Hybrid work is a disaster in the making - but Gren Gale outlines successful model for the potential future of office work based on evidence.
Speaker
Grenville Gale
Agenda
6:00pm - Event start and BCS London South branch AGM
6:30pm - Grenville Gale begins his webinar 'How hybrid working can lead to disaster'
7:45/8:00pm - Event close
Synopsis
BCS South London branch AGM:
- Chair's welcome
- Minutes of the last AGM (5 Feb 2024)
- Matters arising
- Chair's report
- Treasurer's report
- Election of officers
- Election of other committee members
- Any other business
Webinar:
In March 2020 over 3 billion people started working remotely and proved beyond any doubt that it can work. That point in history sounded a huge acceleration in what had always been inevitable once the internet and mobile phone were invented - the death of the office. As the pandemic subsided, a power struggle ensued. Senior management in most companies wanted their comfort blankets back. They loved and missed their offices. They liked the idea of being able to see people working. They fretted about loss of company culture, loss of creativity and collaboration and that they might lose their large status affirming offices. Employees saw this very differently.
They’d seen what looked like Nirvana and they were determined to hold on to it. Some companies offered fully remote work to all of their office staff, but most went for something in between, appropriately named hybrid working. While this fudge is understandable, it’s hard to think of a worse way to run an office based business. Hybrid encourages counter-productive, pointless activity, increases security risks and inflates technology and health and safety costs.
In short, hybrid work is a poorly thought-through compromise developed for all of the wrong reasons with few actual benefits. In a world where rapid changes in technology mean organisations and their staff need to be capable of initiative, dynamism and agility, the rigidity of hybrid work encourages the very opposite. It really is a disaster in the making. I will discuss this further and outline a successful model for the future of office work, based on evidence from a mountain of data, surveys and research rather than the gut feel and bias of office-obsessed CEOs.
About the speaker
Grenville Gale
An acknowledged expert in project management for small and medium businesses, Gren Gale has dedicated his working life to managing projects of all sizes effectively and efficiently. Before establishing his own company in the UK, he led numerous teams in small organisations and blue chips alike, coordinating and running local, national and international programmes and change departments. He has published a series of books on project management for small and medium businesses, including several titles on remote working. Founder and CEO of PM Results, a company set up to implement world class project management practices, he is a Prince 2 practitioner and Professional Scrum Master.
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This event is brought to you by: London South branch, London North branch and London Central branch
