The Decentralized Office Strikes Back!
In my previous articles, I have outlined how the COVID-19 pandemic really pressed the fast-forward button on the WFH trend. I am sure many of you are reading this article while working from home, and you have by now have accepted this #wfh style to be the New Normal.
“Remote Work is going to be an integral part of the New Normal, but purely being dependent on work from home may not be suitable for the long term.”
In fact, it’s no secret that people value freedom of choice. Surveys conducted by international agencies have shown strong evidence that about 95% of the workforce which is working remotely would like to continue doing so. But there are many challenges, both for the individual worker as well as the organization, to remain in continuous #wfh mode.
By now, I am sure many of you must have noticed some glitches in this mode of work from home. There would have been times when work commitments & household commitments have been in conflict. Collaborating with team members and getting your ideas heard would have been tough. Communication, collaboration, and loneliness continue to be top challenges for sustained Work from Home employees.
In one of my previous articles, earlier this month I had suggested that #wfh would likely be replaced with #flexiwork once we start unlocking the economy in phases.
So what is the solution? Flexible Work or FlexiWork sounds good on paper, but what does it actually even mean? And how do we even deploy it?
FlexiWork consists of three powerful forces that will change the way we work – FlexiWorkSpace, FlexiWorkForce & FlexiWorkCulture.
The key is to understand the concept of the DECENTRALIZED WORKPLACE.
First, let me tell you what Decentralized Workplace is not. Decentralized Workplace is not merely a Distributed Workplace. Neither is it the Utopian fantasy of digital nomads where everybody from CEO to Accountant is working from home.
It is a concept which needs to permeate the ethos of entire office design as well as work culture. Decentralized Office is a system where your big office is reduced in size and divided into multiple satellite offices in different locations. Preferably it is decided upon by taking account location of your main clients as well as you employees. Employees will transition effortlessly from their home office to a physical workplace as the emergence of the hybrid office reshapes work across a continuum of locations, tasks and teams. However, each of these satellite offices must be designed with collaboration and knowledge sharing space as a critical element.
Decentralized organizations will be flat with smaller cross-functional, self-organizing teams. There will be an emergence of contractors, gig workers & freelancers to make up a Hybrid Workforce. Work will consist of smaller projects with agile processes. A decentralized workforce needs best-in-class communications that take them as close as possible to being with co-workers in a physical office. Team chat, video and content collaboration have become pivotal to anytime, anywhere work.
Next you might have the want to know, why do we exactly need a decentralized approach to office design?
Simply put, Decentralized Workplace means means Speed and Flexibility, which in turn means Profit for Companies. After 2020, most companies would want to find the shortest pathways to profits to recover from the shocks of this year. The fastest route to profit maximization is by leveraging workforce productivity.
Companies would want to grow as well as need to re-size their teams promptly as per the requirements. And since all of this would take place so fast, no one can really predict how many staff or teams they will need to fit in next year. Moreover, there might be a dilemma on how to reduce travel expenses and yet expand their outreach to maximum customer base, as well as talent from multiple geo-locations. So if the proportions of shared and flexible spaces are higher than dedicated workstations, then you are more likely able to cater for the ever-changing headcount.
And with mobile technology, you don’t need X amount of space to fit X amount of staff. With a smartphone or a laptop, you can work anywhere, and yet you also do not want to let go of all formalized structure by letting all employees permanently work from home.
In the future, the role of a workplace as the location where work is produced will start diminishing. Instead, the workplace would be the place for coordinating, collaborating on work already done individually at home, and knowledge sharing among employees.
Now the next concern on your mind would be that all this sounds great but how can you go about implementing it step by step in my organization?
In order to attain true decentralized structure for your organization, I recommend following a plan for Progressive Decentralization
1) Management Style Fit
This is the first priority for your organization. This is the stage where the hierarchy of the management needs to be flat-lined as much as possible, keeping the work culture & industry in mind. At this stage, the company needs to decide how to divide the workforce into multiple smaller units. Each unit can be located in different offices far away from each other, but still retaining the productivity and office culture. Each of those teams should have the sovereign authority in most matters concerning producing their work with a team leader as the helm of affairs.
It is important to divide the teams in such a way that inter-team communications, usually over video conferencing, are mostly for knowledge sharing as well as gathering peer to peer feedback.
It will also be wise to probably have office locations in sub-prime areas with good internet speeds, thereby reducing exposure to expensive real estate.
Also, it is useful to remember that at this stage the decisions on how to divide the teams, and all changes to be made must be decided by the core members of the organization only. It is imperative to note that at this stage the control lies with the core members of the company like CEO, Directors, CTO, etc. Faking autonomy on such discussions with employees will be useless. Instead, being transparent about the deciding authorities is vital to building trust.
2) Incentivize Workforce Participation
This is the next stage where the workforce needs to be taken into confidence, and their participation in following the decentralized structure needs to be incentivized.
So as an example, imagine the product development team is located in Bangalore and the core developers prefer flexible work timings or may even like to work remotely from home. In this case, encourage them to work from home thrice a week but establish the deliverables clearly with them. Also open the channels for inter-communication between different team members by providing the essential video conferencing devices such as Logitech Room Solutions.
Also, it is good to remember that you should invest in good documentation of KPI deliverable expected; design protocols of communication clearly; offer bounties, or other incentives for meeting targets; and most of all conduct frequent meetings with other organization members located elsewhere at least 1-2 times a week to keep all senior members in the company updated. You may even incentivize the communication by team members.
3) Delegating Work Ownership
This is the final stage of deploying complete decentralized structure. Each individual employee would be allocated tasks and targets which they have individually own and deliver upon. To complete the task, whatever collaboration they might need shall be facilitated by the company. However ,each individual will have an incentive attached to the degree of fulfillment of their targets. This will enable the workforce to truly own their work, as well as work flexibly as they want while sharing their learning and collaborating independently with other team members using video collaboration as well as limited face to face meetings within the local office campus.
It is important to understand that the above order of deploying a decentralized structure needs to be followed or else your company may get stuck without end results achieved.
Remote working is here to stay and will, more than ever, become an integral part of the way we work. Organizations must prepare now to give users more choice of work environments and collaboration tools with a focus on people and performance. Video collaboration is the glue that holds an increasingly fragmented workforce together. Not only does it better connect employees, customers, and partners and keeps everyone on the same page, it also builds a more agile, efficient and sustainable business. This is how we at Logitech are making a profound impact on businesses worldwide.
In conclusion, it appears that the lockdown due to the pandemic has given a taste of how remote working could be. Navigating the post-pandemic world will come down to two key elements: people and technology. When employees experience a radical change such as shifting to work from home (WFH) for extended periods—sometimes in restricted and noisy spaces—it’s not easy. A hybrid office pioneering “FlexiWork” will be where the geniuses of tomorrow want to work.
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