Amber Mac’s Post

UPDATED WITH VIDEO: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ambermac_futureofwork-remotework-remoteleadership-activity-7027245418409320448-OVLC?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

But what about the billionaires with massive buildings downtown that are empty? Won't somebody think of the billionaires?!? They can't have those buildings empty, so never mind they all made more money during the pandemic than in any other time in history - The proof is there, remote work doesn't work and we need to be back in the office! (hopefully my sarcasm is coming through loud and clear)

Well said. A significant portion of my company’s staff are disabled. Our CEO doesn’t care if we can’t travel or be placed on client sites… he cares about our skills and attitude. I’ve been working from home part time since 2003 and full time since 2016. I’ve been a mother since 2003, who is involved with her high achieving kids. One of whom occasionally works for me, from home. Only 19% of Americans with disabilities are employed. Of those? A significant numbers are under-employed by companies taking advantage of our limited options. Any human is one accident or illness away from joining us, so every person should fight for equal employment and pay for the disabled. Employers say the reasonable accommodation of remote work is too much burden. Covid disproved that handily.

That's the thing – when you take digital nomadism out of the equation (because I think that's a wholly different thing than simple remote), remote work is just more ethical. You're: – Saving energy in a climate crisis by not using transportation to go to work (only slightly mitigated by increased energy usage at home) – Freeing up space that can be used for additional housing within a housing crisis – Liberating workers from staying in expensive, energy-consuming cities, allowing them to repopulate population deserts (provided internet infrastructure is stable) – Reducing food costs and wastes from office buildings, as home life means you can actually cook more often – Creating job opportunities for people around the world who don't have access to higher paying jobs, despite being high-skill themselves (provided the pay is market standard) And probably other things that I'm not thinking of at the moment. Are there ways to work in an office sustainably and ethically? Absolutely. But I think the ethics around working remotely need to be a bit louder, because we can't deny them anymore – not in the world we currently live in.

I completely agree that leaders need new toolsets to succeed in today's digital-first world of work. It is hardly surprising that leaders need help creating digital rituals, customs and traditions. Leaders need to learn to test and prototype digital cultural artifacts that support accountability, collaboration and a sense of cohesive camaraderie. In my posts Designing intentional culture and Creating a culture of service trust (links in reply), the key to digital cultural flexibility lies in the ritual design that supports intentional cultures, whether online or in real life. Leaders must understand that a culture designed with intention and purpose will ultimately result in more engaged employees and a more successful company. It's safe to say that Friday drinks as an emergent cultural artifact are a joke. We don't need bonding. We need effective rituals. The future of work lies in the intentional design of rituals and customs that support collaboration, accountability and cohesion. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. What are the biggest challenges leaders face when designing intentional cultures in the digital age? #IntentionalCulture #DigitalWorkforce #Leadership #Collaboration #Accountability #CultureDesign

👏🏻 Could I add one more? Climate Change mitigation & adaptation - commutes and associated emissions can be dramatically reduced. Plus as the threat level rises in many places, location independence becomes a critical resilience necessity.

I watched a TikTok of an older man explain the corporate landscape is shifting as much as the video rental market did and I think that is the perfect analogy for what is happening. Blockbuster remained RECALCITRANTLY unconvinced that streaming would never replace video rental until the very end, but it did anyway. This is what is going to happen to these CEOs who remain unconvinced corporate culture as they built it and know it is dead. They will either adapt or die, but they are yesterday, not tomorrow.

I agree, media leaders who adopt these strategies will be better positioned to lead in the coming years of extreme tightening in business models in multimedia markets. Leaders who are best suited to be adaptable to agile change will prosper. With the war on talent the way it is, flexibility is the new hot benefit. It also expands diversity across all scopes, socialeconomic, bipoc+disability, particularly around directly creating solutions for accessibility The more agile, the more lean, the more creative the faster content can be rapidly upscaled in global media enterprises.

Very well said! I like the "leader" part, as that is what we do at the Leaders of Tomorrow Institute. We are preparing leaders, managers, entrepreneurs and HR executives for the future of work :) yes, it's going to take a long time to reshape our thinking and abandon 500 years of feudal vertical thinking. What we need to do is debunk the myths, the fairy tales built around our career goals, because those goals were actually based on somebody else’s geopolitical or commercial needs and were never people-centered. I think the educational model will also have to change accordingly. That's a topic for another time :)