by Russell Gong of Deloitte and Adam Segal of cove
Simply put, how people work is changing. Even just 5 years ago we did not have the benefit of a computer in our pocket that could connect us to colleagues, clients, and the world in milliseconds. Whether we like it or not, businesses will need to evolve and grow to adjust to this new reality, especially knowing that the largest workforce demographic will soon be the Millennial generation—one that has virtually always had technology at the center of their adult lives.
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To successfully evolve, business leaders have to understand how people actually work as opposed to how they have historically worked. While most employees certainly understand the benefits of office face time and water cooler talk, today’s workforce is becoming increasingly used to, and has preference for, “remote work.”
Life doesn’t happen in a single place—so why should work? Employers can best support employees by first acknowledging that how people work has changed, and then working to support this reality. To truly do this, employers should think in terms of evolutionary workplace models that enable their modern employees to do their best work.
To answer this challenge, we came together and developed an unlikely partnership of sorts: a founder at a startup built for enabling modern productivity through workspaces and technology and a forward-thinking, team leader at an international consulting firm known more for its work with Fortune 500 companies.
Our objective was simple: empower employees to do their best work in the ways and spaces that incentivize productivity, collaboration, and convenience. This process has taken time, a number of learnings, and a lot of feedback. The end result has been a new way to work where employees come together not just in the office, but all over the city in places where they feel at home and empowered to do their best work.
Why Evolve? Understanding the Need for Business Evolution
The notion of work has changed radically. The idea of putting on a suit, or even khakis and a button-down shirt, commuting to and from work, sitting in meetings, and taking a half-hour lunch at your desk, is not only outdated—it can be soul-crushing. And common organizational Band-Aids today, like dress-down days and occasional telecommuting, are ill-fitting to meet the actual needs of employees.
Part of connecting with and respecting individuals within the workplace is recognizing that individuals work differently. One indicator of this is the example of the Millennial generation, who overwhelmingly want work that is in line with their needs and their life goals. This is also becoming an increasingly universal proposition for all generations as technology’s power increases.
Mobile communication and technology have opened up different ways of working, and different places to work. While some employees may prefer traditional office settings, others prefer the idea of working from different locations, including home, a coffee shop, or—in our partnership—neighborhood productive spaces. Lest we forget this is not just about supporting employee preferences; companies that understand, respect, and support individual different work styles will have a direct impact on the bottom line.
As more talent enters the workforce with the expectation that their individuality will be respected, businesses that have not evolved risk losing productivity as well as world-changing ideas from the best and the brightest.
Two Perspectives Together Focused on Changing Cultural Norms at the Workplace
The startup founder:
In my role running a startup, I loved the idea of working alongside Russ to support his transformative vision for his team and how they collectively work. While cove had historically been a consumer company focused on individuals, our team greatly welcomed the challenge Russ put forth.
However, we both understood that cultural norms are difficult to change in large institutions. So we started with a pilot to ease into the relationship. cove could be nimbler than a large organization and proved to be a good testing ground for both of us.
The consultant + founder:
We started the partnership by providing access to cove’s network of neighborhood workspaces where Russ’ team could work during the day, night, weekends—really empowering them to choose whenever, wherever, and however they chose to be productive.
Then, based on comments and feedback, we implemented a new workspace vision that included a dedicated space. This was not the dedicated desk with pictures of friends and family that you might imagine, but instead an area where the team had ownership—not for any individual but for their collective work and interaction.
We were able to manage capacity and community interaction through cove’s mobile app and tech platform, thereby creating a sense of community online and off.
Is Evolution Successful? What Happened Next and Evaluating Outcomes
So what happened? We held creative events that brought in speakers, conducted innovation tournaments, and community competitions and used multiple locations to work as individuals and meet as a team. The team used it not as spaces but as environments for human interaction.
To many, this may sound great in theory but difficult to quantify in practice. So we created metrics: events held, meetings conducted, relationships made, productive hours supported. The technology tracked these metrics so we could always review in real-time.
The numbers showed what we could have only hoped for from the partnership; increases in events, interactions, relationships built, and overall individual and team productivity. Today, team members report that they are more engaged in problem solving because they are in locations that support how they prefer to work.
Invariably, they end up working more, but it does not feel like that. They like getting to meet with different team members across different locations in environments where one forgets that you’re working. Other teams in the consultancy are now requesting to base projects across the network of neighborhood workspaces, indicating that in fact, cultural norms may be starting to shift on a company-wide basis.
We learned a great deal about modern work and productivity through this partnership. Now more than ever, modern work isn’t about showing up and punching a clock. Listen to your employees and their behavioral work preferences.
As a result, employers will find and retain the best talent by respecting how employees are inclined to work these days—including creating the spaces and environments that allow them to do their best work, even if that is outside the office.
| Adam Segal is the cofounder and CEO of cove, a D.C.-based startup building technology and neighborhood workspaces to empower and enable a more productive way of life. In 3 years, cove has gone from a business plan to a multicity company with eight locations in two cities, thousands of users, and a team of over 60 people. Previously, before realizing Segal did not get along well with the traditional office, he worked in consulting, technology, and investment banking. Segal holds a BA from Amherst College, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Russ Gong is the cofounder and Lead Program Designer for RePurpose, a community of social innovators—within Deloitte Consulting—focused on identify, designing, and constructing social impactful business models and programs. RePurpose works across private, public, and nonprofit sector. The group has operated in 17 different countries, reached 1 million plus lives, and collaborated with hundreds of organizations including Ashoka, Grameen Bank, United Nations, the Global Good Fund, and others. Gong holds a BA from the University of Richmond and is a lecturer at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. |