Kultur Publication - Buch - Seite 29
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Culture meets Covid:
Remote vs. IRL
Without question, Covid has a massive impact on many aspects of our lives.
Potentially, the area that we’ve seen this in most is the way we work. After the
Covid lockdowns in 2021, we switched from a remote-only working environment
to a hybrid model. We want to be completely honest about remote work: while
remote work can offer productivity benefits for focus, elimination of commute
time to the studio, and flexibility for everyday tasks, it has been a challenge for us
in terms of nurturing our culture. Above all, the onboarding of new team members is hardly possible in the same quality. When teams work remotely, there is a
lack of visibility across the spectrum of work.
Suddenly, we found that the ways that we collaborate, ideate, assess performance and stress levels, and pursue efficiency and effectiveness were disrupted.
It became increasingly difficult to engage on a deep level, as people were hidden
behind their screens. There are no water cooler moments where a junior designer can ask a senior a quick question. There is no way for someone to drop into a
meeting that they might have insight on. And the human factor - where we feel
truly present - is gone.
We needed to address this in a very serious way, finding a solution that both
catered to the new demands for remote work, as well as providing much-needed
time in-person. This makes it all the more important to have built and fostered a
strong sense of belonging to a team, a desire to work together and to exchange
ideas beyond the work topics.
Currently, we leave it up to the team members whether they work from home
or in the studio. While some of them again show-up in person every day, project teams (Business Circles) have established a fixed day per week on which all
members are present. Not necessarily for fixed meetings, but mainly for informal
exchange and spontaneous sessions. In addition, we have introduced an open
channel policy for Slack: as few professional private conversations as necessary,
as many public conversations on the respective project channels as possible. And
more than ever, we have a strong focus on creating a wonderful studio experience and environment, and are working on ideas around how culture can find
fertile ground in hybrid models.
06. LIVING A CULTURE
