Preference, Productivity, and the Future of Work

Companies today are conflicted. 

Especially companies that invested in an address. A parcel of dirt with concrete and steel on top of it. 

Company leadership today is conflicted.

Especially leaders who prefer to sit in the room, or even more so, those who want to sit at the front of the room.

Employees today are conflicted.

Especially employees with children, a hankering for travel, or an extroverted need to be with others. 

If you ask people where they want to work, you’ll get an answer. If you measure where they work best, you may get a different one. Same is true for company leadership and the finance department. 

But the path forward — what we’re looking for — is the overlap in the Venn diagram. That’s the sweet spot. Where people want to work and actually get it done.

How can we find that overlap? Can we design a work system where you get to work where you want most of the time, and also deliver what we need most of the time? Can we design a system that works for the finance department and leadership?

Those are good questions to ask and wrangle.

But they’re not the most important ones. Leadership, the finance department, and even the employees miss the important one.

How do we design a work system that makes all of the people’s lives better, including our customers? 

Because the office doesn’t matter if the work doesn’t matter.