Covid has changed the practice of managing hugely and permanently. The new “hybrid workers” – partially- or fully-remote, and often time-flexible – cannot be managed effectively using past practices. Most simply don’t work any longer. What does work is still being developed or evolved. Managers appear to be well behind in this transition. We look here at some useful ideas for the new world.
Among the very few blessings of our recent COVID experience was the huge shift to remote work and its flexible scheduling and location. Suddenly, many of us had almost full control over our work and used this opportunity to create an unheard-of work-life balance. Now, many businesses are calling for “back-to-the-office” for nearly all. Goodbye wonderful work-life balance. Or is it really gone?
Many of you may have noticed that one of the greatest COVID-driven changes has been a major restructuring of both the workplace and work itself. Not for everybody of course but for a very substantial portion of the working population. The full impact has not yet been felt. It is going to get much more pervasive, extensive, and permanent. Everyone will be affected to some degree.
Businesses today appear to be focusing obsessively on internal changes that are being driven by COVID and other forces, with minimal attention being given to changes in their customers and markets. This seems to me to be the opposite of what is needed. Customers and their marketplaces – that are changing hugely, quickly, and permanently – should always be the primary focus.
I read quite a bit these days about the office either being dead or being temporarily disrupted. Many offices it seems are somewhere in between, like zombies – the living dead. Why does it matter? Because the office of the past is truly obsolete and has been changing for years. Huge implications for managing a business today.
