The coronavirus crisis has sent shockwaves through the industry, forcing companies to rapidly dispense with age-old industry practices and create new ones just to stay afloat. For most enterprises, the main lesson was the cost of the tension caused by forced social distancing and the efforts to coordinate work teams remotely.
Necessity is the mother of invention. But teams that are not used to working from their houses, away from face-to-face conversations, may have trouble devising solutions to our society’s new problems. After all, without proper channels to debate or dispute ideas, most problem-solving algorithms are a one-way street.
Many companies will swiftly embrace new technologies, but only successful players will adopt new behaviors, beginning with team dynamics and communication and continuing with new operating models and hiring strategies. Companies previously bound by physical borders are discovering the efficiency of hiring across geographical boundaries, sourcing top talent internationally, and setting up cells all over the world.
Companies like Mahisoft have focused on team interaction efficiency. Since we have worked remotely from day one, we have developed mature team communication skills based on trust and transparency that provide a natural exchange and flow of ideas. And we have been able to adopt and implement new technologies without sacrificing the team interaction.
Suppose companies combine remote-based teams’ experience and work on providing a safe environment for their people to share ideas and be creative, transitioning to the “new normal” in terms of value. In that case, well-thought solutions are within its grasp.
The new reality is that workplace environments will be anything but “normal.” Organizations will operate with reduced in-office staff, manage remote and in-office team members, and combat economic slowdown by lowering spending and optimizing resources. Technology is essential to accommodating this new post-COVID business environment.
This is the new challenge: if companies have mixed results in transferring their work to remote environments, how will they function in a mixed one? Only by combining hindsight from our previous experiences with clarity on our objectives will provide us with enough clues to devise solutions we have not begun to imagine.
