Summary

The article discusses the necessity of adopting a "Virtual First Mindset" for successful remote work, emphasizing trust, impact over quantity, flexible work hours, asynchronous communication, and clear, simple written communication.

Abstract

The future of work has been rapidly evolving, particularly with the shift towards remote work accelerated by the events of 2020. The concept of a "New Normal" is widely acknowledged, yet the changes it brings are anything but normal. To thrive in this new landscape, organizations and individuals must embrace a "Virtual First Mindset." This involves prioritizing the impact of work over the quantity, redefining traditional work hours to focus on peak productivity, and defaulting to asynchronous communication to accommodate diverse time zones and work styles. The article underscores the importance of building trust within remote teams, the benefits of autonomy in increasing engagement and productivity, and the need to rethink the conventional 9-5 workday for greater flexibility. It also criticizes the overuse of synchronous meetings, advocating for written communication that is simple, brief, and straightforward to enhance clarity and reduce unnecessary interruptions.

Opinions

The article suggests that empowering employees with autonomy leads to increased engagement, accountability, and productivity.
It posits that measuring the impact of work, rather than the quantity, aligns more closely with achieving meaningful outcomes.
The traditional 9-5 workday is seen as outdated and should be reimagined to allow for peak productivity at individual work rhythms.
Asynchronous communication is preferred over synchronous meetings, which are often unproductive and interrupt deep work.
The article emphasizes the value of clear, written communication to minimize misunderstandings and keep projects moving forward efficiently.
It acknowledges that shifting to a virtual first mindset is challenging and requires patience and adaptability, with an understanding that behavioral changes take time and may involve mistakes and growing pains.
The article promotes the idea that working fewer hours does not equate to lower productivity if the work output is of high quality and aligned with goals.
It criticizes the culture of immediacy, suggesting that constant context switching and the pursuit of quick syncs can be detrimental to productivity.
The article advocates for simplicity in communication, encouraging complete thoughts that inform, explain, and analyze rather than fragmented, one-sentence messages.

The Future of Remote Work — Part 1

Why You Need a Virtual First Mindset

Work is changing at warp speed. Here’s what you need to know about this mentality adjustment.

If you roll your eyes whenever anyone says “the New Normal,” you are not alone. We all know there was nothing normal about 2020. The future of work was accelerated at a dizzying speed by necessity.

Surprisingly, most people were able to adjust despite the intense logistical headwinds and the power of inertia.

The key to a successful pivot from physical to remote work is to adjust the team’s mindset. A virtual first mindset challenges many common and basic assumptions about how great work gets done. This piece will discuss what to consider to adjust to a virtual first mindset.

Measure Impact over Quantity

Research suggests that when companies empower employees to work autonomously, they become more engaged, accountable, and productive. When transitioning to a virtual first mindset, you must invest time in building mutual trust and delineate clear shared outcomes.

For instance, when establishing the team and personal goals, consider shifting from measuring the quantity of work to be done (i.e., complete 10 product reviews) to measure the impact of work done (increase conversion by 20%)

Redefine the traditional workday

Working remotely provides organizations an excellent opportunity to rethink the conventional 9–5 workday. It also provides the team greater flexibility over how and when work is done. To be clear, someone can choose to continue to work from 9–5, but it’s not required.

Changing the 9–5 mindset is difficult, and it requires good communication, planning, and trust. A virtual first mindset suggests that the quality of work is not determined by consecutive time-spent on a screen (i.e., working for eight straight hours).

The employee work output should define the quality work and it’s alignment to goals. The ability to accomplish the desired and shared outcomes without working eight consecutive hours is a great signal of optimal productivity. As a team, the goal should be to work at peak productivity instead of working the most hours.

Asynchronous by default

Asynchronous communication enables effective communication across time zones and maintains a culture of focused work.

Still, up until 2020, most teams and organizations used synchronous (real-time, physical, meeting-based) communication as a default, despite growing evidence that the approach can lead to wasteful meetings that negatively impact our well-being and productivity.

A virtual first mindset grants license to improve on unproductive and burdensome habits. An example of a bad habit is the ubiquitous “quick syncs” request from one colleague to another.

At first glance, this approach looks like the quickest way to unblock a problem. But, in reality, a “quick-sync” request carries a lot of unintended consequences.

It takes time away from a colleague that could be spent in in-depth and focused work.
It requires the recipient of the request to context switch and loses the productivity flow.
It creates a culture of immediacy instead of productivity.
It increases the amount of distractions/notifications, which in turn impacts output.

In the future, instead of sending an invite to someone for a “quick-sync,” consider asynchronous solutions that allow both parties to be most productive.

Lean in toward simplicity

Much of the communication in remote work should happen in writing. If done correctly, clear communication will reduce misunderstandings and keep projects moving forward.

Internal communication in writing should have the following principles: simple, brief, and straightforward.

A team that communicates effectively by writing will develop a more robust problem-solving and critical thinking mindset. Simple writing does not mean sending many one-sentence messages. Persuasive writing is composed of complete thoughts that inform, explain, and analyze for others to understand.

Communication based on good writing, rather than a verbal tradition of meetings, speaking, and chatting, leads to a welcomed reduction in meetings, video conferences, calls, or other real-time opportunities to interrupt and be interrupted.

Final Thoughts… Be patient

Making the mindset shift to virtual first can be challenging for a team when viewed from a short-term lens. Nevertheless, there are significant benefits of adapting to the current environment with an improved mindset.

We know that big behavioral shifts take time. This is especially true for large groups of people. As we adapt to working with a remote and distributed framework, it very likely to be mistakes and growing pains. Give yourself and your colleagues the flexibility to make mistakes so that the entire team can learn from them.

*This is part one of a series on the future of remote work. You can read part-two here.