A Tale of Two Parkers
I am someone who believes that the key to most relationships are the twin sisters of curiosity and intentionality. This includes our relationship to work. As a result of my own curiosity and intentionality, I sought out a fully remote work environment in 2017 (i.e. prior to the pandemic), because it was apparent to me that remote work was to be the next frontier in the workspace. I was curious about what it took to build a good culture. Turns out, the same thing that builds culture in brick and mortar spaces is the same thing that builds culture in a remote and/or hybrid one: Intentionality.
This past Monday, the employees of the City of Philadelphia were required to return to work in person. In Mayor Cherelle Parker’s statement about why they were mandating that employees return to in-office and/or onsite work she said:
Employee presence at the workplace allows for more personal and productive interactions, facilitates communication, and promotes social connections – along with collaboration, innovation, and inclusion.
What Mayor Parker does here is harken back to the idea that presence alone allows for these things in a more effective or efficient way. The problem with this idea is that it was never true. While presence can be one item that has the potential to help create these spaces, it’s not enough by itself. We know this because the workplaces that, pre-pandemic, had a good culture, effective communication, and promoted social connection through intentionality flourished in the pandemic while others – relying on the happenstance of presence – struggled.
Thing is, intentionality is required in so much of our work. I was recently hanging with my new BFFs (i.e. watching an episode of “At Work with The Ready with Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin) as they were talking about meetings at work and I was immediately reminded of Priya Parker’s book, “The Art of Gathering.” In her book, Priya explores personal and professional events – weddings, funerals, conferences, retreats, etc. – but her work is absolutely applicable to meetings and, IMHO, in-person work. A few of the things she highlights are:
Purpose Over Format: Every gathering should have a clear and distinct purpose. Understanding why you're gathering is essential to shaping every aspect of the event.
Design for the Right People: Not every gathering should be open to everyone. Invite the right people who can contribute to and benefit from the purpose of the gathering.
Pop-Up Rules: Create temporary rules or norms for your gathering that encourage engagement and set the tone for interactions.
Priya suggests that focusing on these principles (among others) can lead to transformative experiences that foster connection, creativity, and a sense of purpose: precisely the things that Mayor Parker seems to be looking for. Relying on proxies like presence, open-floor plans, and other “collective” ideas about workspace to just “organically” allow for these things to be cultivated is unwise and at best, signals a lack of or unwillingness to be innovative. At worst — at least in the case of the City of Philadelphia — a waste of taxpayer dollars...
In our workspaces – including remote and hybrid spaces – these concepts are missing from our work environments and deceive us into thinking they’re missing because we can’t physically be together (more later on the ableist nature of this). However, by creating intentional connection points and using our tech tools to support us, we can use these concepts to create better cultures, establish and sustain equitable practices, and create a real sense of inclusion no matter where we are.
