Lucia Rahilly: How do you think the design and the configuration of the office dovetail with the design of an organization’s tasks, its roles, and its culture?īill Schaninger: There’s a cool science behind it. I think that’s a fool’s errand and will continue to destroy your value proposition. Some work needs to be done together, but not a spurious mandate-not a “We’re back in charge now” orientation. Let’s lay it out.” Then, once you have the workstreams running with good governance, why not let the work drive the decision of whether to be together? If there are enough meaningful kick-off meetings for projects, you might need two weeks together to say, “Let’s define it. I wish the resources we put into working capital, cost cutting, and new sales approaches would be reallocated to support the work that needs to be done together. You don’t have to drive 90 minutes to get on a Zoom. People have gotten a taste now of not all work needing to be done in a cube. I’m surprised we’ve had this run of mandates. Do you actually think this recent spate of mandates will jolt folks back into the office?īill Schaninger: Probably not. But before we do, Bill, we talked on this podcast recently about what at least appears to be a rise in worker power, given the tight labor market right now. Lucia Rahilly: I want to go back to this question of attracting talent. But there is some work that does require people to be together somewhat regularly. We’re recognizing that some work can absolutely be done anywhere. That balance does require some degree of flexibility but also some degree of in-person interaction. But there is some work-in particular, coaching, mentoring, some of the creative interactions that happen together-that does require people to be together somewhat regularly. Individual contributor work and going through your emails doesn’t require you to be in the office.
What do your clients think is at stake as they grapple with the challenge of bringing people back to the office?īryan Hancock: They’re seeing two things at stake: one, they’re trying to figure out “How do I get the people I need to execute on the mission?” And two, as they’re coming up with the strategy, they’re trying to figure out “OK, am I going to lose somebody if I have too stringent a policy?” Or on the flip side “Can I attract somebody if I open up my availability for talent anywhere in the country?” Lucia Rahilly: Bryan, you’re talking to business leaders every day. But that’s new all around, to go back to something that they didn’t really like prior to COVID-19. And because it wasn’t that great to be in the office before, we find ourselves at this impasse where employers feel they have to order folks in. Almost anyone I ever talked to, any client I ever served, wanted one or two days’ more flexibility than they officially had.
It’s important to go back to the pre-COVID-19 times and understand that we weren’t in the office 100 percent of the time.
Phil Kirschner: Generally speaking, they’re not.
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