Does it matter if your team:
- Works from home or together in the same building?
- Reports to the floor for a night shift while others in the organization work in their pajamas?
Does it matter if your team:
- Can’t be in the same room together, but instead must make big decisions (and build trust) virtually?
- Works for a company that can’t seem to decide (or enforce) who returns to the workplace and when?
Working conditions are relevant to levels of productivity. There is no denying the effect environments have on the thinking and actions of people.
The covid-era, however, accelerated many things, including this awareness: Productivity can occur in many settings. As volatility and disruption become norms, organizations with employees who are conditionally productive will suffer.
When the factors of where and when and how an employee does their work is more important than who the employee is, the company can only move forward in clumsy and rigid fashion. Because working conditions are increasingly unstable, success favors employees who demonstrate unconditional productivity.
This not to suggest a team can win by ignoring working conditions or without employees aligned to ways of working. Understanding where employees need to be and when, so they can work in concert with one another, will always be important.
This is merely a reminder. The organization that gets lost in disputing who works from where and when will lose to companies who stay focused on the bigger question: How do we continue to increase unconditional productivity?
Excellence always flows to those who are bigger than their circumstances.
P.S. The chaos surrounding “who works where and when” is contributing to employee burnout. Mobilizing hearts and minds has never been more important for leadership. On June 16 at 11:00 Eastern, we’ll be hosting a live activation session addressing this urgent need. It’s free. The heart is worth it. You can register here.
