Thinking big (and bold), starting small (and tactical), and growing fast (and in a controlled manner) is even more important in uncertain times because it enables you to be agile.
That doesn’t mean you’re operating faster. It means you can respond quicker to unforeseen events, a trait that organizations need today more than ever. The time is over where a project is done in one piece. Trying to cover too many use cases causes too many dependencies and in turn will lead to a negative chain reaction if the circumstances are changing (which they will, believe me).
Strategic Planning Mindset
It’s time to look beyond the technology your organization uses and focus on refreshing your strategic planning. Old approaches might not be the best fit anymore. After all, you’re probably facing new and ever-changing requirements and challenges, particularly now.
The strategic thinking approach detailed in this Harvard Business Review article has proved beneficial in our conversations with our strategic enterprise accounts in EMEA. We have adopted this model and adjusted it slightly to meet our specific customers’ workplace planning needs.
The phases help you to align your activities with your short-, mid-, and long-term goals, and each phase builds on the outcomes of the previous phase. This framework is based on data and evidence, and not just timelines. Events that are highly probable and where sufficient data already exist are typically more tangible and concrete, so you should engage those first. After all, when you have more detailed data and greater certainty, it’s easier to act confidently as opposed to when little or no data exist.
The less data you have, the more uncertain your outcomes. This is also why you must make room for flexibility in your mid- and long-term goals. Generally, a linear approach is a one-way road, and it’s static. Unforeseen events can cause chaos and increased planning overhead.
That’s why it’s important to have more than one plan and path. Define your plan A thoroughly but make sure to have a plan B and a plan C in case your first (and second) option does not work out. This approach will help you to react quicker and guide your organization through uncertain times.
Workplace Transformation in Response to COVID-19
Now that we’ve looked at a strategic approach, let’s consider how the challenges of COVID-19 have required a different approach to workplace transformation.
Immediate Reaction (Now) and Tactics (Short-Term)
Even if you had a disaster recovery plan in place, COVID-19 came as a surprise. It exposed weaknesses in systems and environments. Many organizations weren’t ready for a massive shift to remote work and had to make and accept a compromise to avoid the consequences of an operational shutdown.
Though most everywhere has passed this stage, it remains relevant. From a planning perspective, it’s critical to integrate the lessons you learned from this phase into your mid- and long-term plans. It will help your workforce to be more resilient and will also mitigate any negative impact in the face of future events where immediate actions are required. This might be applicable already today again, as many regions begin to face new lockdowns.
Strategy (Mid-Term)
Regardless of your long-term strategy, it is apparent that in your hybrid workplace transformation (working in the office or remote) employees have to be the center of your planning activities. Because workplace changes will directly impact the employee experience and productivity, limiting the planning to business goals or technology aspects only will reduce your solution options and might not fulfill the requirements the employees have remotely. We recommend conducting an employee experience assessment through surveys or (preferably) through employee-centric methodologies such as design thinking. This gives you a clear understanding (data and evidence) of what is needed to satisfy your users remotely.
A key mid-term goal should be to have your infrastructure ready to support both in-office and remote workers without friction. After all, it shouldn’t matter where your users are working. If your infrastructure can’t support both without an impact on the user and IT experience, it can lead to operational losses. This also helps you prepare for future disruptions.
You must look beyond the technology, though. You must adapt and align your organizational culture to the new circumstances to enable employees to work in a way that suits them best and eventually also allow everyone to work in a way that is most suitable to them. IT is the fastest changing domain and typically adopts new processes and innovations quicker than others, so IT has an important role in helping to lead and support this organizational transformation.
Vision (Long-Term), or The Next Normal
The workplace needs reinvention in the long term. Why? Compare how you use technology in your private life to what’s available to you at work. Though employees are using all types of devices outside of work, what they’re using at work has changed little. Often that’s because enterprise apps can’t be used efficiently on non-Windows devices (we can help here, by the way). That is also a reason demand for SaaS/web apps is increasing. Users need choice and freedom in how work is done because everyone has their own preferences and requirements.
On top of that, expect automation and artificial intelligence to help improve employee productivity. Offices will experience a similar transformation to factories during the Industrial Revolution. Automation, in combination with machine learning, will simplify the work of employees so they can focus on activities that drive value. A great employee experience has a direct impact on company growth and talent retention. The key here? Think big and bold. That’s the only way to advance your organization, stay innovative, and remain competitive.
Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to my colleagues Safi Obeidullah, Jan-Christopher Gärtner, and PO Johansson for the inspiration. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
