Three Elements for Successful Virtual Working

Our cumulative experience of what virtual meeting succeed, and what gets in the way, can offer valuable insights at this time.

In recent months, millions of people are working from home and more will continue to do so in the coming months.

The lessons of the past - on how to balance the roles of technology, social needs, and work rhythms- are very important now. They can become catalysts to long term change.

A brief history

People have adapted to virtual working in three waves in three waves. In each wave, they have to terms with the benefits and limitations of technology, the impact of working at a distance, and impact on productivity.

• In the first wave, in the 1980s, the introduction of technology (PCs) saw freelancers design products, do coding, do writing and corrections from their home. This was a first-time experience and they actively promoted it by configuring home workspaces.
• In the second wave, beginning in the 2000s, virtual remote working expanded to corporates, especially technology companies with their work anywhere, work anytime mantra. Companies allowed employees to work from home and expected them to work at any time. The SARS outbreak accelerated this process as the epidemic spread to many countries across the world. Managers were worried about how to manage the workforce remotely. Virtual working can become lonely and the productivity could taper off gradually. Hence co-working started becoming popular. People wanted the flexibility of working hours and the easy banter of fellow workers. many companies built enterprise platforms that provided for this with tools to assign tasks and manage performance. 
• In the third wave, we are experiencing today, we have advanced tools and collaborative platforms and an understanding of face-to-face communication.

The current wave

We are facing tremendous challenges today with hardly any time to set up the required infrastructure as well as the processes to enable and manage such massive remote working measures.

Today everyone, from young workers, employees of companies, everyone at home are forced to working, schooling, studying, doing workouts from home which is putting tremendous pressure on infrastructure which is barely coping up.

Three elements of virtual work

We need to balance the three distinct elements - technology, social needs, and work rhythms.

• Technology- intuitive & ready to experiment: is the enabler for virtual working. It meets the requirements of group platforms for work, video for interactive conversations, and telephone to talk & catch up.
• Social needs- reimagine home workspace: Home spaces are crucial,. The workspaces protected them from outside distractions. This would be difficult now with more than one person working from home and kids at home studying or attending school remotely. Managers should show empathy and agility to allow employees to adjust to the new dynamics. It is crucial to find ways to make the workspace more human. 
• Work rhythms- A daily ritual and focus on values: Everyone prefers a work rhythm, schedules, and calendars. Hence it is better to dress in work clothes, have a check-in meeting at 9 am and a sign-off meeting at 5 Pm, have intermittent check-ins in the form of meetings, video calls. the focus is on checking in and not checking up. decide upfront on the goals, define clearly the boundaries and span of controls, clarify tasks and processes, and measure roles and commitments. Trust is the key. Trust someone until he proves himself untrustworthy.

Set the tone by focussing on the three elements. This is the new normal we have realized that we can get more done virtually than what we could do physically. SO the future would be a judicious mix of virtual and physical interactions with the emphasis on goals and commitments. Leaders who can blend these ways of working will recob=ver better be more resilient for the future.

Three Elements for Successful Virtual Working

Lynda Gratton • MITSMR April 06, 2020