Questioning work

As countries return to a post-lockdown work pattern, there are rising questions around strategy for 2020 and 2021. Creators are imagining and launching new projects. And the remote working debate has lapsed into should we stay remote working or should we return to what we had before — what if there’s another option?

Returning to work post lockdown

Photo by Laurel and Michael Evans on Unsplash

What are the questions to ask next in 2020?

What move next?

Photo by Zoe Holling on Unsplash

You have found a place of physical safety and protected yourself from the virus. You have checked your bank balance and made steps to preserve liquidity. The day to day routines have adapted and you have plans for how to return to work (if this is even a thing for white collar jobs as most of us can work remotely). You’ve made space to reflect and you want to make some changes. But how do you capitalise on this next window? Try using some of these questions to provide ideas, challenge and plans for both the remainder of 2020 but also into 2021.

• Where are the needs changing in our customers/ users / members? What do they need that they didn’t need before? What do they longer need that previously they did need? How has their perceived need changed? Where are the trends of post pandemic likely to remain and shape their thinking but they have not yet realised it?
• Why does your organisation exist? What’s your why? What happens if you cease to exist that other organisations would not do as well or would not serve at all? (And how much of what you are doing doesn’t relate to that at all! Shut these down. ASAP.)
• What is your part in tackling those questions of the customer? What solutions do you have? What parts of the customer question will you tackle and what parts will you leave for others?
• How have your channels changed? Will you have to market and reach your customer and user in a different way? How will you have to deliver your product or services in a different way? How can you capitalise on a greater shift to digital? What happens if people can not be within 2 metres and that carries on into 2022 and 2023 and 2024……..
• What is happening to your price point? Will people pay now what they paid before? Airlines appear to be trying to charge more in the short term but longer term will prices fall as a result of less people travelling? Will people pay slower, be less generous donors or require greater value for the same economic cost as previously?
• How do you need to adapt your cost structure? Who has the wrong skills on the team? How can you organise people around passions as well as skills?

Should you start a new project?

A dream or a distraction?

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

This week I’ve had the privilege to engage as coach with several of the entrepreneurs that are in Creo’s Accelerator and Lab cohorts. These include delivering classical music composition courses digitally, hiking adventures to enhance mental and physical wellbeing for charities and workplaces, a new project to work with people ageing out of the children and youth care system, a charity tackling drug addiction and homelessness and a new project establishing a publishing firm in north east India. Several of these ventures are hitting new highs right now on revenue, engagement, funding and it’s spilling over into entrepreneurial creativity and enthusiasm. So encouraging.

I’m also having conversations with leaders around the world who want to dive into new opportunities and create into the disruption. But is it always wise? Not all ideas should come to fruition.

Here are 15 areas of questions to help frame that analysis. The first three (opportunity) and second three (solution) are the key ones to wrestle with before launch.

• What’s the problem you are trying to solve? What is the problem you are really trying to fix? What’s your why and is this new opportunity the same or a distraction?
• What market opportunity / need is there? How big is it?
• Why is now the time to tackle this opportunity? (often the hardest question)
• What’s your solution to the problem? How are you creatively solving and bringing tomorrow’s answer to that question, not just repeating yesterday’s answers?
• What’s your value proposition?
• What is your product / service that you will deliver to tackle the problem?
• What’s your timeline and why are you not launching today? are you procrastinating?
• Why are you a credible team to deliver this?
• What’s your org chart and where are the gaps you need to fill in the next 12–24 months?
• Do you know who your target customer is? How might you target that person? What’s their pain point? What will they pay you for?
• How will you reach your customers / clients / users? What’s your sales & marketing plan?
• Who is your competition? Why are you well positioned in the customer’s eyes against the competition?
• What is the business model?
• How much money do you need and how do you anticipate finding that? What will you use the money for? What will the funders get in return
• What legal structure (if any) do you need?

Can you mobile work instead of just remote work?

But do they have wi-fi?

Photo by Kristin Wilson on Unsplash

There are multiple seminars, webinars, conferences, books, articles and podcasts on how to optimise remote working and how to ensure the maximum productivity and wellbeing of your team. I’m finding it tedious, having spent most of the last 8 years remote working — I’m much more interested in mobile working. Why do workers need to be tethered to a particular house, apartment, street, cafe, city, country? Why can’t you do your job (once we can travel globally again) from China, France or Australia? Why can’t you spend summer in Italy, winter in Mexico and spring in Finland?

We’ve proven that it’s possible to do white collar jobs from a distance and there remain only three impediments to mobile working:

1. Existing commitments that need fulfilled locally. School. Voluntary associations. Serving as a volunteer in a physical capacity. Time with family and friends. Looking after a garden.
2. Culture. Meetings in business are still primarily expected to happen in person — certainly for leaders of over 35 years old. This isn’t due to efficiency, and I’d argue it’s not a reflection of the benefits of body language communication being higher in person. It appears to be personal preference.
3. Time zones. There’s no doubt that being 12 hours away makes communication harder and rapid responsiveness more challenging. Some people will never appreciate that being a barrier.

Having led eight figure transactions remotely and with very minimal face to face contact, I’d argue there is very little that can’t be done remotely and with appropriate communication, the cultural issues can be navigated. Time zone impacts can be reduced by being willing to get up earlier (or stay up later) and reduce the period of time that there is no overlap. Helping people see that you can be productive while they sleep is always a winner too. Which leaves the existing commitments — which really boil down to school as most of the others can be outsourced, deferred or turned into digital communication.

So we find ourselves in the position that the reason we don’t pursue mobile working is because of the education system we have created to give our children the best opportunity to grow up well-rounded, flourish and resourced to travel and explore the world. Ironic.

I do believe being rooted is helpful so I wouldn’t argue for permanent mobile working — but to spend 1,3,6,12 months in a different location could pay back 100 times what you invest in it. Time to be radical? How would your organisation and job function if you moved to Australia, Europe or Mexico for the next 6 months? Why not go for it?

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