What does the future of work look like post-COVID?

that I've been thinking about. So a couple of months ago, I was sent a meme that asked the question who led the digital transformation of your company? A the CEO, B the CEO or c COVID nineteen. You can probably guess which answer was circled, and you may have seen this meme yourself. Now courtesy of COVID nineteen. We're now six or seven months into the biggest experiment ever run

on remote working, and some people have thrived. Hello introverts, while others are desperate to get back to the office. Hello untrusting managers. Now, while every organization is different, here are three of my predictions about how we might work in the future. So, firstly, I think that asynchronous communication

will trump synchronous communication. And by asynchronous communication, I mean communication that doesn't have to happen at the same time, so things like email or working on a collaborative document like a Google doc, as opposed to synchronous communication, which is things like meetings and phone conversations and things like that.

So a recent Gardener poll showed that forty eight percent of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID nineteen, versus only thirty percent saying that they'll work remotely pre pandemic. So whereen more remotely comes with many benefits, such as eliminating time spent commuting, being able to spend more time with your family, and also wearing pajamas to work. Let's not forget about that benefit. But many workplaces have simply switched face to face activities

into virtual ones. So this is why we're experiencing death by zoom. And according to research by Microsoft, virtual meeting fatigue is indeed a real phenomenon, which sets in at about the thirty minute mark. I recently had Git Labs head of Remote Darren Murph on how I work. You can go back a few episodes to listen to that one, and he pointed out that we are hardwired for synchronous synchronous communication from a very early age at school. So he said to me that synchronicity is the default for

a lot of people because it feels productive. It makes you feel like you're contributing meaningfully to the organization. But these types of meetings and ad hoc interruptions are massively disruptive to the bottom line. It's really difficult to get into a state of flow and make meaningful progress on any type of work if you're constantly being interrupted, is what Darren spoke about. So instead organizations need to default to asynchronous communications such as email and as I said,

collaborative documents such as Google Docs. When you've got a bias towards asynchronous communication, which is one of the sub values at git lab, it allows for more inclusive chorus of voices to contribute to a project, is how Darren described it, and it also means less interruptions. Now, the second thing I think is going to be really important in the future of work is building a workplace community

is going to become super important. So most people haven't realized that they don't Rather, most people have realized that they don't want to be in the office all of the time, but nor do they want to work from home one hundred percent of the time. So the new normal will most likely involve a hybrid model where work location is highly flexible. So in the past, having a central office where people gathered was key to building a

work community and culture. Now that work is more flexible and most probably staying that way, organizations need to think about how to build a strong sense of community within teams and across their entire company given that they can't

rely on a central office doing this. So instead of believing that co location is key to community, the importance of intangible things such as shared values become more important because when people share values, it helps breed connections to each other, and employees who lack this feeling of being part of a community are more likely to look for work elsewhere. Okay, a final prediction, which is the death of perceived hierarchy. So something about remote work is that

it is the great equalizer. We are all working from our studies or bedrooms or living rooms, and we're all just a face on a screen with a view into our personal worlds. No one can sit at the head of the table anymore. So leaders who have embraced the meshing of their personal world with their working persona have

really flourished through during this time. They've been able to build high quality connections such as what Professor Jane Dutton describes with their team, and these high quality connections lead

us to feeling more open and confident and alive. When organizations do move back to the office, at least in part, leaders need to deliberately maintain these connections and be mindful of signals that they may indicate moving back to the strict hierarchy, so instead, deliberately embrace the inclusivity it is

bred through the remote environment. So while it's tempting to return to the way things were, I think that leaders who embrace these positive changes that COVID nineteen has given all of us are going to be the ones that really thrive in this new working world. So that is it for today's show. If you like today's episode, maybe share it with someone that you think might also find it interesting. And a big thank you for everyone that has left reviews for How I Work on Apple Podcasts.

You're all awesome. It really does make my day. Reading your reviews and kind words that you have to say about the podcast. So thank you so much and I will see you next time.