Change the Workplace
By: Pawan Kumar Khatte
Tags: Creative Leadership, Work From Home, Work Life Balance, Workplace, Creative

If this was your workplace!

Have you ever wondered how people worked every day, in the last century? You got it right. They all came to work at a certain Main Office from their homes in their cities and towns, commuting varying distances.

This is how people commuted to their workplaces in the 1940s. From their homes. And back to their homes at the end of the day.

The employees came to their Main Office using several modes: by walking, cycling, using trams, on horse-drawn carts or driving in modern-cars (well, they were so then).

Similar process was followed in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. Though the vehicles and equipment changed.

This was needed, then, as most relied on heavy paperwork — till the 1960s — that could not be taken home and so had to be kept in the office, under lock & key.

In the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, few started working on computers that were big, heavy and hence not easily portable. They had to be on the office tables. Understandable. Technology was not as it is now.

They used the office equipment available then, which were stand-alone, and not ‘connected’ as we understand today. Surely, they would be called “PRIMITIVE” by today’s millennials (pre & post-millennials too. Haaaahaaa…).

The work culture at offices then, was relatively easy-going, with employees and their families getting to spend their leisure time together, every day, either at home or on vacations.

The traffic and it’s related pollution were very less, office stress was lower as the work pressures were less generally speaking, and people led healthier lives.

Well, ……..

Cut to present, when we are at the beginning of a new decade of the 2020s. We have completed 2 decades in the 21st Century. OMG!

With the ever-increasing supplies of faster & better laptops, tablets and mobiles, and other gizmos, plenty of remote video calling options, and with internet penetration, access, availability, speed and bandwidth increasing in leaps & bounds, one would have expected drastically different work-culture and lifestyles, across the board.

Sadly, unfortunately, and with a very heavy heart, we have to say…….

“the same work-style continues in most corporate offices Worldwide” even today.

Why so? Leadership to blame? The resistance to Change? The fear of letting go? Lack of Trust? Insecurity? The reasons are aplenty.

Why should hundreds of employees travel every day from their homes to the same office, sit on their allotted seats, and work using available fancy gizmos: laptops, tablets, mobiles, platforms, cloud-based technologies, etc… and go back home in the evening, commuting thousands of Person-Kilometers daily, to & fro?

Many employees may feel like they are…….….. Sheep.

Come IN to work……………………………………………….

WORK………………………………………………….

Go OUT, back to where you came from……

Employees are feeling more like a robot-army.

This has taken its toll considerably, for sure. And the problems are well acknowledged, researched and documented by famous institutes and organizations, the World over.

Increasing traffic woes, stress due to daily commuting, missed meeting schedules, high pollution levels, fatigue, burn-outs, depression, havoc to work-life balance, resulting in increased healthcare costs, reduced employee engagement, productivity losses, relationship breakdown, etc…, affects the very purpose of the Organization, which is: Achieve intended results by having a healthy and engaged workforce.

Losing respect for one’s boss is perhaps the worst thing to happen. Medical attention is invariable way forward. Getting hooked onto prescription drugs and even hospitalization at times.

Surely, Organizations need to deliver results. However, the foremost concern to most managements, is: Delivering very good dividends to the shareholders first.

In this process, one should not lose sight of the great human capabilities one employs.

CHANGE must Happen

It’s TIME to start with a FRESH MIND, ….…. a new way of thinking. Start even from scratch, if you will. It’s worth it.

The natural intelligence, creativity, possibilities, of humans need to be perceived, understood, recognized and given opportunities to express in ways that were unthinkable before.

Technology has blessed us all with enabling such possibilities.

Employees would want to feel the joy of working and contributing through engagement.

Can organizations make them FEEL they are working on a beachside, high on the mountains, lying on their home sofas, on a boat, etc… At peace with themselves, thinking calmly, being highly creative and in harmony with others? An highly effective, of course.

Shared and owned Cloud-based technologies, new platforms offering services with utmost assured confidentiality and security, that are paid for as one uses them, etc…, are changing the way of working.

Leaders have to make crucial decisions now………

2020s must be TRANSFORMATIONAL.

All your organization’s data of tomorrow…. would be in huge data centers on the cloud.

Technology and You will make this possible, for economic and performance reasons, and also because it will be the norm.

Can we have a buffet of options available for the employees to take at different times and situations, to ensure the work gets done but with increased health benefits, productivity, and less stress on humans and our climate? Though there are many ways to achieve this, just one interesting option is mentioned here: Satellite Offices in a City.

Think of a Company which has its Main office in one of the most highly congested cities in the World, with hundreds of thousands of daily commuters and huge demands on the city’s infrastructure. Your City, if not there yet, is catching up sometime soon.

One can have Satellite offices belonging to the organization, away from the Main Office, at select locations in a city where employees within a certain effective area, can come and work on most days, if not all.

If a mandatory day or days at the Main office are needed, one can do it. If an important meeting has to be held face-to-face at the Main office, the concerned can do so.

However, most of the time, employees across the Satellite Offices and the Main office, can interact using internet, landlines or mobile phones. Global economy works like this anyway, even now.

There’s no choice.

As per Gallup Survey of 2016, the Percentage of employees Worldwide, who are “Engaged at work”, is an abysmal 13%. Research shows that an engaged workforce is a KEY DRIVER of Organizational SUCCESS. Many have started taking innovative steps. However, a vast majority of the Organizations and their leaders, seem to be in their safe cocoons, with 1960s work styles. We need the bold, the disruptors, the shakers, the innovators in the coming decades. We need leaders who can TRUST their people, Process and Technology.

Galloping technology and smarter people will give us no choice.

What most leaders couldn’t effect themselves before 2020, a Virus named Covid-19, has transformed the way we all work in 2020. The transformation has started. The leaders must get more creative now…..