NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Older Workers Need to Brace for Cutbacks

Never mind quiet quitting. Companies are moving toward stealth personnel reductions. Make sure your skills are up to speed. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN

With all of the noise about workers' reluctance to return to the office, the end of the five-day work week, and all the folks quietly quitting without leaving, it's easy to overlook one huge slice of the population that has exactly the opposite problem. Not that these people don't want to come back; it's that they're not wanted or needed. I call this the "don't call us, we'll call you" problem because employers mostly never do. Companies are taking advantage of the pandemic's  disruptions to make one-time, substantial changes -- mainly reductions --- in their fixed personnel costs.

Millions of Americans are just waking up to the frightening reality of the new normal and the harsh hybrid world where if you're a certain age (50 and up is a good benchmark) and your skill set is not well-suited to the digital economy you may simply no longer be required by your employer. Outliving your economic value has been an issue for decades as technology has kept advancing, but the acceleration of the disruption in the last five years has been even more substantial, particularly for mid-level white collar jobs. It's especially disturbing when the MAGA morons in Congress keep yapping about raising the age for Social Security while employees just a few years from the retirement goalposts -- and after a lifetime of contributions to the fund --  now face being abruptly and unceremoniously unemployed.

Whether you've been replaced by younger, cheaper folks, outmoded by automation or A.I., or outsourced to the new WFH labor force willing to work from anywhere for less and with fewer benefits, your relative value, negotiating strength, and leverage have all likely diminished. Which means your continuing employment prospects aren't looking that great. Let's just say that the employers are "feeling their oats" these days and see the pendulum of negotiating power headed back their way. 

Employers in every kind of traditional industry learned two crucial lessons throughout the pandemic and the growth of the "gig" marketplace: (1) they could get by with a lot less of almost everything, especially people, and (2) having an on-demand and variable workforce instead a locked-in, full-time, and fully funded group was an amazingly effective way to closely tie their operating costs to the real-time demand for their products and services.

As a simple example, the insurance industry has determined that it no longer needs thousands of adjusters because some of the most time-consuming tasks they performed - like physical inspections of damaged property and vehicles -- can now be handled directly by their insureds using mobile apps. Call centers across the country which used to be staffed full time are now largely empty due to new technology and being replaced by foreign boiler rooms as well as by people working part time, for peanuts, at home.

Unfortunately, these two lessons - fewer folks and flexible employment - really stuck, while the difficulties we all faced with just-in-time inventory strategies, supply chain collapses, and little or no system resilience or redundancy seem to have already started to fade. We're sadly back to the "save me a dollar today and let the future take care of itself" approach as public companies concerned with quarterly results try to offset the very slow rate of returning revenues by "saving their way" to success. Especially with substantial headcount cuts, which never work in the long run.

Let's be clear as well that ageism is a serious concern and an active driver of a portion of these shifts. I've described some of the affirmative steps that every smart older employee should be taking to increase the likelihood that he or she will make the latest cuts. If that describes you, it's time to recalibrate and realistically reassess where things stand for you since the game and the goals have shifted pretty dramatically in the last six months along with the balance of power between employer and employee.

Here are five things to consider as you plan out your next moves.

(1)  The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves. Everyone tells themselves, from time to time, that they're irreplaceable. Convincing yourself is easy -- the world, not so much. If you're going to be prepared to deal successfully with the new challenges which you're certain to face, you need to be as realistic about your shortcomings as you are proud of your skills and accomplishments. And you need to be smart enough to know when you shouldn't trust yourself. Get a second opinion from a trusted friend before you jump off the cliff.  

(2)  Experience matters less and less every day in tech-centric businesses. In a world where change is constant and new technologies emerge weekly, whatever got you through and made you valuable in the past is worth exponentially less today, because no one has experience doing things that have never been done before. Don't judge yourself by your prior results; no one else will and, in fact, a fairer question is not what you did, but what you could have done with the resources and opportunities you had. In today's business world, your history and prior behaviors may actually be impediments to progress, adaptation, and agility going forward.

 (3)  You need to leave the "rocket science" to the rookies. At best, most of us over 50s in the workforce are digital immigrants and, across the board, we're matching skills and trying to compete in the new digital economy with millions of younger, faster, digital natives. This is simply no contest; you won't win. Trying to explain generative AI to most grown-ups is tougher than trying to teach a fish to ride a bicycle. Stick to your knitting and don't try to pretend you're something you're not.

 (4)  It's probably not the right time for you to start a new business. It's never been easier to start a business or harder to build one that's successful and sustainable. You can easily convince yourself that you have the skill set, the endurance, the passion, and the perseverance to make a go of it starting from scratch, but nine times out of 10, startups fail.  Not a good bet or a good use of your savings to try.

(5)  You may keep your job, but the job you keep won't be the same. If you're lucky enough to be kept around, you should be mentally prepared to make some attitude adjustments. The job is to do what needs to get done now -- not what or how things used to be done -- and not how you think they should be done. In the new normal, they have to pay you, but they don't have to thank you. And you don't have to like what you're doing; you just have to do it.

The healthiest and happiest folks I talk to these days combine practicality with confidence. They say that there's no task that's beneath them and none that's beyond them. These are the long-term keepers in every company.

 

Loop North Nerws

 

Don’t get sucked in by influencers

Yes, you can catch a viral wave, at least for a couple of hot minutes. But the downside for your brand can be ugly, and long lasting.

By Howard Tullman

7-Mar-23 – In the world of wishful thinkers, there are no creatives or account managers more clearly and utterly deluded than the ad agency mavens and the CPG [consumer packaged goods] brand stewards who are trying to control the flood of supportive social media that they build and regularly unleash.

They’re assisted, aided, and abetted by the allegedly authentic behaviors of the various celebrities and social media “influencers” whom they regard as their junior partners in these fruitless and deeply flawed labors. A few of these ventures work out, most don’t, and none last for more than a few fleeting moments.

Ask Matt Damon (left) about his crypto ads sometime or Matthew McConaughey about his Salesforce endorsements where he’s still being paid millions while the company craters and lays off hundreds of workers.

Even assuming that anyone found the proclamations and protestations of these influencers to be credible, much less authentic – which doesn’t actually seem to matter any longer in an artificial world where everyone’s supposedly in on the joke – it’s still a very precarious and unpredictable journey.

Talk about taking a ride on the tiger’s back. It’s hard to know which aphorism is more fitting here but, for sure, the warning that “when you teach a bear to dance, you don’t get to tell it when to stop” does a decent job of describing a world of arrogant, affluent, and aggressive self-promoters whose only real interest is in serving themselves.

I’m actually most impressed by the ability of all of these schlock merchants and sycophants to sell their stories and strategies with a straight face, considering how little reason anyone would have to believe that they know what they’re talking about. The ad world’s continued ability to conflate notoriety with knowledge is amazing. These social promotion projects are very risky bets on projected business outcomes which – even when the volume of responses is better than expected – often come with unforeseen consequences and results that ultimately are bad for almost everyone.

It’s hard to know which aphorism is more fitting here but, for sure, the warning that ‘when you teach a bear to dance, you don’t get to tell it when to stop’ does a decent job of describing a world of arrogant, affluent, and aggressive self-promoters whose only real interest is in serving themselves.

The advertising and marketing world believes that social media works even if no one really understands or can actually explain how. They think they need to be in the game with their clients’ brands, if for no other good reason than simply that everyone else is doing it as well. We do know that every such undertaking has both intended and unintended consequences. The intended consequences sometimes happen. The unintended consequences always happen.

Everyone in the ad business also has their favorite cautionary examples of ads, promos, and stunts that have blown up in the client’s face. In fact, there are now some pretty effective and substantial tools and systems being developed to try to anticipate, identify, and avoid similar mishaps in the future. Dumbstruck and Nexus A.I. are just two examples of companies trying to help their clients avoid these kinds of problems.

Most of the young ad folks who hold themselves out as next-gen experts and savants among the savages haven’t a clue about the likely economic impacts of any of the campaigns, marketing blitzes, or other initiatives they sell to their unsuspecting clients and CMOs [chief marketing officer]. It’s also abundantly clear that they really don’t care much about the final and regularly unfortunate results. They know that they can get away with whatever because, unlike direct marketing, brand marketing is rarely, if ever, measured. As a result, there are few documented successes or failures, but always consequences.

The only worst thing you can do and the thing most certain to provide an eventual embarrassment and a substantial amount of egg-on-face is when the proffered program includes a heavy bet on a single talent, influencer, or celebrity who is almost guaranteed to blow up in no time at all. The lifelong rule of the media sword is that if they’ve built you up, they’ll be more than happy to also bring you down when the slightest opportunity arises.

What’s really interesting in the midst of these ongoing circuses is how even experienced and intelligent businesspeople fail to realize the second- and third-order detrimental impacts these undertakings can have on their underlying businesses in the new reality of social shaming, cancel culture, and media manipulation and amplification. They seem to get stuck on the proposition that the most they can lose are the dollars spent on the overall creative, production, and media costs of a given campaign.

However, the smartest marketers have now learned from a parade of horrible outcomes by such major brands as Pepsi, Heineken, Gucci, H&M, and Peloton that there’s also a massive additional cleanup cost in terms of reputational damage and repair once a program blows up, not to mention the serious prospect of your stock price taking a hit.

The news media is always drawn to conflict, outrage, and failure. Worse yet, by design and by algorithm, social media elevates the worst, most divisive content – criticism, crisis, complaint, and competition – which are presumed to be the most shareable as well. That’s not even the end of the damage control story, which is what senior managers and marketing execs looking for a quick hit, media attention, and a sales bump are still missing.

When you expose your business operations and your credibility to the vagaries of the crowd and turn the world loose on your people, there’s really no end to the upsets, disruptions, and damage that can be done, and quickly.

We see new examples on a weekly basis and yet the message seems to continually be missed. Taco Bell was a fairly recent victim of social media excess when it paired up with a very popular musician to push and promote one of its menu items. The rush of interest and volume was so substantial and immediate that the promotion needed to be suspended because the local outlets couldn’t handle the flow. Instead of delighted customers and growing sales, they ended up with disappointed fans and overwhelmed team members.

As Yogi Berra, among other philosophers, noted: it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

Another recent example of a vendor needing to be very careful about what they wished for was slightly more convoluted because instead of Chipotle “working the web”, the company got whipsawed and surprised when two food enthusiasts “invented” a new Chipotle offering (not on the menu or in the system) and promoted it on TikTok. This led to a rash of surprise orders that completely overwhelmed Chipotle’s staff and their production system, which isn’t designed or equipped to handle bespoke burritos.

Here again, the pain and aggravation was shared both inside the company and by unhappy customers. Too much of a good thing can be just as bad as not enough, especially in the fast-food business.

But the real takeaway (no pun intended) for prudent business owners and operators is to be careful and even a little conservative before you unleash these uncertain social media storms – for better or for worse – on your business and your team members. Be sure to question the authors and architects of these undertakings and remember that the last person you want to take advice from, in most cases, is someone who doesn’t have to live with the consequences.

Howard Tullman is General Managing Partner for G2T3V, LLC – Investors in Disruptive Innovators, and for Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC. He is also the author of You Can’t Win a Race With Your Mouth: And 299 Other Expert Tips from a Lifelong Entrepreneur.

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN BY HOWARD TULLMAN

       

Don't Get Sucked In By Influencers

Yes, you can catch a viral wave, at least for a couple of hot minutes. But the downside for your brand can be ugly, and long lasting.  

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN

 

In the world of wishful thinkers, there are no creatives or account managers more clearly and utterly deluded than the ad agency mavens and the CPG brand stewards who are trying to control the flood of supportive social media that they build and regularly unleash. They're assisted, aided, and abetted by the allegedly authentic behaviors of the various celebrities and social media "influencers" whom they regard as their junior partners in these fruitless and deeply flawed labors. A few of these ventures work out, most don't, and none last for more than a few fleeting moments. Ask Matt Damon about his crypto ads some time or Matthew McConaughey about his Salesforce endorsements where he's still being paid millions while the company craters and lays off hundreds of workers.Even assuming that anyone found the proclamations and protestations of these influencers to be credible, much less authentic, which doesn't actually seem to matter any longer in an artificial world where everyone's supposedly in on the joke, it's still a very precarious and unpredictable journey. Talk about taking a ride on the tiger's back. It's hard to know which aphorism is more fitting here but, for sure, the warning that "when you teach a bear to dance, you don't get to tell it when to stop" does a decent job of describing a world of arrogant, affluent, and aggressive self-promoters whose only real interest is in serving themselves.

I'm actually most impressed by the ability of all of these schlock merchants and sycophants to sell their stories and strategies with a straight face, considering how little reason anyone who would have to believe that they know what they're talking about. The ad world's continued ability to conflate notoriety with knowledge is amazing. These social promotion projects are very risky bets on projected business outcomes which - even when the volume of responses is better than expected - often come with unforeseen consequences and results that ultimately are bad for almost everyone.

The advertising and marketing world believes that social media works even if no one really understands or can actually explain how. They think they need to be in the game with their clients' brands - if for no other good reason - than simply that everyone else is doing it as well. We do know that every such undertaking has both intended and unintended consequences. The intended consequences sometimes happen. The unintended consequences always happen.

Everyone in the ad business also has their favorite cautionary examples of ads, promos and stunts that have blown up in the client's face. In fact, there are now some pretty effective and substantial tools and systems being developed to try to anticipate, identify and avoid similar mishaps in the future. Dumbstruck and Nexus A.I. are just two examples of companies trying to help their clients avoid these kinds of problems.

Most of the young ad folks who hold themselves out as next-gen experts and savants among the savages haven't a clue about the likely economic impacts of any of the campaigns, marketing blitzes, or other initiatives they sell to their unsuspecting clients and CMOs. It's also abundantly clear that they really don't care much about the final and regularly unfortunate results. They know that they can get away with whatever because, unlike direct marketing, brand marketing is rarely, if ever, measured. As a result, there are few documented successes or failures, but always consequences.

The only worst thing you can do and the thing most certain to provide an eventual embarrassment and a substantial amount of egg-on-face is when the proffered program includes a heavy bet on a single talent, influencer, or celebrity who is almost guaranteed to blow up in no time at all. The lifelong rule of the media sword is that if they've built you up, they'll be more than happy to also bring you down when the slightest opportunity arises.

What's really interesting in the midst of these ongoing circuses is how even experienced and intelligent businesspeople fail to realize the second- and third-order detrimental impacts these undertakings can have on their underlying businesses in the new reality of social shaming, cancel culture, and media manipulation and amplification. They seem to get stuck on the proposition that the most they can lose are the dollars spent on the overall creative, production, and media costs of a given campaign.

However, the smartest marketers have now learned from a parade of horrible outcomes by such major brands as Pepsi, Heineken, Gucci, H&M, and Peloton that there's also a massive additional clean-up cost in terms of reputational damage and repair once a program blows up, not to mention the serious prospect of your stock price taking a hit. The news media is always drawn to conflict, outrage, and failure. Worse yet, by design and by algorithm, social media elevates the worst, most divisive content - criticism, crisis, complaint, and competition - which are presumed to be the most shareable as well. That's not even the end of the damage control story, which is what senior managers and marketing execs looking for a quick hit, media attention and a sales bump are still missing.

When you expose your business operations and your credibility to the vagaries of the crowd and turn the world loose on your people, there's really no end to the upsets, disruptions, and damage that can be done, and quickly. We see new examples on a weekly basis and yet the message seems to continually be missed. Taco Bell was a fairly recent victim of social media excess when it paired up with a very popular musician to push and promote one of its menu items. The rush of interest and volume was so substantial and immediate that the promotion needed to be suspended because the local outlets couldn't handle the flow. Instead of delighted customers and growing sales, they ended up with disappointed fans and overwhelmed team members. As Yogi Berra, among other philosophers, noted: it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

Another recent example of a vendor needing to be very careful about what they wished for was slightly more convoluted because instead of Chipotle "working the web", the company got whipsawed and surprised when two food enthusiasts "invented" a new Chipotle offering (not on the menu or in the system) and promoted it on TikTok. This led to a rash of surprise orders that completely overwhelmed Chipotle's staff and their production system, which wasn’t designed or equipped to handle bespoke burritos. Here again, the pain and aggravation was shared both inside the company and by unhappy customers. Too much of a good thing can be just as bad as not enough, especially in the fast-food business.

But the real takeaway (no pun intended) for prudent business owners and operators is to be careful and even a little conservative before you unleash these uncertain social media storms - for better or for worse - on your business and your team members. Be sure to question the authors and architects of these undertakings and remember that the last person you want to take advice from, in most cases, is someone who doesn't have to live with the consequences.

Cuz You MAGAt Morons Like to Be Lied To

 

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Why You'll Need to Become a Different Kind of Leader

The leadership vacuum created by Washington leaves us without people we can look up to. Entrepreneurs can fill that role -- but you need to step up your game. Here are four ways to do it. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN

The next few years, as the pandemic becomes endemic, are going to be some of the most challenging times any company leader will face in their career-- however long they've been at it. Building your business from scratch, rebuilding your existing enterprise, or growing to accommodate new and different opportunities are all going to be brutal tasks. In part because the path forward is so uncertain and the players and circumstances have changed in so many ways. Most of the traditional management tools, storytelling skills, role models, and cultural crutches we've relied on are no longer up to the job. As difficult as it may seem, post-pandemic, the road ahead for CEOs and other senior managers is going to be bumpier than the last three years.

Common concerns and shared values are fractured, scattered; agreed-upon facts and basic behavioral ground rules for deal making no longer exist, and employees' career aspirations, work-life expectations, and goals are all up for grabs. We live in a DIY world where the "story" is always suspect, employees make up their own realities and choose their own situational moralities; compromise is regarded as signs of weakness, and no one knows who to trust or whether anyone should be trusted.

Some of these issues are the rotten remnants of the bottomless pit of crime, corruption, and lies of the Trump presidency. The lies these days outlast the liars; others are the product of years of the destructive influence of social media, where the dream of enhanced connection morphed and soured into hatred, division, and separation. Finally, the loss of more than a million American lives through COVID-19 has shaken everyone's belief in our competence and ability to handle the next crisis.

Our employees, our customers and clients, the media and the general public continue to have less and less trust, comfort and confidence in our national and corporate leadership. This is directly and negatively impacting the prospects for the economy's rapid recovery and growth. Every business leader today needs to learn how to operate in these hostile and critical environments. And sadly, we won't have the previous maps and guidelines that used to help us navigate.

In addition, given the sorry state of our performative politics, we also can't expect any material help or effective leadership from Washington any time soon-- whether it's the bad faith actions of the MAGA morons or the inability of the Democrats to get anything done in the face of the twin obstacles of Republican obstruction and continued right-wing lower court rulings. Does anyone even remember when we had civic, judicial, and corporate leaders that we could honestly look up to? Today, we're stuck with clowns and criminals on all sides; serial liars, lifelong losers, lunatics, and leftover retreads -- a sorry surfeit of dimwits and deniers whose pathetic and obstructive antics are a constant waste of time and energy as well as a global embarrassment.

So, it appears that it's up to the business builders-- the ever-eager entrepreneurs and those remaining credible corporate and company executives as well-- to develop, deliver, and then live up to objectives and behaviors that show the way forward. And we have to do a much better job of sending and selling our messages than even the politicians on the sane side of the fence have done to date.  

 

Here are my four suggestions.

Hold Your Own Head Up - What You Do is More Important Than What You Say

Leadership isn't just a position, it's an ongoing process of storytelling, role playing, and modeling the behavior that's expected of all team members. Leaders can cast shadows or light; in troubled times, we can make ourselves miserable or make ourselves strong -- it takes the same amount of effort. Don't expect others to listen to your advice and ignore your actions or inaction. When bad things happen, as Dr. Suess said, you can let them define you, let them destroy you, or let them strengthen you. The right choice is obvious. Your faith in yourself and your business needs to be stronger than your fear of failure and it needs to be readily apparent to all your people.

 

Commit Yourself and Your Resources Wholeheartedly

Don't try to do things cheaply that you shouldn't do at all, or put lipstick on a pig. The cost of doing things halfway or half-heartedly is the same as doing them correctly and far less stressful. Sticking to your principles 97% of the time is painful and grueling and actually much harder than going all the way all the time. There's no such thing as a minor lapse in integrity. Have the strength and the willpower to do the important things quickly, completely, and to the very best of your ability. If you're not all in, you don't have a position; you've merely got an opinion offered from the cheap seats and not worth much. It just doesn't pay to be tentative: you can't steal second base with one foot on first. If you're going to agree to do something, just say "yes". Don't say "yes, but" because anything you say before "but" won't really mean a thing. "Maybe" is a loser's word-- don't say "maybe" when you should say either "yes" or "no" and mean it.

 

Remind Your Team that You've All Been Here Before and Survived

The best entrepreneurs have learned that, while skill and smarts are important, the largest single determinant of success in the long run is perseverance -- persistence with intention -- not beating your head against a brick wall but understanding that you've faced and triumphed over larger obstacles in the past and that the newest threats are just another set of mountains to climb. Recognizing, reacting, responding and adapting to the latest challenges isn't any more difficult than it was in the past. But it does require confidence and belief in your team and an appreciation for the old Bob Marley line that "you never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice." Sharing prior wins, war stories, desperate times of old and super close calls are all ways to reinforce the message that the only way out of the current swamp is all the way through it to better days.

 

Resist the Temptation to Settle for Silence.

Talk is cheap and plentiful and when the world's on fire around you, there's a powerful tendency in business discussions, and especially in painful personnel negotiations, to "buy" peace and to secure some silence by settling for half a loaf or just giving up on some important concerns. It's always a mistake to deny your convictions for the sake of peace and quiet. Seeking universal consensus so that everyone feels good about the result (except you) is also foolhardy, unachievable and likely to lead to mediocre results in the end.

There are plenty of other problems with settling as well, but the biggest one is that the moment you settle for less than you need or deserve, you generally end up with even less than you settled for. Buying peace is too high a price to pay for a makeshift solution; no business can afford to start making these kinds of bad trades. It's a variation of the old foolish strategy of feeding the beast in the hopes that he'll get satiated before he gets around to eating you. The "asks" never end and the short term answers distract you from addressing the real problems which - just to be clear - don't ever disappear or go away. They just fester and get worse. 

Bottom line: Now's the time to take the time to make sure that everyone on the team is eager, anxious to move ahead, and aligned with where the business needs to go. They're all going to be looking to you for direction and guidance. Make sure you're prepared and up to the task.

 

Howard Tullman Speaking at The Money Show in NYC

 

THE SCUMBAGS FROM THE MAGAt SEWERS

 

 

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Is Your Firm's Culture Ready for the WFH Future?

You can order people to show up at the office, but that will waste their time and your money. You need to reshape the way you can share your corporate culture in this new world. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN

The latest “encouraging” news from the Chicago media is that maybe 50% of the pre-COVID workforce has returned to their offices in the central business district for at least a couple of days a week. Allegedly, Chicago is doing better than a number of its peers in terms of the re-occupancy rate although I’d take the whole thing - especially in the midst of a fierce mayoral race -- with a major mouthful of salt.

There’s a lot of self-interest surrounding these stats on the part of just about everyone involved in reporting and generating them - the city, the industry, the media, downtown restaurants, theaters, vendors of all kinds, and the employers anxiously presiding over still largely empty nests. They’re all praying for a wave of wandering workers to return to the fold. There’s a pretty fine line between praying and whining, so it’s hard to exactly tell who’s telling the truth. I like the old line from long-time Chicago alderman Ed Burke: If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, then every day would be Christmas.

So, as you might imagine, my money’s on planning how you’re going to handle a hybrid workforce that has not only shifted geographically but also one which has shifted irrevocably in a temporal sense as well. And probably, when we look back in a few years, much for the better. If 9-to-5 “shifts” or anything like that ever made sense, it was for factories and for the convenience of foremen, bean counters, attendance takers, and other supervisors. Which has nothing whatever to do with the effectiveness of developers, coders, white collar knowledge workers and managers. It was just as antiquated and counterproductive as sending sleep-deprived students to school at the crack of dawn when the entire world knows that they’re likely to learn next to nothing until after lunch time.

Recapturing hours of foregone daily commuting time, successfully and cost-effectively balancing and managing childcare responsibilities, spending quality time with your kids during their waking hours and working when they were otherwise engaged and dodging the countless interruptions and meaningless meetings have taught us something. Namely, that working anywhere but the office from 9-to-5 makes a ton of sense and increases our productivity.  That is, at least among serious and self-directed grown-ups. I can’t speak for the still-employed bros at home sucking down beers, binging everything on the boob box, and doing more gaming than anything gainful. I actually think that Elon and Mark will eventually take care of them. 

But assuming that you’re interested in retaining and re-inspiring your remote employees you’re going to need to employ new tools, techniques and technologies to help get the job done well. And you’re going to have to overcome some of the concerns and shortcomings that we’ve been living with due to the stop-gap measures that were adopted in the rush and crush of COVID-19.

 (1)   Don’t Blame It on the Time or Distance.

You can lead from anywhere. Leadership is not a matter of physical presence or proximity, it’s all about performance and results. But your management team is going to have change their thinking.  This is not going to be easy for people used to looking over everyone’s shoulder and tracking trips around the office to understand that today it’s about productivity and taking care of business rather than busy-ness. Activity is not a measure of accomplishment. They won’t have the visual cues and the daily connections and collisions that made up so much of the office’s information ecosystem in the past. They need to generate that “connectedness” in new ways.

 Old line managers are also gonna have to make room for the best people to do things the way you want without their hands being held. Tomorrow’s complex and distributed businesses are going to be driven by inbred company culture and performance expectations rather than by rote rules of behavior. You can’t write a handbook big enough to handle the challenges that your team will face in the future. You’re going to have to trust your people to make the right decisions in real time and to get the job done.

 (2)   Take Back Control of the Conversation.

As much as increased employee autonomy will be essential, it’s equally critical that businesses take a step back from some of the behaviors of the last couple of years, which grew out of the peculiar and unique circumstances of the pandemic. First was the hierarchical flattening effect of technologies like Zoom and Slack, where it appeared that everyone on the channel or on the screen had an equal time, voice, impact, and say in the ongoing conversations. The idea that every idea had value, that every thought needed to be expressed, that meetings were more like sharing and therapy sessions -- free to fritter and drift -- rather than structured opportunities to share important information and decisions grew up in the absence of precedent and the novelty of the whole experience. That attitude needs to change.  

 Second was the impression-- especially among new young employees who had never worked at the business before COVID -- that democracy was a virtue in every meeting and decision.  And that critical decisions should and would be the result of votes or polls taken after extensive conversations leading eventually to a consensus. The reality is that Amazon warehouse workers will never have the right to decide which books they pack and ship. The missing message is that, while a smart leader’s job was always to listen and to ideally and ultimately make the right decisions, it was never to delegate or abandon the responsibility of making the final and most difficult calls.

 Lastly, much like our society in general, the promise of constant and continued conversation led in too many cases not to closer connections, shared culture and a strong community, but to festering, factional disputes and debates within companies. Instead of connection, we’re stuck with more and more division. Nothing kills a culture quicker than backroom and behind-the-back bickering. A true friend always stabs you in the front.

 (3)   Make the Meetings that You Do Have Matter.

Whether they’re in person or on Zoom or Teams, you need to understand that, more than ever before, meetings need to meet the needs of everyone on the team. They’re not just to serve as cosmetic reminders of the old days -- reassuring assemblies to make management feel that everyone’s onboard, or demonstrations of commitment because people killed a few hours coming into the office or sitting in front of their screens. Meetings need to be CRISP: Concise, Rigorous, Immediate, Short and Prompt because time is the scarcest resource in our lives today.

 Most importantly, especially when so many participants are remote, the meeting’s leaders need to insist that the meetings serve as the finite forum for conversations rather than as jumping-off points for a million subsequent sidebars. If you aren’t prepared to say something during the meeting, don’t say it after the meeting to a smaller and more select audience. Making sure that all the critical views and opinions are shared and surfaced at all levels of the business is one of the benefits that new technologies and services like Balloon, which can address some of the most pressing needs of the hybrid workforce. In addition, take the time to do one-on-one temperature checks and pray that your people are telling you the truth.

Finally, you need to make sure that the basic messages and the critical information and directions are getting through. Data dumps won’t do. Even the most compelling facts need to be put in the proper context -- tied to the company’s story -- and delivered with emotion, which is incredibly hard to do over crappy video while speaking to a bunch of people in little boxes. Because the water-cooler conclaves, which used to be the be-all and end-all of company conversations, are gone, it’s easy to accept the comfort and the illusion that effective communication is going on when you’re really just talking to yourself about what you wish and hope was happening.