Dr. CJ Meadows identifies three opportunities in remote work: environmental healing through reimagined transportation and factories, better digital adoption and trust at companies that still struggle with it, and integrating work and family life. She draws on twenty years of virtual team research and her experience homeschooling four teens.
Chapters
Hi, it's Dr. Cj Meadows and my little dog Goldie in our dog-friendly home office. As a lot more people are working from home, I've noticed 3 very big opportunities. You wanna go back to work? Okay, you can go back to work. First of all, on an environmental level, if you take a look at the environmental degradation heat maps of our cities and our nations, you'll notice the planet is healing itself. Our first opportunity: how might we be productive with our transportation systems and factories and not damage the environment? Number two: I first came out with research recommendations on how to manage virtual work teams 22 years ago, but so many companies still can't do it because they haven't digitally transformed. And some of the leaders and managers don't trust their workforce. So second opportunity, how might we digitally transform so that we can operate in this new way? Because those that did are coming through the crisis better. And how might we trust our people and enable them and help them work however they work most productively? Third, on a personal level, as a business a wife, and a mother of 4 homeschooling teens, I remember the days of having little kids at home, up to 7 of them running around while I was trying to get my work done in my home office. Parents are tearing their hair out because it is hard to do. But isn't it nice to see your children while they're still awake instead of only when you come home from your commute and they're asleep in bed? The third opportunity is how might we integrate, reintegrate our professional and personal lives into just life. So in a post-COVID world of a pretty sizable bull market, it is coming, so get ready. I wish for you three things: a life in which we are more gentle on the environment, more gentle on our employees, and more gentle on ourselves. Get some sleep, and my prayers go out to all of you who've been affected by COVID, what be it your health, your friends and family, or economically. Better times are coming, and it's up to us to create them.
