Innovatia

MANAGEMENT IN MOTION How did companies such as Amazon and Apple become two of the world’s most influential companies? The answer lies in dismantling conventional business structures to create a culture that not only takes a customer-centric approach, but also makes employees feel valued.

University of Queensland Business School lectur- er Dr Gemma Irving has some great insights on cul- tivating creativity and productivity in hybrid spaces. “Sometimes it’s framed as an either-or, that we can only be creative when we’re in the office together, but we have to remember that offices aren’t that great,” Dr Irving says. “There’s a bit of nostalgia about how wonder- ful it was when we were all back in the office, but really, a lot of people were in quite uninspiring, open plan settings where they felt distracted and under the pump. That’s really not ideal for creativity,” she says. So how can we cultivate creativity? For hybrid workers, it’s very much a question of individual choice as to what inspires – whether that be going out and working on the back deck or heading to a local library. What about those all-important conversations started around the water cooler? If you ask Dr Irving, they’re not all they’re cracked up to be – there are plenty of other ways to experience those serendipitous connections. “In reality, those water cooler conversations don’t often happen, because people put on their headphones and go out of their way not to engage with others,” she says. “Online, serendipity isn’t always about interact- ing with the person. It’s incidentally finding really interesting people or ideas through social media, that then spark something else. It can be coming across a bit of information that strikes you.” Beyond the social sphere, hybrid work is also a great productivity booster. According to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2021, 57% of em- ployees said their organisation beat workforce performance and productivity targets in the last 12 months.

Management in its traditional form – watching over employee’s shoulders in the office – is now no longer practical or feasible with hybrid work. “The new model is that everything you do on- line is tracked. Microsoft produces a report at the end of the week based on how many hours you spent with your email app open and typing and all those kinds of things,” Dr Irving says. This form of micromanaging can cause em- ployees to be less engaged, motivated, and pro- ductive. Dr Irving questions this new model in the context of hybrid working on the understanding that productivity is often more to do with deep thinking than with time spent doing tasks. “I think data is helpful, but data shouldn’t be God in terms of productivity and hybrid work,” she says. At the end of the day, hybrid work is only ef- fective when individuals know what works for them best. “It goes back to the basic stuff of knowing yourself, knowing what works for you, and knowing whether you need to be in the office or at home to be productive.” Here’s to a new era of tailor-made working arrangements.

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“We don’t want anyone to be a leader in the company if they haven’t been interviewed and approved by their future subordinates.”

“Even though a lot of these organisations say, “Of course, you’re allowed to fail in our organi- sation,” employees don’t feel that way. Failure is not an option in most of these organisations.”

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“The combination of Apple’s organisational structure and its leadership model not only saved the company from bankruptcy but also transformed it into one of the most influential tech companies in the world.”

“The sentiment of ‘It’s your first day of doing business where you have everything to play for and everything to lose’ really inspires that sense of innovation and development in the company.”

4 Ways to Make Hybrid Work Better for Every- one The Way We Work, a TED series

INNOVATIA

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INNOVATIA

| Management

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