Reinventing the Office Experience

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What It’s About: After all these months working remotely, we notice that perhaps too many people are trying to replicate what they physically did in the office in a remote setting, instead of reinventing the way work is done. Does this make good sense? To prime the reinvention pump, ask yourself:

How valuable was the commute to and from the office?
How about paying for parking and/or walking to and from?
Standing in line to get a coffee or whatever?
How much time did you spend in front of your screen answering emails?
How was the cube or office you were in?
How many meetings did you go to?
How many meetings were really productive? How often?
How much was really productive and value producing work?

What many people like about the physical office is being around others, spontaneous connections, the buzz we get from the social atmosphere. Think about what else you miss.

So What?: The following are few principles from organizations who have reinvented work through remote environments, rather than trying to duplicate the office. They act more like being on the Internet than being in the office.

Provide frequent updates (use other methods other than synchronous meetings if possible).
Keep everyone informed efficiently, and be responsible to inform yourself. Be respectful of others' time.
Document and post important information in an open, accessible platform. Documentation is everyone’s obligation.
Assume your question is already answered. Search before asking.
Think and act through living with personal autonomy and responsibility over rigidity, hierarchy and bureaucracy.
Be fiercely and personally accountable.
Remember: No results or daily value created, ultimately means no job.

Now What?: If you open yourself up to these principles, you will be amazed by what doing great work looks and feels like, and how different it is from being in the office. Find out what totally remote companies like GitHub do, and learn from them (note their remote manual).

Think remote, start small, act now (remotely),

- Lorne

One Millennial View: It’s just easy to stay the course as much as possible, and unfortunately I believe many leaders quite simply don’t care, or couldn’t be bothered with the exertion necessary to do any sort of reinvention. That said, watch those who do remodel and embrace the remote experience scoot right on ahead of you and your organization. Metaphorically of course, because you won’t see them in traffic on your commute.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Reinventing the Office Experience

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