Is 2020 the Year the WFA Culture Explodes?

What It’s About: Happy New Year everyone! More importantly, happy new decade! It’s 2020, and every organization needs to actively promote the Work From Anywhere (WFA) Culture. Why? The idea of work being defined exclusively by the time one “punches in,” and the amount of time invested in a defined place, is well past its ubiquitous usefulness. Of course many jobs, indeed almost all jobs, require us to show up at a certain time and place. However, that only makes sense when there is a value added reason to do so. And I’m well aware that in some occupations, it’s imperative that time and place conditions exist (tough to fight a fire from home). Yet today, the technology is so robust that we can do almost anything from anywhere. Even neurosurgeons are executing remote brain surgery. We need a revolution where workers can consciously chose to do their best work from any location. This is a WFA Culture!

Why It’s Important: For too long we have settled for work as something less than or separate from life. The phrase, “we work to live not live to work” is an outcome of that sentiment. Work is something we’ve been taught to retire from. What if we were invited and expected to get results by using our judgment as to when and how to show up? I listened to the esteemed actor Tom Hanks accept the Cecil B. DeMille award for greatness at the Golden Globes. His lesson: “You have to bring it, you have to ‘go there,’ to hit the mark and in Hollywood terms, ‘close the gate.’” It’s not just about showing up on time and sitting in our spot. It's how we really show up. We need to bring our complete self and fully contribute. So leaders who make these decisions about where and how we work, please begin to treat people as fully functioning adults and actively promote the WFA Culture. Also, make it clear that no results equals no job. So there is a huge self-accountability component underlying WFA. My experience is that very few actions accelerate a positive culture like making it ok for EVERY person to use their best judgment about where/when/how they work. Just move forward on that concept this year, and you will be surprised by the productivity lift you get. Of course, you will likely have a few abusers. Fire them. And do not let a few detractors take from the abundant mindset of others. WFA today!

This year I’m going to write a lot about how we really can build a great WFA Culture. Stay tuned. Let’s accelerate the WFA culture together.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

Lorne

One Millennial View: I know I’ve had many friends express to me that they would love to work from home. The biggest piece of advice they’ve asked for is, “do you think it would be ok if I asked my boss to work from home? And how do I do that?” They fear it’ll look bad, even though they’re confident they can produce the same if not improved results. I believe leaders just can’t fathom not having physical supervision over their teams, so instead of figuring out a solution, they just say “until I’m told this is a new policy, all policies stay the same.” There’s no way we could make 80 sales calls from home? We can’t work on proposals from a local coffee shop and share them on live Google documents or spreadsheets? Why not? Leaders can use Zoom, FaceTime, text, G-chat, Monday.com, Slack, and any number of tech options to monitor productivity and stay in constant contact. WFA is Way Friggin’ Achievable in 2020.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Is 2020 the Year the WFA Culture Explodes?

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