Name: PMI COO Tells CEOs: Think Seriously About Your Back to Work Choices
Uploaded: 2021-07-13
Duration: 7 min 41 s
Description: Michael DePrisco says people today want to work for companies with a purpose.

Michael DePrisco says people today want to work for companies with a purpose.

PMI COO Tells CEOs: Think Seriously About Your Back to Work Choices

Michael DePrisco - COO, The Project Management Institute 

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PMI COO: Think Seriously About Your Back to Work Choices

mike. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about the post pandemic workplace and as you know there's been so much debate about this and your company, the Project management Institute has been helping many companies to navigate all of the options. But for starters what do you tell your clients is the most important thing that they should consider before they choose one of these back to work options. Thanks susie. It's great to be here with you today. I think it comes down to two primary things. One is now is the time to be listening to your people really hearing them out, understand their pain points, their stressors their anxieties and engage in meaningful conversation with them about this issue. And then second what we say is feel free to experiment. This is a time to really test new approaches. You don't have all the answers. It's unchartered territory, experiment, learn iterate pivot and continue to um move forward until you get to a place where you're comfortable. You've probably heard this from a lot of your clients. They're very eager to get their businesses back on track to get their employees fully engaged in one of these back to work options. What you're saying it's ok to experiment. So are you saying that it's okay not to adopt the all virtual or the all in office in person or the hybrid work arrangement right now and you can flip flop back and forth. I think for many organizations, this is unchartered waters. Um there is no playbook that we can turn to uh for the solution. Uh So really the best approach is, is have an idea of what you want to do, whether it's hybrid, whether it's something else, uh do what works for your context, for your situation, for your business and your customers and uh iterate as you go. That's that's really it's an agile approach to how we work and how work gets done in general. And I think it applies very nicely here too. Well, it's interesting that some traditional Wall Street firms have already been calling back their employees and saying, come back to the office in person of companies like morgan Stanley, jp morgan Goldman Sachs. And then on the other hand, there are tech companies like google Microsoft or twitter who are saying, look, you want to work from home, it's okay indefinitely or some kind of combination of in the office and at home. Can you make a case that there are some businesses or some industries that are better suited for one format versus another? I'm not in a position to prescribe to an organization, what's best for their people, what's best for their, their company. But what I do know is that for many individuals today, um there's a lot of choices where you can work. Um, and what virtual work has done is it really expanded the workforce and the opportunities for individuals to pretty much work anywhere. And for what we're hearing from many of our clients and the organizations we work with is that virtual work is table stakes. Um, so you better be really thinking seriously before you make any decision again talking to your people because what you don't want to have happen is a situation where you're losing some of your best talent because you couldn't take the time or figure out a way in which you could accommodate this this new normal. I'm going to come back to that in just a moment because I'd like to hear more of your thoughts on this uh war for talent. But in terms of the virtual office model, I'm sure you've seen a lot of surveys that report that working virtual hurts innovation. What are your thoughts on that? You know, we've seen actually the exact opposite for many of the organizations in which we work. There's a lot of ways in which you can spur creativity and be creative, whether you're in an office or in a virtual environment. At PMI, for example, we use open virtual rooms where people can come together and collaborate and bounce ideas off one another to generate and stimulate creative thinking. It also creates an opportunity for us to get closer to the customer. You could stand up focus groups, You can bring customers together and engage with them pretty regularly. So it's an opportunity to get closer to the customers. And then there's the whole issue of the company's culture in an op ed commentary for Fortune. Your company PMI uh said that to foster innovation and this is a quote, organizations have to create a culture that allows innovation to thrive. So how do companies uh foster that culture part of innovation when again, you're not all together. You know, in many ways the virtual environment has allowed CEOS to be even closer to their employees than before. You can jump on a zoom call with anyone at any point in time. Um I've had those experiences, I've seen many organizations where CeoS are more engaged now and understand some of the intricacies of what's happening in the organization better than they did previously because previously they were busy traveling or they only had so many hours in the day to get around to various offices and comfort trips. So in many ways, you know, for CeoS that embrace the technology, it could really turn out to be a wonderful way to improve engagement and morale. So, mike, I want to pick up on the point that you were talking about earlier that uh in this post pandemic world, people have so many more choices of where to work and what they're gonna get paid. And many of the Ceos have been telling us here at fortune that this whole post pandemic workplace challenge is creating a massive war on talent. And if you don't get it right, uh you're gonna have you're going to lose some of your most talented employees. So what are you saying at P. M. I. To advise Ceos? I mean what's your take on all this? It's a valid concern. People today are looking for organizations that stand for something that have purpose and I think now is the time with a lot of civil unrest happening around the world. A lot of major challenges happening that organizations need to come out and really make it clear what they stand for what their purposes and that can help greatly in attracting individuals who really identify with your purpose. Want to be a part of something bigger than a paycheck. Um So that's that's also something that we're seeing more and more um social impact. The E. And I. Um ways to get back to your community uh is an excellent way to attract and retain um really really strong um employees. So looking ahead, let's say two years when someone says I got to get to work, what does that mean? I mean how are you picturing what the american workplace is going to look like? I imagine work is going to be fluid, it's going to be dynamic, it's going to be global. Um The most important, I think it's going to be really really focused on outcomes. If we can really create expectations and align our team members around delivering outcomes, it really shouldn't matter where they're working to accomplish those outcomes. So whether it's in their bedroom, in their office, in an office and a conference room in a coffee shop at the end of the day, are these individuals producing the outcomes that that organization needs? If the answer is yes, I think we're going to see a situation where we're gonna have a lot more flexibility, a lot more happier employees and uh organizations that are delivering tremendous value to their stakeholders.