and bolts work that we do on a day-to-day basis, wherever it may be performed, to deliver on the objectives and key results that are critical to our organizations success.  

The shift of flexible working hours and location and the focus on objectives and key results should be a positive trend for both organizations and employees.  By recognizing the importance of work-life integration, emphasizing results over hours worked or days in a specific physical location, and having spaces that are designed to heighten meaningful in person collaboration, organizations undo employees’ resistance about returning a purpose in person collaboration, creating a more balanced, productive, innovative, and motivated workforce.