I recently received an email note from a CEO who apparently had watched my TED Talk on the Future of Work on a recent Singapore Airlines flight. There obviously must have been slim pickings in the onboard entertainment category on his flight. Nevertheless, his comment, which I paraphrase, was instructive: ‘Amazing how little has changed since you recorded that,’ he said.
And he’s right. In the two years since that TED Talk was recorded in October 2021, the needle showing the degree to which flexible work is being embraced by company leaders has barely moved. Why?
It’s not because there aren’t enough data-driven flex-work advocates. Plenty of deeply knowledgeable people have been getting the word out, including Ryan Anderson, vice president of global research and insights at MillerKnoll; Stanford University professor Nick Bloom; Annie Dean, vice president, Team Anywhere at Atlassian; Brian Elliott, former executive leader of Future Forum; and Robert Sadow, co-founder and CEO of Scoop Technologies, and creator of the “Flex Index,” to name just a few. Yet, many CEOs are still resisting the idea of truly flexible work.
Again, why? There are multiple reasons. But one of the biggest is the fact that many flex-work advocates, including yours truly, have become ensconced in an echo chamber, preaching to the converted, drinking our own “flexible, distributed, hybrid” Kool-Aid.
What we need to be doing—and I’m as guilty as anyone—is spending more of our time listening to those who strongly disagree with the idea of a flexible, distributed workforce. What are their objections? What are they thinking? What’s been their experience? Would they care to share their data? What do we have wrong?
As committed advocates of distributed, asynchronous and flexible work, we should be trying to see the world from the perspective of those who oppose the idea—not only because it might help us strengthen our arguments, but also because it might force us to adjust our views. After all, many of the concerns flex-work critics and skeptics express are perfectly legitimate; and while it may be hard to admit, they get some things very right.
There are many reasons to work together in person: for collaboration; for team- and culture-building; for onboarding and training, and for many other activities, all of which are easier—and more effective—when done in the workplace, when everyone’s there.
In many circumstances there are major advantages to personal, face-to-face meetings. Videoconferencing, emails and chat are fine—up to a point. Meeting customers, clients, collaborators and colleagues—or potential customers, clients, collaborators, and colleagues—in their office, in your office, in a conference room, or for coffee, lunch, dinner or drinks is so much more impactful than talking to them on a screen. For example, you might learn some valuable information after the formal meeting is over as you’re leaving the room together; or you might bump into someone in the café or elevator and strike up a conversation that sparks a valuable new collaboration or connection. There are so many potential benefits to in-person meetings.
So, maybe it’s time for those of us who have been pounding our drums for flex-work to start talking with those who’ve had their fingers in their ears. We may learn that beyond the rhetoric we’re more aligned than we think. We may all agree that it’s valuable to be together when we do certain things—and agree what those activities are. We may also agree that the pros outweigh the cons when distributed teams connect remotely for routine communication. We may agree that fewer, but more focused, in-person meetings increase productivity—but that catch-up and information-sharing “meetings” can be done from anywhere.
The Future of Work is at risk of being undermined by our own echo chamber. Advocates for and against flexible, distributed work need to leave their respective echo chambers and engage with those who hold the opposite view. We need to listen to and earnestly consider the views of others.
Let’s give conversation a try. I’m sure it will improve both our thinking and our work and the thinking of those on the other side as well.
My echo chamber exodus starts today. So, if you know of a forum on returning to the office, I’d be pleased to participate.
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