The COVID-19 crisis will end. And when it does, there will be new challenges and opportunities for businesses to capitalize and exploit. The changes resulting from COVID-19 will be as profound and lasting as those from 9/11, and many will be as equally forgettable – facemask for one.

Perhaps the single most significant change on everyone’s mind is the case for working from home–remote work.

“From startups and tech giants to more old-school Wall Street firms, businesses are rethinking the role of office space and whether they even need it.”

Courtney Rubin, The Office is dead

In the Medium article, The Office Is Dead Courtney Rubin notes that changes are already taking place throughout organizations everywhere. The bottom line here is the bottom line. Organizations are coming to the conclusion that there are significant savings in having a remote workforce. Many experts say we are witnessing the passing of an age and the dawn of a new one. And like dinosaurs, super large headquarters will become extinct. I don’t think this is the case.

First, the increase in productivity being reported is not measured against a control group, let alone under normal circumstances. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that a lot of the productivity we see from the sudden remote workforces is a result in part of the fear many have of losing their jobs during such a crisis. With large numbers of unemployed, few will take any chances to have their productivity or value questioned.

Second, it is easy to stay focused on work when everything else is closed, and your ability to do things outside the house is limited. But when gyms are open, restaurant dining (in and out) goes back to normal, happy hours are back in vogue, and little league and teen sports are rip-roaring in full stride, what are the chances that the remote workforce productivity stays consistent with what we have seen over the last six months? I know this statement seems cynical, but I would argue that its a reality we need to be ready to consider and honestly answer. Working remotely requires both individual and organizational discipline that is not coerced by external crises but driven by corporate culture and personal values. Even the language needs to be different. Instead of calling it remote work, a better term is distributed work.

On the March 24 2020, episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris has an engaging conversation with Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, the topic; the evolution of distributed work. I recommend you take some time and listen to this episode. It will be time well spent and invested if you are someone who will be looking into capitalizing on this new opportunity and are considering enabling a distributed workforce.

Mullenweg and his organization have executed what I think is one of the best frameworks for a distributed workforce. Below I have included my notes from the podcast. (At the end of the post Ive included a table with the notes):

Stage 1 – Nothing has been done — workers need to go into the office to get work done.

Stage 2 – Recreate what is done in the office online — not optimal nor taking advantage of the new context. Terms like “telecommute” are used in this stage. This is a synchronous model because workers not in the office are still bound by the central office hours. There is also a significant amount of spyware used by organizations to monitor the remote workforce—no freedom or agency.

Stage 3 – Organizations start using practices like a centralized note-taking process during online meetings — by having the notes shared on the screen, everyone can see the notes. Screen sharing becomes standard and better equipment, such as lights and mics, are used by those not in the office. Written communication becomes a critical requirement.

Stage 4 – Asynchronous work is becoming the norm, breaking from the bounds of brick and mortar. Organizations start tapping into the global talent pool, opening up the potential for 24-hour work cycles. Decision making takes longer but execution windows are shorter — this requires extensive communication skills across all teams. Additionally, this creates space for introverts to contribute ideas they otherwise would have had a harder time doing so in a typical office environment.

Stage 5 – The organization is doing better work than if they were in a four-walled office.

Reaping the benefits of an office-less organization will require knowing how to orchestrate asynchronous performance. And while the backbone of such a framework is almost all technology base, organizations need to be mindful of the context their staff will be operating in and how that impacts or enhances the companies culture. Trusting their employees will work without intrusive tools is only the first step in designing a culture that succeeds. Effective writing skills will be up there with whatever technical specific skills are needed for each role.

The proclamations of the end of office spaces as we know it is nothing more than hyperbole. I suspect that while there will be more people working from home, the numbers won’t be as high as experts say it will. Few companies will be able to deliver on a real distributed workforce model. But the ones that do will have a cultural-competitive advantage over the ones that don’t or cant.