“Constraints focus the mind and provide fertile ground for creativity”
Unknown
“Your network is your net worth”
Porter Gale
“In the future, the optimal form of industrial organization will be neither small companies nor large ones, but network structures that share the advantages of both”
Francis Fukuyama
These days, we are in the middle of both a work-life crisis and economic one, both of formidable dimensions, caused above all by the Corona virus pandemic. Social distancing has become a reality. Large gatherings are no longer possible, and even what has been “normal” office work until now can be a problem. Virtual work is now a reality for most! Due to COVID-19 measure around the globe, more and more people are working from home and conducting their meetings virtually. But as you also know, we shall, in all likelihood enter into a post-corona threat phase sooner or later. At the end of this paper I am briefly discussing 14 issues that I believe shall be with us also then, i.e. as part of Working From Home in the future.
Remote work and networking are generally going surprisingly well! In this note we shall discuss some of these new realities, what business writers are coining “our new normal” (possible also to come will be the “next normal”). It should be noted, of course, that this new reality does not seem to apply equally well to all business areas, for instance, not to manufacturing, airlines, cruise lines, hotels restaurants, bars, …, nor to the operation of schools and universities! Yet, the abbreviation WFH has now become commonplace – working from home!
As you may also know, my wholly owned investment firm, S. Ugelstad Invest (SUI), has always followed a so-called “networked strategy”. In essence, the working mode of such a network-driven business entity might be seen as quite similar to what is now being prescribed by many – social (or professional) distancing (or as now often referred to: “distanced socialization”). Take one of the entities within SUI’s sphere, the Lorange Network (LN), for instance. Its activities consist of small working groups from all over the world: Switzerland (where I am located as its CEO), Norway, France, St. Petersburg, Isle of Man, Singapore, Hong Kong, Boston, and so on.
Let me share with you seven sets of issues which we at Lorange Network are able to tackle rather well, via means of virtual communication. As you will read, our experience indicates that we are actually working better this way compared to organizing ourselves along more conventional modes. As you will also be able to infer, this seems to correspond very closely to what might be the new normal stemming from the Corona virus threat. Here are my seven points of recommendations:
We are all making exclusive use of teleconferencing and virtual meetings in our networks. We use all the typical digital platforms for this, and many are excellent. This is of course is the reality for most businesses in today’s Corona virus dominated context. What are the key “conditions” to be present in order for virtual to work well?
It helps to know the other party/parties rather well! Trust is critical. If people do not know each other then it is much harder to make video-conferencing work. So prior physical meetings are the useful precursors to videoconferencing. Knowing someone from before the crisis brings a certain comfort to the digital meeting. Familiarity, if positive, is thus involved in the trust. In other words, if participants have met and worked together before, the virtual meeting will most likely be easier. Part of this precursor process might be to pave the way for the different groups of executives who are to be involved in a given task to now be able to see things more or less the same way, i.e. “harmonizing” their viewpoints.
A practical, but still all-important, condition for effective virtual conferencing would be that the proper equipment should be in place. Firms must be willing to invest in quality computers, cameras, microphones, lighting as well as backdrop walls. And, above all, the software, platforms and devices that are being used must involve pre-use training by all users as well as allow for a clear delineation regarding who talks when. Having a moderator, gate-keeper and/or time keeper is thus critical. And certain rules must be made clear from the start (i.e. microphone muting vs. unmuting, video camera on or off, chats, when to pose questions, etc.)
A related condition for making video-conferencing a success is the need to “invest” in proper preparation for a given video-based meeting: a clear and simple agenda, specific start and end times, appointment of a leader, insistence on discipline by all, a structure for questions and comments, as well as requiring that all are familiarized with the background substance or information of the topic/s to be discussed.
Let us now give a few examples from business that might lend themselves particularly well to virtual/networked thinking:
Virtual board meetings. (Please note that some insist on physical attendance of board meetings, however. This seems to be old-fashioned! )
Virtual annual meetings or AGMs. Here virtual voting may be particularly key! There are excellent polling functions in place in many of the top meeting platforms in use today. Polling online can work smoothly but confidentially as well as publicly.
Daily top management meetings, for example, the way they hold these at say at Amazon with Mr. Bezos himself regularly in attendance. These regular “check-ins” are ever important in today’s remote office world not just to set the to-action list for the day, but also to connect with employees and/or colleagues.
Strategy review meetings. These can now be held more frequently. Screens can be shared, documents can be edited by multiple parties during the meeting, outside contributors can be added at specific times during the meeting, etc.
Club/society meetings, such as now practiced by, for instance, YPO, Rotary Clubs and others allowing members but also guests or visitors to attend.
Virtual lunch and/or dinner meetings. If we could have deep conversations before during meals there is no reason why this can not be done now online.
And, of course, distance learning in education.
What are some of the more obvious positive effects from this new virtual “normal"? Perhaps the most obvious one is that the circumstances we face have already made it relatively easier to use video-based meetings instead of time exhausting travel. People now accept this as inevitable, given the realities of the day. There really is rarely any other choice today. There are certainly additional benefits: such meetings often tend to be more focused, shorter and more efficient. And, there are lower travel costs and thus less drains on T&E budgets, and time drainage. There is, of course, a potential danger that too many individuals might be asked to attend a given video-meeting, analogous to the “copy all” on emails. But this can be managed! And, in virtual learning as in many webinars, the student or participant is now able to re-run or re-watch particular sessions. This may therefore make it easier for him/her to be absolutely clear about the topic, allowing him/her to fully and actively understand the subject matter, compared to real-life and live lectures or presentations which, of course, may not be re-run. So, there seems to be a consensus that we tend to work harder when we are part of video-based digital meetings. We typically concentrate more, and are simply more effective. And, it is relatively easier to arrange for several shorter online meetings rather than a few larger physical ones. One project team reports on 3 meetings of 30 minute duration per week. Clearly, many short meetings increase the likelihood of progressing faster! In the end, it should also be noted that some people actually may prefer to work from home than from the office. Many employees like to manage their own agendas and self-organize. This autonomy can increase accountability and responsibility within a business team, as well as fuel commitment and enthusiasm. It seems important to capitalize on this!
So, what are some of the obvious disadvantages with video-meetings? Perhaps the most critical one might be labelled as the negative psychological effects from working alone, from home. This can indeed be lonely, even depressing! There is no psychological substitute for “face to face” interaction. To have a sufficiently large enough home might thus be key – ideally with a separate designated workspace, to ensure no interruptions, and more quiet environments. Regrettably this is often not the case. Children at home from school and family life can easily cause disruption.
What is the future of videoconferencing going to be like? It seems clear that there are, in all likelihood, going to be lasting effects from the “new” way we are working, now induced by the Corona virus pandemic reality. Things are probably never going to return to “the good old days”! Office work shall indeed be different, in the future with much more independent work, from home. And, virtual learning methods shall also have an increasing dominance on education, i.e. schools and universities. The role model of the classic teacher or professor shall be a person of the past! Now he/she is a two-way catalyst, not a one-way knowledge provider! And, the advent of the so-called 5G technology shall further open up new virtual opportunities given its impact on access, speed and quality of connection. Evolution seems to be on the side of virtuality!
There are clearly variations in how effective virtuality can materialize itself. It is important to be aware of such variations and not assume that remote work is the same for all types of people or organizations. Just like in face to face meetings, virtual meetings can be planned, managed and experienced differently. Let us give one example from a project team working on a process for reducing the CO2 emissions of its main product. Here Skype is used. The project team members initiate the meeting, saying hello to each other. They come from several countries in Europe, and they already know each other well. Relevant documents and drawings are then also shown using screenshare. Once the kick-off online meeting is over, additional meetings may be conducted over the phone. This particular team felt that this combination of online with telephone is faster and less burdensome for its interactions. Digital calling is easy today, i.e. Wifi calling or WhatsApp. So let’s not forget the power of the telephone call either in these crisis times. A quick call is also a great connector.
Further limitations: We have already flagged some potential limitations to this virtual meeting revolution. Here are some more:
To inspire one’s team is, of course, key. It may seem hard to see how this can be done effectively virtually – it probably requires meeting physically in the office. Trust-building is, of course, absolutely crucial, as already discussed. Again, face-to-face interaction in the office seems critical. And, it should be noticed that many modern office buildings with open space “office landscapes” might not necessarily lend themselves well to this, in that specific teams typically might end up sitting apart from one another.
Brainstorming discussions may be less frequent. Creativity may simply not be there! Drop-by chats, spontaneous discussions and other non-planned or non-scheduled dialogues may be limited in our new normal where most of the online meetings have to be scheduled in advance. Is it a reality that important innovations typically come about through face-to-face debates? If so, the video-conferencing scenario will definitely have its limits.
What about WFH during the post-corona crisis phase? We shall list and briefly discuss 14 issues that we consider to be with us, in all likelihood, also during a post-corona crisis era:
**Cloud-based technology. **Many issues might be better understood when proper analysis is applied. And, so-called large data analysis comes in a handy way here, based on cloud technology. For instance, the number of underlying factors relevant to better understanding the Corona Virus was reduced from more than 50,000 potential markers, to around 50, applying cloud-based analysis. And, this took three days, rather than around six months or more, had conventional analysis been used. What are the implications when it comes to WFH? It may simply be easier for each of us to “insist” on better analysis, when we all are working from home, and have better control over factors that might otherwise have led to short-cuts. Also, when working remote, staff who handle data and IT equipment has to be involved.
**“Flex” work solutions. **Working from home, alone, gives us more flexibility regarding how we might want to structure our days! WFH opens up for such “flex” solutions. Flexible work solutions may also open up more time for quality thinking, personal brainstorming for example which can later be shared with the team. Building in the “space” for thoughtful reviews and deep-thinking may be easier when working from home if the remote work situation is well set up.
**Increased speed of broadband connections. **With the significant addition of “traffic” on the internet resulting from large increase in WFH persons, it is important that the internet is expanded, so that it has sufficient capacity. Also, when viewing other persons via Skype or other such networks, it is important that there is enough capacity to allow the physical movements of each person to be reasonably similar to reality, i.e. with no “slow” people movements.
**Real-time communication. **With modern technology, communication via the internet or phone is real time. This seems to be a requirement for effective WFH. In contrast, communication via email is not quite of real time quality. The quality of interaction will simply not be adequate with email only. Hence, WFH would not be a realistic option in most cases, if real time communication was lacking.
**Making communication conscious. **When we are WFH and reach out to communicate with another person, we are of course undertaking a conscious act. And the fact that this implies that we are explicit regarding who we intend to communicate with is significant. Valuable energy is lost and time wasted too often under “normal” circumstances when it turns out that we communicate with the wrong person. WFH seems to lead to more direct, conscious, link-ups among relevant pairs of people.
**Increasing awareness of nuances. **It is a fact that when we are communicating, say, face-to-face, in a normal way, there often tend to be factors that are potentially distracting us, such as, for instance, background music, traffic, or even an animal passing by. We can easily be distracted, and our level of awareness diminishes. In contrast, communication via the internet tends to isolate us from most such extraneous factors. We may thus concentrate more fully on the communication itself, and therefore have a higher awareness of nuances.
**Supporting self-management. **Most of us recognize that significant blocks of times might typically be “wasted” in normal work settings, on coffee breaks, social exchanges, non-purposeful readings, etc. In WFH settings, on the other hand, most of us tend to develop our own plan for how we intend to work, on a given day. We are indeed managing ourselves, and the result is typically that we work more effectively.
**Organizing tasks online. **There are, of course, tasks to be done, and these clearly also fully present even though all team members might be WFH. It is critical that a team leader specifies who shall be responsible for what in such remote work contexts. Every member of a team shall then be aware of their task responsibilities. It is all organized! Here there are excellent project management tools available that integrate with other internal and external IT systems.
**Finding new ways to measure productivity. **To measure productivity for those groups of employees that meaningfully can WFH, namely office workers, has traditionally been hard. Common measures are hours on the job, non-absenteeism, etc. With WFH, on the other hand, the issue of measuring outputs, i.e. tasks completed, and the quality of this become central. We see that new sets of productivity measures abound – it is the result that matters, not how much time we spent on making this happen!
**Cyber security issues. **With the additional “traffic” on the internet resulting from increased WFH, there is clearly an increased danger of hacking. This issue has for a long time been addressed by the various network providers. Now, each company that allows for extensive WFH must, in addition, assess whether there is sufficient security working this way when it comes to protecting essential information. We might, regrettably, expect that industrial espionage may become on its way up! A recent example within this topic area is the criticism against zoom about its security. Solutions are now underway, and even adding extra passwords, codes and dual verifications can help.
**Digital time tracking. **As already discussed, we see that virtual meetings tend to take shorter time that face-to-face meetings. We tend to be more structured, better prepared and less distracted! Another contributing reason for this is that we generally will have running access to how much time is being spent, i.e. digital tracking.
**How to handle highly emotional topics. **Most of us have a neutral resistance to handling topics and conflicts head on, in a face-to-face manner. It may be easier, for many, on the other hand to cover such topics in virtual settings. The face-to-face “confrontation directness” might thereby feel softened, and this would relate to the actors on both sides of the conflict.
**Setting up proper workspace at home. **We have already discussed the importance of this. It goes without saying that effective WFH, especially when we are considering this over long periods, is dependent on having adequate physical conditions – light, air, desk, space, amount of clutter versus space and order, and technology. WFH, to be effective, is conditioned on a good workspace at home. There are numerous studies showing that the right space boosts employee health, well-being and productivity.
**Difference between inward facing communication and client facing. **To communicate virtually with others within one’s own organization is typically relatively easy. And, during conditions of government-imposed rules against physical meetings (such as during the Corona Virus threat), a virtual interaction with customers generally seems to be fine, especially when a level of knowing-each-other has already been established. But, when there are no such government-imposed constraints, then it may be more difficult to establish effective contacts with customers. The customer group may indeed expect face-to-face interaction! Of course, strong CRMs and social media can be used to “talk to the customer”, but it must be accepted that there are different challenges involved when communicating online with a client as opposed to with an employee. Important for us all to consider is how to assure that “customer is king” and feels important even when that is done online.
Final Dilemma
It is indeed likely that working from home is going to become the new normal when the Corona crisis is over. But what shall happen to organizations’ abilities to come up with significant innovations then? Would this not be conditioned on people actually meeting face to face, to discuss, interact, engage in “trial and error”? So, while the new post-Corona working from home reality may be efficient and represent economic savings, a key question might be whether the capacity to innovate is an analogous way to the past shall prevail.
A related issue might perhaps be raised when it comes to the basic rationale for maintaining a relatively large headquarters, which is so typical for many conventional organizations. Is this necessary, in the end? Can significant sums of money be saved? And, can fewer persons do more, and through less bureaucratic procedures and means than before? While the “answer” to all of this is probably in the affirmative, another question may now arise: How do we develop a team here? Where is the “glue’? After all, are those valuable bonding processes at work by “chatting in the corridors” or taking coffee breaks? We may have a true dilemma here, indeed!
Conclusions
I was recently asked by the Swiss statistics office about the size of SUI. What was the size of its headquarter group? How large, in m3, was its headquarter? When I answered that the headquarters consists of one person, namely me, working out of my own apartment, I was met with a mix of confusion and skepticism. But, when one thinks about it, while SUI is quite large, both in turnover and in people employed, a key difference is that, in the virtual networked world, conventional statistical measures do not work that well! And, we shall be seeing much more examples of breakdowns of the traditional hierarchical organizational model in the future. The virtual reality is here to stay – we must be better, faster, more adaptive and virtuality in networks gives many “answers”!
Comments