Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics
Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so
Speaker 1: much out of their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium,
Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is another mini episode, and I am focusing
Speaker 1: today on thinking about what does the future of work
Speaker 1: look like post COVID and I there are three things
Speaker 1: that I've been thinking about. So a couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: I was sent a meme that asked the question who
Speaker 1: led the digital transformation of your company? A the CEO,
Speaker 1: B the CEO or c COVID nineteen. You can probably
Speaker 1: guess which answer was circled, and you may have seen
Speaker 1: this meme yourself. Now courtesy of COVID nineteen. We're now
Speaker 1: six or seven months into the biggest experiment ever run
Speaker 1: on remote working, and some people have thrived. Hello introverts,
Speaker 1: while others are desperate to get back to the office.
Speaker 1: Hello untrusting managers. Now, while every organization is different, here
Speaker 1: are three of my predictions about how we might work
Speaker 1: in the future. So, firstly, I think that asynchronous communication
Speaker 1: will trump synchronous communication. And by asynchronous communication, I mean
Speaker 1: communication that doesn't have to happen at the same time,
Speaker 1: so things like email or working on a collaborative document
Speaker 1: like a Google doc, as opposed to synchronous communication, which
Speaker 1: is things like meetings and phone conversations and things like that.
Speaker 1: So a recent Gardener poll showed that forty eight percent
Speaker 1: of employees will likely work remotely at least part of
Speaker 1: the time after COVID nineteen, versus only thirty percent saying
Speaker 1: that they'll work remotely pre pandemic. So whereen more remotely
Speaker 1: comes with many benefits, such as eliminating time spent commuting,
Speaker 1: being able to spend more time with your family, and
Speaker 1: also wearing pajamas to work. Let's not forget about that benefit.
Speaker 1: But many workplaces have simply switched face to face activities
Speaker 1: into virtual ones. So this is why we're experiencing death
Speaker 1: by zoom. And according to research by Microsoft, virtual meeting
Speaker 1: fatigue is indeed a real phenomenon, which sets in at
Speaker 1: about the thirty minute mark. I recently had Git Labs
Speaker 1: head of Remote Darren Murph on how I work. You
Speaker 1: can go back a few episodes to listen to that one,
Speaker 1: and he pointed out that we are hardwired for synchronous
Speaker 1: synchronous communication from a very early age at school. So
Speaker 1: he said to me that synchronicity is the default for
Speaker 1: a lot of people because it feels productive. It makes
Speaker 1: you feel like you're contributing meaningfully to the organization. But
Speaker 1: these types of meetings and ad hoc interruptions are massively
Speaker 1: disruptive to the bottom line. It's really difficult to get
Speaker 1: into a state of flow and make meaningful progress on
Speaker 1: any type of work if you're constantly being interrupted, is
Speaker 1: what Darren spoke about. So instead organizations need to default
Speaker 1: to asynchronous communications such as email and as I said,
Speaker 1: collaborative documents such as Google Docs. When you've got a
Speaker 1: bias towards asynchronous communication, which is one of the sub
Speaker 1: values at git lab, it allows for more inclusive chorus
Speaker 1: of voices to contribute to a project, is how Darren
Speaker 1: described it, and it also means less interruptions. Now, the
Speaker 1: second thing I think is going to be really important
Speaker 1: in the future of work is building a workplace community
Speaker 1: is going to become super important. So most people haven't
Speaker 1: realized that they don't Rather, most people have realized that
Speaker 1: they don't want to be in the office all of
Speaker 1: the time, but nor do they want to work from
Speaker 1: home one hundred percent of the time. So the new
Speaker 1: normal will most likely involve a hybrid model where work
Speaker 1: location is highly flexible. So in the past, having a
Speaker 1: central office where people gathered was key to building a
Speaker 1: work community and culture. Now that work is more flexible
Speaker 1: and most probably staying that way, organizations need to think
Speaker 1: about how to build a strong sense of community within
Speaker 1: teams and across their entire company given that they can't
Speaker 1: rely on a central office doing this. So instead of
Speaker 1: believing that co location is key to community, the importance
Speaker 1: of intangible things such as shared values become more important
Speaker 1: because when people share values, it helps breed connections to
Speaker 1: each other, and employees who lack this feeling of being
Speaker 1: part of a community are more likely to look for
Speaker 1: work elsewhere. Okay, a final prediction, which is the death
Speaker 1: of perceived hierarchy. So something about remote work is that
Speaker 1: it is the great equalizer. We are all working from
Speaker 1: our studies or bedrooms or living rooms, and we're all
Speaker 1: just a face on a screen with a view into
Speaker 1: our personal worlds. No one can sit at the head
Speaker 1: of the table anymore. So leaders who have embraced the
Speaker 1: meshing of their personal world with their working persona have
Speaker 1: really flourished through during this time. They've been able to
Speaker 1: build high quality connections such as what Professor Jane Dutton
Speaker 1: describes with their team, and these high quality connections lead
Speaker 1: us to feeling more open and confident and alive. When
Speaker 1: organizations do move back to the office, at least in part,
Speaker 1: leaders need to deliberately maintain these connections and be mindful
Speaker 1: of signals that they may indicate moving back to the
Speaker 1: strict hierarchy, so instead, deliberately embrace the inclusivity it is
Speaker 1: bred through the remote environment. So while it's tempting to
Speaker 1: return to the way things were, I think that leaders
Speaker 1: who embrace these positive changes that COVID nineteen has given
Speaker 1: all of us are going to be the ones that
Speaker 1: really thrive in this new working world. So that is
Speaker 1: it for today's show. If you like today's episode, maybe
Speaker 1: share it with someone that you think might also find
Speaker 1: it interesting. And a big thank you for everyone that
Speaker 1: has left reviews for How I Work on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1: You're all awesome. It really does make my day. Reading
Speaker 1: your reviews and kind words that you have to say
Speaker 1: about the podcast. So thank you so much and I
Speaker 1: will see you next time.