What Do We Need From Work vs. What We Need to Do the Work
Speaking with a client a few weeks ago, I was taken aback by a discussion around international travel requirements for a product creation leader they were hiring. I asked what was expected “in a perfect world” and was surprised when the travel requirements outlined were quite extensive. Perhaps it was the contrast of almost no international travel over the past two years that made this sum seem onerous, but I was curious about how this requirement was determined. The explanation that I was given was, “well, yes, that is what we always did before the pandemic and that is what we are eager to go back to.”
It was the first time it was ever expressed that “going back to” was an option. There has been so much discussion about what “work after covid” would look like and how work has changed forever, that the possibility of a complete yearning for the days of yesteryear seemed misplaced.
Business Travel Post-COVID
While much has been written that business travel will never come back to pre-pandemic levels, little has been discussed about the reality that there are some people who love business travel – even extensive business travel. They love to live on airplanes, sleep in hotels, and appreciate how being away creates social connection. They look forward to being welcome in a new place and to the conversations that happen at bars or in restaurants over a shared meal. While many have come to realize all they missed while traveling, there are also those who have recognized they do not thrive, grow, learn, or even enjoy, being in one place as much as they have over the past two years. They miss the energy they get from being on the road.
My point to this discussion is not about who should travel or how much they should travel - it is about a mindset and how that mindset might impact the way we think moving forward. How has your desire to go impacted your ability to embrace innovations that may mean you don’t have to go as often? In the product creation role I mentioned, touching, feeling, and seeing product hands-on has benefits that digitized reviews may not offer. Feet on the ground, on factory floors, “in country” fully seeing the scope of happenings provides insights zoom certainly cannot replicate. Yet, what surprised me was the concept that so little benefit has been derived from being forced to do things in a new way and that going back to exactly how it was is the obvious best practice. I was surprised that what worked in the past was not layered with lessons from the near present.
What Can and Cannot Be Accomplished Remotely?
In the next few years there will be a multitude of debates on what can and cannot be accomplished remotely. The past two years have shown us that quite a bit can be accomplished remotely and forcing the debate to be more around how much should be done remotely. As leaders, the challenge in answering this question may largely depend on our own ability to understand what we each need from work vs. what we need to do the work. An ability to be honest with ourselves on the answers to these questions may have a significant influence on how we think about productivity moving forward – both ours and others.
As a leader, what does travel do for you? Over the last two years were you just holding your breath, adjusting, and waiting to exhale back to what you knew? Did you hold your breath for a minute, navigate the path ahead, step forward in a new, previously unimagined direction, and allow yourself to learn and innovate along the way? Did you take the time to appreciate and celebrate what could be accomplished in a new way or did you bemoan the limitations placed on you, while minimizing the challenges that existed previously? Gaining insight on how you thought about and approached the challenges over the past two years will be significant in shaping the way you think about what you ask of yourself and of your team going forward.
Employee Acquisition and Retention
Business travel has always been a major factor in employee acquisition and retention. There are road warriors who thrive on it and there are others who traveled because, in the past, there was no other option. As a leader, where did you land on this spectrum? Understanding your bias on this and a host of other “back to the office” adjustments will be essential in bringing empathic, innovative leadership in the post-COVID world.
How is what you need from your work driving a bias on where work needs to happen? Do you truly desire to get back to what it was, or do you see it working differently? Need to unpack this? I can help.
