When the pandemic hit, one of the more surprising things we learned was how well teams maintained existing relationships and work processes. People who were co-located and teams that functioned at a high level managed to keep it up when they were dispersed. Trust was a big part of that. But two years in, many

Read More

I’ve been researching and writing on virtual meetings for almost twenty years. I’ve heard a lot of complaints, but the one that most amuses is, “I just sat through another meeting that could have been an email.” Sure, it’s funny and looks great on a coffee mug. And we have so many meetings it might

Read More

Before you rush into hybrid work and simply take it as a foregone, conclusion, take a few moments and consider what hybrid work really is, not just what you’ve heard about it or think it might be.

Read More

By the time you read this, the new year will have started. First, let’s acknowledge that 2022 is not a real year. It’s science-fiction. Remember Blade Runner took place in 2019. That aside, we are at the beginning of a new work year. We’ve survived the weird time of year when we are merely guessing

Read More

”Because of Covid, we’ve decided not to take on any interns or new grads straight out of school until we are back in the office.” I’ve walked this earth for a long time and been dealing with customers in business for over half that long, so nothing much really surprises me. This comment left me

Read More

For the first time in human history, two-thirds of our daily work communication and a growing amount of our interpersonal and social communication is being done in writing. Texts, e-mails, and collaboration tools are asynchronous and ubiquitous. How you respond to this probably depends on how old you are. Is this good news, since electronic

Read More

Over the last few months, there’s been a shift in the way people talk about work. The new buzzword is “hybrid.” No doubt You’ve heard people say, “we’re coming back, but it will be a hybrid of people in the office and working flexibly.” That sounds great, but is it really a new way of

Read More

When we talk to the leaders in organizations about what work will look like in the future, we hear a lot of similar concerns.  They worry about the culture of their organization, and how remote and hybrid work will change things. There’s some concern—although far less than at the beginning of the pandemic—about task completion.

Read More

For years, the conversation about remote work has centered on the differences between working remotely (often from home) and the way we always worked in co-located situations. But what if that comparison is outdated? Specifically, how do you train and on-board new workers who don’t have that frame of reference. In short, you can’t compare

Read More

One of the big challenges we hear about hybrid and remote work is that “collaboration is difficult.” One CEO I spoke to said, “My people just come up with better answers when they can work together physically.” That led to an interesting discussion: What does it mean to come up with the best, or right,

Read More