<h4>The future of work is evolving faster than ever before. Stay on top of the latest trends and developments around work, technology, and more.</h4>

Future of work

The future of work is vast, and in these articles we try to wrap our heads around it. Find future of work research, ideas and insights in our articles and interview series.

Future of work articles | Qatalog blog

In today&rsquo;s era of cloud computing and SaaS sprawl, businesses generate data and information at an unprecedented rate. Within it lies valuable insights and knowledge that could be pivotal for critical decision-making and innovation, all of which drives growth. However, much of this knowledge remains inaccessible, scattered across hundreds of applications and repositories.
Enterprise Intelligence is a new category of technology that is poised to revolutionize how businesses access and leverage all this information and how employees engage with the business. It is made possible by the rapid advances in AI which allow the system to retrieve, analyze, and present any piece of information almost instantly, on request.
<h3>Common use cases</h3>
There are myriad potential use cases for this technology but, for most businesses, they fall into one of the following categories:
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Employee information - Source information about your workforce or find the go-to person for help, depending on their role, expertise, or experience.
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Communication - Locate information from conversations you&rsquo;ve had across any of your communication channels, including email, instant messaging and more.&nbsp;
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Collaboration - Understand the real-time status, progress, and ownership of projects and tasks across your organization.&nbsp;
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Document and files - Find any file, document, or artifact across all your systems, no matter where it&rsquo;s stored.&nbsp;
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Department Specific information - Generate live insights about your sales pipeline, customer base, and suppliers.
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<h3>Why AI is critical</h3>
Enterprise Intelligence is made possible due to the latest advances in AI, which enable a number of significant advantages as compared to traditional search tools:
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Contextual understanding &amp; enrichment - AI enables an understanding of the context behind a query using information about a user and the organization. This helps discern what a user is looking for, and where the information is located, without using very specific instructions. When formulating responses, the AI is also able to provide additional relevant context beyond the direct scope of the answer which the user may be unaware of, as well as suggesting further searches or actions that might be useful.&nbsp;
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Natural Language Processing (NLP) - Most people prefer querying systems in natural language, rather than carefully structured requests. AI-driven NLP facilitates this by understanding, processing, and responding to human language, making interactions much more intuitive.
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Pattern recognition - Generative AI models are adept at learning patterns and nuances within large datasets. This enables them to understand user behavior, preferences, intent and anticipate future queries based on past interactions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<h3>Business impact</h3>
Enterprise Intelligence platforms such as Qatalog offer a host of transformative benefits. For organizations looking to drive growth while creating operational efficiencies, the potential impact is clear and compelling:
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Create big time savings - Instead of wasting hours searching for information across multiple platforms or applications, employees now have a single source for all their informational needs that anyone can use with zero training.&nbsp;
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Enable 24/7 operations - In global organizations working across multiple time zones, work is often disrupted. Enterprise Intelligence platforms provide 24/7 support to the entire workforce, enabling seamless collaboration no matter where you&rsquo;re located.
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Drive growth and innovation - With instant access to company knowledge and strategic guidance, employees make higher quality decisions with greater velocity. This has a compounding effect over time which drives growth and innovation.
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<li>More engaged employees - Enterprise Intelligence creates the foundations for an engaged employee base by making it easier to connect and collaborate across departments, understand company goals, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.</li>
</ul>
Qatalog is built with enterprise grade security and is quick and easy to set up. Just connect your tools and data sources via API and you&rsquo;re ready to go, with zero data-indexing required.&nbsp;
<a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Book a demo now</a> to learn more about Qatalog&rsquo;s Enterprise Intelligence solutions.

Businesses are sitting on mountains of valuable data and knowledge that’s waiting to be unlocked.

Why Enterprise Intelligence is transformative

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming knowledge work. With large language models (LLM) already writing everything from blog posts to job applications, many industries are bracing for change.
Or at least they should be.&nbsp;<a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/">In our research into employee perceptions of AI</a>, we discovered a false sense of security among knowledge workers about the impact these tools will have.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve called&nbsp;<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-chatgpt-effect-leaves-workers-unprepared-for-ai-revolution/">the &ldquo;ChatGPT effect&rdquo;</a>. As knowledge workers become more familiar with early AI tools like ChatGPT&mdash; which currently suffer from hallucinations and other limitations &mdash; they seem less worried about its power.&nbsp;
Now, generative AI won&rsquo;t make knowledge work obsolete. But it&nbsp;is likely to automate the basic, time-consuming tasks knowledge workers perform. That means the work that fills our time will change, and the skills we require and value will change with it.
In this post, we explore six skills that knowledge workers should learn today to prepare for a new world of human-AI collaboration.
<h3>Six knowledge work skills that AI is making more important</h3>
Much of the conversation around AI suggests its impact will be felt most where tasks are most repetitive and analytical. For example, it can already help us to draft emails, write code, and sift through large amounts of data.&nbsp;
As a result, knowledge workers are putting their valuable talents to better use. We found that 77% believe&nbsp;<a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/">AI will help them work faster</a>. Whether they&rsquo;re marketers, developers, or designers, those who use AI effectively are likely to have more time to spend on rewarding, creative, human tasks.&nbsp;
But some jobs may disappear altogether, and those that remain will still have to adapt their working processes. These are the six skills that will be most important.&nbsp;
<h3>1. Getting the most out of AI &mdash; and doing so ethically</h3>
Firstly, the ability to use AI will be essential for knowledge workers. In a world where AI is a versatile collaborator and colleague, humans with a familiarity with these tools will be in high demand.
What are the tasks that AI performs best? How can you build it into your processes? Where does it stumble? What inputs, prompts, and guidance are necessary to get the best results? And what edits or tweaks are required by humans to improve what it produces?
It&rsquo;s not just the&nbsp;use of AI that humans will need to grasp, but the ethics, too. For example, one of the criticisms of LLMs is that they are prone to reproducing existing prejudices. For organizations to create data, materials, and results that are free of bias, employees will need to be attuned to this risk.
<h3>2. Resilience to digital change</h3>
We haven&rsquo;t even begun to see the full potential of AI. What&rsquo;s so exciting about this technology is how rapidly it&rsquo;s changing &mdash; and how dramatically it promises to revolutionize human progress.&nbsp;
But for organizations to make the most of that promise, knowledge workers need to keep up with the pace of change. And as a result, the most in-demand employees will be those who can adapt to the new technologies as they appear.&nbsp;
So, organizations will be looking for workers who can learn quickly to get the most from these tools &mdash; and who have an interest in pursuing their full potential. But organizations will also need to help employees gain these skills through ongoing training and support.&nbsp;
<h3>3. Creativity and innovation</h3>
In a workplace where AI handles the more routine and repetitive tasks, creativity will become one of the key requirements of your human employees.
Say you&rsquo;re running a marketing campaign, for example. AI can certainly provide the data to help you track trends and support your ideation. But true creativity and original ideas will always be in high demand.
Would an AI have created&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La7B8mBnTXs">Cadbury&rsquo;s legendary ad</a> featuring a gorilla playing the drums with no mention of chocolate whatsoever, for instance? Not a chance. But it won ad of the decade and is said to have turned the company&rsquo;s fortunes around at the time.&nbsp;
This kind of out-of-the-box thinking may never be replicable by AI systems and highlights the enduring value of human creativity.&nbsp;
<h3>4. Emotional intelligence</h3>
As processes become more automated, we are likely to seek out true human connections, especially in certain scenarios and interactions where we need to be vulnerable and build trust.
For example,&nbsp;<a href="https://chainstoreage.com/do-customers-ai-based-chatbots">according to a recent study</a>, 77% of customers prefer to speak to a human at a company over a chatbot. The same number said they found interacting with a chatbot frustrating.&nbsp;
Of course, as AI systems improve, this kind of frustrating experience will become much less common. But for the foreseeable future, there will be plenty of situations where there is simply no replacement for the deep emotional intelligence that humans are able to provide, largely because we are able to draw on our own lived experience, which AI systems can never have. This allows us to be more empathetic, more flexible, and better able to deal with specific, nuanced needs.&nbsp;
And so, in a world where AI becomes ubiquitous, those with very high emotional intelligence will become even more valuable. It&rsquo;s what allows us to manage conflict, sensitively express dissatisfaction, and give genuine praise and affirmation that means something. AI can&rsquo;t do that (yet).&nbsp;
<h3>5. Critical thinking in a data-driven workplace</h3>
AI works by finding patterns in huge quantities of data. If you&rsquo;re bringing AI into your workplace, you&rsquo;re inevitably giving&nbsp; dataa central role, too.&nbsp;
In this context, data literacy among human employees will become a fundamental skill. For instance,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.qlik.com/us/aw/data-literacy-reports">one recent study</a> found that 85% of business executives believe that data literacy will become as basic a skill as using a computer.&nbsp;
The trouble is that the same study found only 11% of employees are currently fully confident in their ability to read, analyze, work with, and communicate data.&nbsp;
Knowledge workers need to know how to engage with and think critically about data. If AI tools can provide the necessary information and analyze patterns, it&rsquo;s down to humans to consider whether there might be any potential blind spots. Is AI using a limited data set? Could it be making false assumptions? Are there other implications or alternatives? All of these factors are important in the final decision-making process.&nbsp;
<h3>6. Leadership in an AI era</h3>
Finally, the advent of AI brings leadership into a new phase. Many of the same skills will remain relevant &mdash; strategic planning, people management, decision-making &mdash; but this technology casts them all in a new light.&nbsp;
More than ever, knowledge leaders will have to manage a mix of humans and machines. This begs the questions: How will you allocate tasks between the two? And, more generally, to what extent will you leverage AI across your organization?
As a leader, you&rsquo;ll also need to manage any conflict that arises here. And it&rsquo;s likely that those soft skills &mdash; empathy, understanding, and communication &mdash; will make you stand out.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s also worth noting that it&rsquo;ll be your job as a leader to ensure you have the skills and talent your business needs to thrive in the AI-powered future. As we argue in&nbsp;<a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/">The AI Workforce</a>, it&rsquo;s time to prepare for a fierce battle for talent.&nbsp;
<h3>A future where AI and humans collaborate is closer than you think&nbsp;</h3>
This doesn&rsquo;t apply to a distant future. AI is already transforming the workplace &mdash; and it&rsquo;s going to happen much faster than we think. The time to prepare is now.&nbsp;
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To learn more about how AI could transform the workforce, <a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">check out our white paper, The AI Workforce</a>.
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You can also <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">book a demo with the Qatalog team</a> to see how we&rsquo;re leveraging the latest AI technology to help teams work faster and smarter.&nbsp;
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</ul>

AI will transform the way knowledge work is done. Here we discuss six key skills that will be valuable in an AI powered world.

How AI will change the skills required for knowledge work

Artificial intelligence will transform the way knowledge work is done. Here we discuss six key skills that will be valuable in an AI powered world.

How AI changes the skills required for knowledge work

This is the calm before the AI storm.&nbsp;
That might sound strange, given the explosion of generative AI models and tools over the last twelve months, but this is just the beginning. The clouds are gathering and the wind is picking up, but we&rsquo;ve seen nothing yet.&nbsp;
In the next few months and years, we will see a fundamental transformation in the nature of work and companies. Large scale automation is coming, and not just for roles dominated by repetitive work. AI will drastically increase productivity in fields where automation and economies of scale were previously very rare, across a huge variety of highly skilled, creative, and &lsquo;white collar&rsquo; jobs.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ll see an entirely new economic frontier emerge, accompanied by disruption on an unprecedented scale. We are sleepwalking into a hurricane and we are woefully unprepared.
<h3>The automation of knowledge</h3>
100 years ago, the assembly line for a car involved hundreds of people each with their own specific task. They were aided by machinery, but it was still a very labor intensive process. Today, advanced robotics means the vast majority of these tasks are now automated, with a much smaller number of humans overseeing the process.&nbsp;
Most companies in the modern economy are factories for information. The assembly line sees existing knowledge infused with new ideas and concepts to produce services, products, and new knowledge. Again, the process for doing this is very labor intensive, with a huge number of (often highly skilled) people required to make this happen.
The reason large language models (LLMs) are so transformative is because they enable information to be manipulated, analyzed and processed far more efficiently and accurately at a much greater scale than humans can ever be capable of. But a clear consequence of this is that many roles will inevitably be eliminated.
Let&rsquo;s take a corporate law firm as an example. Today, you might have a team working on a transaction, where someone responsible for due diligence, another who drafts the agreements, someone who assesses regulatory approvals, and another person who reviews everything, before it goes to the Partner. Fairly soon, you&rsquo;ll only need a Partner who assigns these tasks to autonomous AI agents that are powered by a specialized LLM. The assembly line has become almost entirely automated, overseen by a fraction of the initial workforce.&nbsp;
Of course, the inputs here are critical, as it&rsquo;s likely the Partner will require some original thought and a clear idea of how they want to approach the transaction in the first place, which will guide the specific instructions provided to the AI agents. They will also be responsible for reviewing the outputs from the AI, and determining the next course of action. This demonstrates the potential inequity created by AI, where some roles will become much more valuable, while others disappear entirely.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>This is possible today</h3>
This is not something we need to start worrying about in a few years. It&rsquo;s already possible today. I know this because I&rsquo;ve spent the last 18 months up close to this technology, building products and systems that leverage LLMs.
As an example, we now have a system at Qatalog that uses our own AI models to automate our marketing and onboarding flow. First, it programmatically generates customized and highly targeted online adverts, including text and images. That ad takes you to a brand new AI generated landing page, which shows you what Qatalog&rsquo;s custom software platform would look like for your business, because our AI model &lsquo;understands&rsquo; our product and how it can be used by different industries. Then, if you want to use that custom product, it&rsquo;s built and ready to use almost instantly.
<h3>Rapid progress</h3>
What&rsquo;s even more remarkable is that we are just at the beginning of this shift, but the speed of progress when it comes to LLMs means change will happen fast. Whether it&rsquo;s from an academic paper or an open-source model, there is a major breakthrough almost every week that allows us to train models faster, cheaper, or with less compute power, often by orders of magnitude.&nbsp;
This is not normal. You might think we have suddenly cracked the code to problem solving and innovation. But the technology itself is the reason. Researchers and academics have been using LLMs to solve complex problems and trawl through existing literature at lightning speed for new connections and potential answers. Each time LLMs improve, our ability to create better LLMs does too. But this is also an early indication of how this technology will drastically expand the scale and scope of what humans can achieve, and we&rsquo;ll see this recursive and exponential pace of improvement will permeate every industry, sector and practice.
<h3>A false sense of security</h3>
Given what&rsquo;s coming, you&rsquo;d think we&rsquo;d be worried. But we've been lulled into a false sense of security.&nbsp;
Qatalog surveyed 2,600 knowledge workers in the US and UK to understand their perception of AI. The first half were surveyed in early November 2022 (shortly before the launch of ChatGPT), and then again in April 2023. The results reveal that knowledge workers are more confident AI can help them work faster, but have less confidence in an AI&rsquo;s ability to fully automate parts of their role, while the perceived threat level from AI has actually reduced.&nbsp;
So, what&rsquo;s going on? The dominance of ChatGPT (and similar tools) in public discourse has fooled people into thinking there&rsquo;s nothing to worry about, because ChatGPT is highly prone to hallucinations and, for lots of people, it feels more like a fun tool to play with.&nbsp;
In reality, the AI models we have today are phenomenally powerful and, with the right scaffolding and domain focused training, are already capable of large scale automation, as in the example from Qatalog above.&nbsp;
<a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=ai-workforce&amp;utm_content=tariq-blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">See full data set here</a>.
<h3>A pandemic style response</h3>
You might argue this lends credence to the&nbsp;<a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">calls from prominent figures to pause AI development</a>, but that ship has sailed. Large parts of the technology is now open-source and run on almost any computer in the world and they are catching up every week. We&rsquo;ll still need regulation to provide guardrails, but the genie is out of the bottle and there&rsquo;s no going back.&nbsp;
All of this means it&rsquo;s now time to think about how we adapt, whether as individuals, as companies, and for society as a whole. When the covid pandemic emerged, trillions of dollars were made available to protect people&rsquo;s health, safety and the economy. That is the scale of action required right now.
<a href="https://language.work/research/ai-workforce/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=ai-workforce&amp;utm_content=tariq-blog" rel="follow">Download &lsquo;The AI Workforce&rsquo; now</a> to view the white paper, which includes:
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Survey data on how knowledge workers view of AI has shifted
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Predictions for the short-term and longer-term impact of AI on the workforce
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Policy recommendations to mitigate the damage
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</ul>

The AI workforce is coming and we are completely unprepared - new white paper from Qatalog.

The calm before the AI storm

The AI workforce is coming and we are completely unprepared.

The calm before the storm

Almost every company would like to be &ldquo;innovative,&rdquo; but what do we really mean when we say that, and what are the critical ingredients to make innovation happen? 
To find out, I scheduled a chat with <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/phil-budden" rel="follow">Dr Philip Budden</a>, researcher and senior lecturer at MIT's Management School, where he focuses on innovation, both inside the corporate setting and in external regional ecosystems. 
<h3>Hi, Phil. Thanks for talking to us today. Can you tell us a bit about your research with MIT?</h3>
In my current role at MIT, I study innovation, looking at why it happens, where it happens, and why it doesn&rsquo;t happen everywhere. The goal is to understand how we can achieve more innovation, whether that&rsquo;s for companies, communities, or countries. 
<h3>And what actually is innovation? </h3>
It&rsquo;s such an overused word, and there&rsquo;s a risk it becomes a bit of a buzzword, but it&rsquo;s a very real phenomenon. At MIT, after much discussion, we settled on quite a simple definition. We describe innovation as the &ldquo;process of taking ideas from inception to impact.&rdquo; 
The &ldquo;process&rdquo; definition is important because it highlights the fact innovation is not a single moment or a single person having a bright idea and that being enough. The reference to impact emphasizes the importance of having an actual impact in the world, which might not just be profit. And then in the middle of the definition, there&rsquo;s this concept of an idea. The MIT definition of an idea is a hypothetical match between a problem and a solution. And the better the match between the problem and the solution, the better the idea. 
<h3>What are the typical ingredients you need within an organization to be innovative? </h3>
There are lots of ingredients that take an organization from &ldquo;business as usual&rdquo; to becoming innovative, but I like to focus on two that I think are most important. 
First, there&rsquo;s the design of the company. This is the internal &ldquo;system&rdquo; within an organization, which either facilitates or does not facilitate innovation. Is the organization optimized and measured just for business as usual or is space made to explore innovative ideas? Is it dominated by legacy IT or are there platforms for innovating? 
Secondly, it&rsquo;s the people. This is partly a question of mindset, but also the incentives and culture within the organization. For example, an individual can have an innovation-oriented mindset, but if the culture and underlying incentives - such as KPIs, OKRs, and commissions - don&rsquo;t favor innovation, it can be very difficult.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ZEHn0UzwTTuHQ9h9mZ1W" alt="undefined" width="661" height="446">
<h3>Given this, what are the common barriers to innovation? </h3>
As you&rsquo;d expect, the common barriers flow from these two dimensions: the system and the people. For example, the CEO might be calling for innovation, but unless they architect the system and incentives in a way that is conducive to innovation, then it won&rsquo;t happen, even if the frontline employees rally to meet this demand. 
Particularly if you&rsquo;re trying to implement transformative innovation, you need to give people the space, permission, and scope to go beyond business as usual. Middle management also needs to be incentivized to enable innovation in their teams. Finally, it&rsquo;s critical staff have the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/barriers-to-collaboration/" rel="follow">tools for collaboration</a> and information sharing, which can often be more difficult for businesses burdened with legacy IT systems. 
<h3>How does this change for small organizations as compared to large ones? Or perhaps high growth organizations?</h3>
 Organizations by their very nature are organized to achieve a purpose. Large organizations have special challenges because they usually consist of various business units and layers which oversee them, which all add up to a rather large bureaucracy. This results in a system which is not architected to enable innovation because frontline staff are often separated from each other in business silos and middle management may be incentivized just to optimize the legacy organization&rsquo;s business as usual, rather than innovate even modestly. 
Typically, that&rsquo;s why smaller organizations tend to be better at innovation because they don&rsquo;t have the bureaucracy. But they&rsquo;re not immune either, as you&rsquo;ll often find legacy family-run businesses struggle too. Ultimately, it tends to be new businesses who are most innovative and good at achieving high growth. 
For large organizations and more traditional small ones, an effective way of counteracting this can be to create an entirely separate business unit that is explicitly focused on being less bureaucratic and taking things forward. This makes it easier to introduce new systems for sharing information and collaboration, for example, without worrying about the legacy IT systems. You can implement new incentive structures and make sure the culture is aligned with the goals of innovation. 
<h3>Have digital technologies changed our ability to innovate?</h3>
 Undoubtedly, yes. Because they create a new framework for humans to communicate and interact. But they&rsquo;re not a magic wand that makes everything better. 
If we take a very simple example, like the introduction of email. On the one hand, it made it much <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-technology-transformed-our-perception-of-time/" rel="follow">easier for people to communicate</a> and share ideas with much less friction, all across the globe. But there were also inadvertent consequences, like the rise of spam, which distracted us and slowed us down, and phishing emails, which facilitated crime. Then you got another round of email innovation, which mostly solved these problems.
 And I think we&rsquo;ve seen a similar dynamic play out with newer technologies in the workplace today. They have made it even easier to collaborate in some ways - but the instant nature of them can, with notifications on our phone, can make people <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/" rel="follow">feel as if they always have to be online</a>. And there are now so many <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-tools-killing-productivity/" rel="follow">different apps</a> that the volume of information can often be overwhelming, with information now inadvertently harder to find.
 That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s critical that we take more of a systemic approach and think about how we can use digital technologies to create an integrated experience. 
<h3>What&rsquo;s your view on the value of &ldquo;watercooler moments&rdquo; and their importance in innovation? Is there a digital equivalent? </h3>
So called &ldquo;watercooler moments&rdquo; are serendipitous moments of interaction at work, whether by a watercooler, in a lift, or on the bus home from work. In my view, they&rsquo;re brilliant for innovation, as they facilitate interactions that aren't transactional, where people share ideas and make new connections that might not otherwise have happened. 
However, there&rsquo;s also a risk that we overstate their significance, as these interactions are often inaccessible to large swaths of an organization. Imagine you work in different regional offices, or even different areas in a large office complex. Those people would probably never have a watercooler moment with others, especially senior management. 
What&rsquo;s interesting about digital technologies is that they can level the playing field and create systems to facilitate these interactions in a much more intentional way. Thinking through how you set this up in your organization and what sort of permissions you need to make possible are really important to make sure that it's more inclusive than the original in-person water cooler moments. 
<h3>Does access, visibility, and discoverability of knowledge and information affect an organization&rsquo;s ability to innovate?</h3>
The answer here has to be a resounding yes. Innovation is not a single moment of inspiration, as we often hear. As I mentioned earlier, innovation is a process, and to move forward that process, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/distributed-companies-need-centralized-knowledge/" rel="follow">you need a way of sharing information</a>, showing what&rsquo;s happened in the past, who to engage with, and a system for documenting ideas. This is especially important within large or high growth organizations, where there is often an uneven distribution of information. This is where digital tools can be really important. 
But there&rsquo;s also lots of <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-knowledge-management/" rel="follow">tacit knowledge</a>, and this tends to be the kind of knowledge that&rsquo;s not written down or captured by traditional information management systems but is still very important for innovation. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s crucial the next generation of tools and technologies take a more holistic approach and capture a broader range of knowledge and information. 
<a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">Book a demo</a> to see how Qatalog can supercharge innovation and make information visible across your organization, with a bespoke operating platform designed just for you.

How to enable innovation in a digital world - according to MIT’s Dr Philip Budden.

The ingredients of innovation

When I was invited by Qatalog to participate in their <a href="https://language.work/documentary/timeless-work/" rel="follow">language.work documentary</a>, I took some time to reflect on how the structure of our work impacts both our experience of the world and our experience of time. The majority of us grow up in environments where time is structured for us. We go to school where we are subject to the bell, the rota, and the timetable. Our days and weeks are structured for us into time at school and time outside school, and the years are carved up into school and holidays. 
We grow up taking for granted that our days are split into blocks of time that involve things we have to do (school or work, usually) and then time for things that we want to do. However, it&rsquo;s not always been this way, and it&rsquo;s only since the Industrial Revolution that the world has been so obsessed with the clock. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/tools-that-changed-the-world/" rel="follow">Pre-industrial revolution</a>, when work was carried out on a domestic or small workshop scale, workers were task-oriented. There wasn&rsquo;t much need for synchronization, so people worked in a task-oriented manner, just doing the amount of work that was needed: producing a certain number of shoes or a length of cloth, for example. 
<h2>Task-orientation vs. time-discipline </h2>
Task-orientation is associated with work pre-clock in rural societies, and any culture that disregards clock time, judging time based on factors such as the rising and setting of the sun. Work is approached through necessity, not because of the time on the clock. People who work in a task-oriented manner have a more blurred boundary between &ldquo;work&rdquo; and &ldquo;life.&rdquo; 
With the Industrial Revolution and the shift to industrial capitalism, time-discipline started to be introduced to laborers, and with it timesheets and monitoring. Laborers were paid for the hours that they spent at work and money would be deducted for infringements such as being in taverns, reading the news, or loitering. Through work, time became carved up and workers were expected to structure their life around work&rsquo;s timetable.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/b9bM4lh0SSu09Qz8gmYA" alt="undefined">
The introduction of time-discipline in factories was accompanied by pamphlets that sought to encourage &ldquo;time-thrift&rdquo; in domestic and social life. This new work ethic decried the older ways of life and work: they saw task-orientated workers as lazy and lacking in urgency. Pamphlets decried laziness and promoted putting every moment of one&rsquo;s time to good use. There was a widespread moralism about the use of time. As John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, wrote, &ldquo;See that ye walk circumspectly, says the Apostle&hellip; redeeming the time; saving all the time you can for the best purposes; buying up every fleeting moment out of the hands of sin and Satan, out of the hands of sloth, ease, pleasure, worldly business&hellip;&rdquo; 
In the three hundred years since the start of the shift from task-orientation to time-orientation, we&rsquo;ve seen greater and greater emphasis on time. In today&rsquo;s society we are so used to time-discipline that there is nothing remarkable about bells and timetables, we expect to work a nine-to-five, and for many people there is a clear demarcation between the time of work and the time of life. 
<h2>Mass communication technology changed everything</h2>
But with the permeation of the internet into every aspect of our lives, we are seeing a new revolution in how we approach work. Mass communication technology means that we no longer need to use time and space as the means by which we coordinate and synchronize our work with one another. We don&rsquo;t need to be in the same space, nor present at the same time, in order to get work done. This frees us from time-discipline and allows us to think about how to approach work in new ways.
Related reading: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/timeless-work-the-death-of-the-9-5/" rel="follow">Timeless work - the death of the 9-5</a>
This isn&rsquo;t a straight-forward return to task-orientation, however. Pre-industrial revolution work was much less complex than work today and required less coordination across different tasks. In a world where I don&rsquo;t need to work at the same time as you, but we do need to coordinate our work, what do we need to focus on to make sure that we are effective together? A number of factors come into play: information, for one thing, making sure that you have the information you need to get things done when I am not around; the right tools to ensure that we can communicate <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/async-the-promise-vs-the-reality/" rel="follow">asynchronously</a>; the flexibility and technology to get on a call when we need to. We shift from an emphasis on time at work, to an emphasis on technology, and revolutionize our approach to how we get work done.
 The new technologies of the Industrial Revolution, such as the steam train, the telegraph, and industrial machinery, changed how people worked together and created new industries and new opportunities, demanding a new relationship between people and the work that they do. The digital revolution we have all lived through once again requires that we rethink work, our relationship with work, and let go of old ways of thinking about the 9-to-5. We must let go of time as being the framework within which we work and explore the new ways of working that technology enables. 
Qatalog not only makes asynchronous work possible -&nbsp;it also makes it simple. Find out how it can help you shift from a time-focussed to an output-based culture at work. Just <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">book a call with our Customer team.</a>

Technology has opened our eyes to a world beyond the 9-5. It's time our work culture reflected that, says Siobhan McKeown, COO of Human Made.

How technology transformed our perception of time

Your business is unique. The products, customers, employees, structure, industry, markets, processes, goals, communication style - everything is distinct. But the software tools you use to do your jobs are not. 
And you&rsquo;re using hundreds of them. Research suggests your company of a few hundred people is using <a href="https://www.okta.com/sites/default/files/2022-02/Businesses-at-Work-2022-Annual-Report.pdf" rel="follow">89 apps</a> on average, up 24% from 2016. And if you work in a larger company of 2,000 people or more, it&rsquo;s almost twice that. No wonder it often feels so hard to keep up with the endless stream of notifications. 
Software bloat is running out of control, with a sprawl of generic tools, and the customer has been overlooked. We've created endless iterations of spreadsheets and documents for almost every problem, but none of these tools reflect the way our business actually thinks or operates. We need to take a step back and consider and empower how an organization actually functions in order to better serve our customers. 
The problem is so pervasive that we are almost desensitized to it. It&rsquo;s as if we have forgotten that digital technology was meant to make our lives easier. Make no mistake, today&rsquo;s software often feels like forcing square pegs into round holes. 
For starters, each piece of software brings an entirely new set of terminology into your business&rsquo; lexicon, which you&rsquo;re now forced to use. Is it a board or a workspace? A database or a dashboard? An interface or a channel? The list goes on. Then it shoehorns a bunch of processes and structure into the way your team operates, with a completely different way of organizing your work. This often triggers the following sequence: 
<ul>
<li>Adoption is limited - Some people in the team struggle to get their head around the new tool. Although they have had some training, there are new words for everything, redesigned processes, and additional information required. It doesn&rsquo;t feel intuitive at all, so they just stop using it and carry on as before.</li>
<li> Workarounds are created - Although &lsquo;X tool&rsquo; has most of the functionality required, it becomes clear that it&rsquo;s missing a few important capabilities, so another tool is needed to fill the gap. Some kind of workaround is created where information has to be copied manually from one place to another. It just about works, but the process has now become clunky and crucial information is often lost. </li>
<li>Back to square one - The combination of weak adoption and broken processes starts to hurt productivity and damage team morale. The intended goal of improving efficiency seems like a distant memory and the concern amongst management is that it&rsquo;s having the opposite effect. 12-18 months later, after a huge investment of time and money, they scrap it and look for an alternative. </li>
</ul>
It&rsquo;s a cycle that is repeated over and over, as companies search in vain for a workable solution but all the while, their software subscriptions keep rising. It&rsquo;s astonishing really, because all the companies we speak to want to reduce the number of tools they use. The first reason is obvious. Paying for hundreds of software subscriptions is insanely expensive. But the second reason is arguably even more costly, and that&rsquo;s the enormous hit to productivity and employee experience. 
This was laid bare by a recent study of <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/08/how-much-time-and-energy-do-we-waste-toggling-between-applications" rel="follow">a Fortune 500 company</a> which revealed that its employees were switching applications and websites 1,200 times each day on average. It estimated this took two seconds each time, equivalent to just under four hours a week, or 9% of their annual time at work. As the study describes, &ldquo;for most employees, there isn&rsquo;t an obvious way to avoid ping-ponging between documents, websites, and apps &mdash; it&rsquo;s just how the work has to be done&rdquo;. 
This echoes the findings from <a href="https://language.work/research/workgeist/" rel="follow">our own research with Cornell University</a>. We found that employees are wasting an hour every day trying to find information hidden within apps, and 43% say they spend too much time switching between them. All of this context switching slows us down, but it also makes it harder to focus and, over time, increases our stress levels. 
There is a clear paradox here. The very tools that were supposed to make us more productive are doing the opposite. 
<h2>A failure to innovate </h2>
All of this points to why work often feels so broken. We&rsquo;re using a stack of generic tools, all patched together, to run entire companies. You might think this represents a failure of leadership or management. I believe it represents the abject failure of the technology industry to innovate, because businesses have been left without a viable alternative. 
We&rsquo;ve created thousands upon thousands of apps and tools developed to solve specific problems, with zero regard for the bigger picture and how all these disparate pieces join together. Instead, we have focused on making incremental improvements, whether it&rsquo;s a slightly better document editor, a task management tool with barely distinguishable feature set, a marginally more functional sheet, or a new take on messenger apps. Huge amounts of brain power, capital, and effort, but the net result is stagnation. 
To give customers what they deserve with the technology we have at our disposal, we need to think bigger. 
Qatalog 2.0 is launching on December 6. Follow our team on <a href="https://twitter.com/qatalog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a> for the announcement.

We need to think bigger. Something new is coming.

The end of an era

Qatalog recently launched a mini-documentary series examining the staggering pace of change in the workplace, setting out to find better ways of working along the way. 
The first two episodes covered the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-paradox/" rel="follow">chaos and noise that our modern productivity tools</a> have created and the growing <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/operations-nation/" rel="follow">strategic role that operations teams play</a> in enabling increasingly complex workplaces. 
The latest episode is all about when we work and how increasing flexibility is rendering the rigid 9-5 workday obsolete. 
Visit <a href="https://language.work" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode, or read below for some highlights. 
<h2>Timeless work &mdash; the death of the 9-5 </h2>
Many employers and employees are recognizing that tracking traditional working hours are no longer suitable for modern work. Working on flexible schedules, or asynchronously, has given people a new freedom to choose a work pattern that works for them. However, a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">recent study by Qatalog and GitLab</a> revealed that over 40% of knowledge workers have still never even heard of the concept of asynchronous work. 
So let's start off with what asynchronous work is. It is typically defined as a system where workers complete tasks on their own schedule, without being expected to respond to all messages or emails immediately. And this flexibility in turn gives asynchronous workers the freedom to fit work around their lives. &ldquo;People are considering the role of work in their lives. And we've seen a shift from &lsquo;how is my life going to fit around work,&rsquo; to now &lsquo;how is work going to fit into my life,&rsquo;&rdquo; Sheela Subramanian, VP at Slack Future Forum explains.
 So what brought about this change? 
The pandemic acted as a catalyst, with technology as the enabler, and there is no going back. As Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab puts it, &ldquo;Now that people are used to working outside of the normal bounds, and they're used to experimenting with different ebbs of ebbs and flows of productivity, I doubt that you'll be able to put that genie back in the bottle.&rdquo; 
<h2>Creating a culture that works </h2>
For Dr. Oliver Harrison, CEO and founder of Koa Health, the switch to asynchronous and hybrid working has proven to be a positive experiment. So far, the company of 140 employees has seen significant improvements in productivity, team engagement, and even in their net promoter score. A return to a conventional 9-5 in the office would be a backward step. 
However, even as companies are slowly understanding and looking to reap the benefits of flexible working, asynchronous working is not everyone&rsquo;s reality just yet. For many companies, the change involves a significant shift in company culture, one which needs to be intentional and well communicated in order to avoid the pitfalls of &ldquo;digital presenteeism.&rdquo; 
Siobhan McKeown, COO of HumanMade, defines digital presenteeism as the performative aspect of modern work &mdash; &ldquo;This performance of always being online, of always being available, of always responding to things. There's that need to have that little green light on in Slack so that people can see that you're there.&rdquo;
 According to <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">research from Qatalog and GitLab</a>, this phenomenon impacts 54% of knowledge workers, who feel pressure to show they&rsquo;re online working. As a result, workers now waste 67 minutes every day, &lsquo;working&rsquo; extra hours simply to show they are online. 
So, how do we stop the performance? The experts interviewed highlighted three key steps:
<ol>
<li>First of all, strive to create an output-focused culture. &ldquo;Presenteeism was never a great way to measure the results of a business, but it was easier,&rdquo; Darren Murph tells us. &ldquo;As teams are more distributed, there is really no such thing as showing up or clocking out. Work can happen as the sun turns, and leaders will come to expect that results are what matters.&rdquo;</li>
<li>Secondly, the tone must be set from the top. Sheela Subramanian explains how she used status messages to communicate her core working hours during the pandemic, making it clear that outside of those her role is caring for her two small children. &ldquo;By showing my humanity, by showing the fact that I had multiple responsibilities, it gave an opportunity for others to feel like they could do the same thing.&rdquo; </li>
<li>And the third suggestion, from Daphnee Laforest, founder of Modern Leaders, was to replicate an &ldquo;open-source&rdquo; philosophy, used by many software companies long before the pandemic. This is about giving anyone access to the code and allowing them to make suggestions and comments, in their own time. &ldquo;You see a product evolving created by people who have never met in person, that might not be in the same country or the same time zone.&rdquo; </li>
</ol>
<h2>The hard truth about technology </h2>
While technology has enabled this new way of working, it can also make asynchronous working harder, due to the constant stream of notifications. <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">Qatalog and GitLab research</a> found that the average knowledge worker receives notifications from 6 applications every day, and 73% of workers respond to them outside their working hours. Dr. Oliver Harrison, a neuroscientist by background, tells us why they can be hard to ignore. &ldquo;The little red dots have been consciously designed to grab our attention and to set off a dopamine reward system in our brain.&rdquo;
 Again, the interviewees had some tips to combat this behavior: 
<ol>
<li>Configure notifications: Given the power of the little red dot, Dr. Oliver Harrison recommends configuring notifications so they're only active during your chosen working hours. &ldquo;This is the base for us to really mitigate some of the risks and get the best out of the technology, but avoid some of the pitfalls.&rdquo; </li>
<li>Use scheduled send: Another simple but powerful change is the ability to schedule communications across our work tools. As Laila von Albensleben explains, &ldquo;...not only does new technology allow people to work asynchronously, but it also allows people to be mindful about when people receive that information&hellip; with scheduled send, people don't necessarily feel the pressure to always be online and respond immediately.&rdquo; </li>
<li>Add breaks into your work calendar: &ldquo;Guidelines encouraging people to actually schedule breaks in their calendars are critical. It will remind them to let others know that they're not available, and to go outside, or even to have walk-and-talk meetings,&rdquo; added Laila. </li>
</ol>
<h2>The war for talent </h2>
Power in the labor market has recently shifted in favor of employees, who are demanding greater flexibility &mdash; and they are willing to quit if they don&rsquo;t get what they want. 
&ldquo;Companies are having to take quite seriously that people are reevaluating their priorities in life. And perhaps companies have to be a little bit more accommodating than they used to in order to make sure that they retain talent,&rdquo; Professor Julian Burkinshaw explains. 
<a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">Qatalog and GitLab research</a> also found that 43% of knowledge workers would consider a lower-paid role if it gave them greater flexibility, a view echoed by Siobhan McKeown. 
&ldquo;In my experience, people are willing to take a lower salary for more flexibility because they aren't just focused on their work, but they want to find balance through their work for the rest of their life. So I see this becoming more and more prevalent.&rdquo; 
One thing is clear. We are living through a monumental change in the way we think about work, and we all have a chance to make our mark on how we want it to play out in the future. 
Visit <a href="https://language.work" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode.

The genie is out of the bottle. The rise of flexible and asynchronous working has irreversibly changed the way we think about time at work, but the reality is still catching up.

Timeless work — the death of the 9-5

Qatalog recently launched a mini-documentary series examining the staggering pace of change in the workplace and sets out to find better ways of working along the way.&nbsp;
The second episode focuses on the strategic role that operations teams play in bringing the pieces of increasingly complex workplaces together. Through our conversations with operations leaders we find out what operations is, why the role has become so important, what challenges they face in our new digital and distributed workplaces, as well as what tips they have for building a career in operations.&nbsp;
Visit <a href="https://language.work/documentary/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Operations-nation-blog" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode, or read below for a quick summary of what we learned.
<h2>Operations Nation</h2>
Don&rsquo;t you love it when the organization you&rsquo;re at works like a well-oiled machine? When things get done, when colleagues aren&rsquo;t bumping into blockers, but have the right set of tools that enable smooth teamwork and collaboration at their fingertips. There are normally a few people working behind the scenes to make that happen &ndash;&ndash; the ops team. They are the unsung heroes who enable individuals and teams to do the work they have set out to do and allow organizations to unlock their collective potential.&nbsp;
<h2>Operations in the modern workplace&nbsp;</h2>
So what is ops, and what do they do?
It&rsquo;s much more than just keeping the lights on. Ben Gateley, CEO and Co-Founder of CharlieHR defines operations as &ldquo;the foundation of any organization &ndash;&ndash; it&rsquo;s the processes, the ways of working, the rhythm, the routines, and the policies that govern how a company does what it does.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Gerisha Nadaraju, Head of BizOps at Dojo, refers to ops as enablers, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s actually what I do, enabling others to do their jobs better,&rdquo; she explains.
But the role can vary massively, depending on the nature of the organization.&nbsp;
For Astrid Verstraete, Co-Founder of Operations Nation, a content hub for current and aspiring operations leaders, this role is hard to define, &ldquo;it is so different according to the company&hellip;however ultimately it comes down to creating processes, helping people navigate them and removing friction.&rdquo;
So how do they remove frictions and challenges your org might be facing?&nbsp;&nbsp;
Qatalog&rsquo;s Chief of Staff, Marta Kutt, sees a lack of transparency as the leading culprit for workplace frustration. Breaking down silos between people and teams has become a key part of her role, &ldquo;operations teams can find tools to help us work better&hellip;if you don&rsquo;t have silos if you know where you can find information people are much happier and can work as a team much better&rdquo;.&nbsp;
<h2>Empowering organizations to scale&nbsp;</h2>
So, we know that operations has a critical role to play in empowering teams. However, what works for a team of 50 will need to be reconfigured to work for a team of 5000. Having long-term vision within operations will allow your company to consistently reach the next level. Operations are the ones who do the heavy lifting and problem-solving related to key business challenges when it comes to scaling.
According to Mike Strange, Director of Operations at Just Eat for Business, ops always need to keep an eye on the future with everything they do in the present. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s what you need to start changing tomorrow, next week, or next month to enable the foundation for 10x growth in a few year's time&rdquo;.
<h2>The changing face of operations&nbsp;</h2>
As companies grow and layers of complexity are added, operations departments get pulled in different directions and become more specialized to better serve the needs of the business. It&rsquo;s now become much more common to see product ops, sales ops, design ops, and marketing ops roles, which were few and far 10 years ago. However, this decentralization of operations may bring challenges of its own. &ldquo;With this new trend we&rsquo;re seeing we have to ask if operations are creating new frictions or new silos,&rdquo; Verstraete says and warns that this is something business leaders need to keep a close eye on in the coming years.&nbsp;
The other big challenge facing operations leaders has been the rise of remote and hybrid working. &ldquo;Since switching to online we no longer have visibility on corridor conversations,&rdquo; Strange explains. To counteract this, he advises catchups, standups, and even regularly becoming a fly on the wall in cross-functional conversations as techniques to identify emerging silos between colleagues and create processes that tear them down.
<h2>Operations and company culture&nbsp;</h2>
There is often a perception that operations is more the &lsquo;boring stuff&rsquo; - with a focus on the processes. But this is wide of the mark, as how your company operates ultimately defines the culture. It&rsquo;s how you attract the best people, how you retain them, and how you get the most out of them&hellip;it&rsquo;s not a pool table in the office or drinks after work on Friday&rdquo; - explained Gately.&nbsp;
He also warns that the rise of remote work means organizations cannot leave culture to chance, as work has an even greater potential impact on our lives. &ldquo;Workplaces have a responsibility to make sure that the experience that people have at work is a positive one.&rdquo; To achieve that, operations must embed company values into processes and policies, and through it, into people.&nbsp;
<h2>The people behind operations</h2>
This outdated perception also risks dissuading people from starting a career in operations. However, it&rsquo;s all about how you approach the role, whether you chose to focus on the analytics and processes or more on working with people so they achieve everything they set out to do. According to Strange, operations is a people-orientated role, it&rsquo;s about asking the right questions and listening to the answers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s people over process.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Verstraete tells us that to be successful in operations you need to be curious, you have to find problems and find creative solutions to solve them. And Kelsey Traher, COO of Marvel App adds &ldquo;you have to firefight in the moment, while also keeping one eye on your long-term plan and the big picture&rdquo;.&nbsp;
So, for those considering a career in operations, we can conclude that every day will be different and it won&rsquo;t always be plain sailing. However, there can be no doubt that operations now play a critical role in the success of almost any business, enabling everyone to work at their best. And, as work continues to become more complex, we&rsquo;ll need them more than ever.
To watch the episode, visit <a href="https://language.work/documentary/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Operations-nation-blog" rel="follow">language.work</a>

The second episode summary of a documentary series on the staggering pace of change in the workplace. Visit language.work for more!

Operations Nation documentary | Qatalog

Shining a spotlight on the critical role of operations in helping to drive growth and build culture in today's workplace.

Operations Nation

Qatalog recently launched a mini-documentary series examining the staggering pace of change in the workplace and sets out to find better ways of working along the way.&nbsp;
The first episode is an expos&eacute; on the chaos of the modern workplace. It takes a look at how the very tools designed to make us more productive are achieving the exact opposite.
Visit <a href="https://language.work/documentary/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Productivity-paradox-blog" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode, or read below for a quick summary of what we learned.
<h2>The evolution of work</h2>
It all started with the industrial revolution, which caused an irreversible shift in our understanding of what work is, and how to go about doing it. We went from thousands of years of subsistence-based work to mass production and swapped farms for assembly lines and offices. While our setting and type of work changed, everything was still in person, and getting context on what was going on at work was simple &ndash; you just had to ask the person next to you.&nbsp;
However, no one really came prepared for what happened next, when we swapped our physical offices for virtual ones. According to Tariq Rauf, Qatalog&rsquo;s founder and CEO, &ldquo;...the way in which we work is largely still influenced by the industrial revolution. We work 40 hours a week, we don&rsquo;t work weekends.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;This is all a function of the production line. But the way we work today is very different from how we used to work in factories. You&rsquo;re working in 17 different locations across seven different time zones&rdquo; - he continued.&nbsp;
The advancements in technology combined with the rapid adoption of new productivity tools, a trend accelerated by the pandemic, have together outpaced the speed at which workers can adapt. And this newfound complexity comes at the peril of our attention and focus.
<h2>The rise of productivity apps&nbsp;</h2>
We now have thousands upon thousands of these apps. But most of the ones we have today were built with little respect for how we actually use them &ndash; in tandem with each other. This critical flaw has left workers at the mercy of an ever-expanding digital ether. Rauf explains this phenomenon as &ldquo;the sea of apps we use to keep on top of our work that we end up drowning in&rdquo;. Try to find anything and you&rsquo;ll have to battle through a maze of productivity apps, all fighting for our attention, making it harder to do the work we want to do.&nbsp;
<h2>Today&rsquo;s chaotic workplace</h2>
So the app boom hasn&rsquo;t been the silver bullet that we hoped for. &ldquo;People are working in digital silos&hellip;as a consequence, there's a lot of information pushed into apps, documents, files, and folders all over the organization with very few people knowing exactly where they are. Access to this information is getting more and more fragmented and people are losing their sense of context&rdquo;, Rauf goes on to say.&nbsp;
Qatalog partnered with Cornell University to understand the impact of productivity software on the way we work &ndash; and its researchers found that we waste 59 minutes every day just trying to find information trapped in apps, laying bare the enormous cost of the productivity paradox we find ourselves in.
Hema Thanki, VP of Product Marketing at Qatalog, says this impairs our ability to work effectively. &ldquo;Information is locked in people&rsquo;s heads making it very difficult to make the right calls, make the right decisions, and actually do your job.&rdquo;
But it&rsquo;s not just productivity we have to worry about, many workers are also suffering from burnout. Cognitive capacity during the workday is a finite resource. Different apps that incessantly demand our attention end up abusing it, promoting an always-on culture that causes real damage to our mental health. Employers can&rsquo;t afford to turn a blind eye for much longer, as employees won&rsquo;t hesitate to leave a workplace that doesn&rsquo;t support their mental wellbeing.&nbsp;
<h2>Reimagining the modern workplace</h2>
The modern workplace is now digital. It is a collection of people working on their own terms, anywhere they want, and on their own schedule, but this is only possible with a foundation of trust and openness.&nbsp;
The endless pings, meeting requests, and notifications have turned into a crescendo of distractions. And unless a new, more intentional framework for collaboration and communication is introduced to workplaces, it will be deafening.&nbsp;
Thanki closes the episode with a word of warning to managers. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re stuck in old ways and haven&rsquo;t realized that this shift is happening you&rsquo;re really going to be left behind&rdquo;&nbsp;
To watch the episode visit <a href="https://language.work/documentary/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Productivity-paradox-blog" rel="follow">language.work</a>

The first episode summary of a documentary series on the staggering pace of change in the workplace. Visit language.work for more!

The Productivity Paradox documentary | Qatalog

An exposé on the chaos of the modern workplace and how the very tools designed to make us more productive are doing the exact opposite.

The Productivity Paradox

There are lots of<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-asynchronous-work/" rel="follow"> advantages to an asynchronous working culture</a>, which allows people to work when they&rsquo;re most productive and improves wellbeing. However, it&rsquo;s still a relatively new way of working, and as <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog6" rel="follow">our latest report</a> in partnership with GitLab revealed, it&rsquo;s not always straightforward to make the change.
The research found that the two main barriers center around the culture of an organization and the use of technology. To help organizations overcome these barriers, Qatalog and GitLab put together a guide with practical tips to go async-first.
<a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog6#async-guide" rel="follow">Download the guide here</a> - or check out the 12 recommendations below.&nbsp;
<h2>How to build an asynchronous culture:</h2>
<ol>
<li>Communicate proactively The first step in the process is to talk to your employees and explain why you&rsquo;re making a transition to a new way of working. Tell them about the benefits you expect to see, both in terms of business performance and staff wellbeing. Alongside this, you should also communicate the types of work that should be done asynchronously vs. synchronously, while giving each team some flexibility to set their own guidelines.&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li>Focus on output&nbsp; Asynchronous working is about moving away from measuring time spent working, to measuring output and value creation. To align this with your culture, set clear objectives and deadlines, and let people manage their own time to achieve them. This allows everyone to focus on getting their work done, rather than presenteeism. It&rsquo;s critical this is reflected in reward and recognition schemes. </li>
<li>Model the behaviors No matter what it says in the guidelines, employees will always take cues from their managers when deciding how they should work and what is expected of them. To affect change, leadership and line managers need to lead by example and model the behavior they want to see. This might not be easy if you are used to working in a certain way, so discuss it together and try to identify potential barriers, so that these can be tackled collectively.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Set expectations early Talent acquisition is time intensive for all involved, so you want to get it right the first time. To reduce the chance of bad hires, clearly outline the way you work as a company in your job descriptions and discuss it during the hiring process to ensure new joiners know what to expect and are comfortable working in this way. &nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li>Hold people accountable&nbsp; Culture doesn&rsquo;t work if it&rsquo;s just words on the page and there will inevitably be some people who either don&rsquo;t want to change the way they work, or find it difficult. In these scenarios, as hard as the conversation might be, you need to hold people accountable to your company values and agreed ways of working, from new hires up to the C-suite. </li>
<li>Be deliberate In many organizations, meetings are the default mode of communication when decisions need to be made or a progress update is required. For async to work, synchronous communication should be used sparingly and deliberately for specific use cases. This might be for consolidating work that&rsquo;s already been done, or for social activities.</li>
</ol>
<h2>How to get asynchronous technology right:</h2>
<ol>
<li>Create guidelines To avoid digital presenteeism, you need to set clear guidelines. These should include expectations for the different technology and tooling you use (e.g. response times) and specify whether each one should be used asynchronously or not, and in what situations. This helps to avoid situations&nbsp; </li>
<li>Minimize distractions There are plenty of tools out there, but not all are right for async. Where possible, choose tools that genuinely support asynchronous work and aim to minimize unnecessary distractions and interruptions. </li>
<li>Take ownership The default settings for most productive software are designed to keep users constantly engaged, to the detriment of their productivity. Encourage and empower employees to take more ownership of their tech and empower them to disable or modify notifications. To help speed up this process, make sure line managers ask their team if and how they have done this, to ensure they feel comfortable making the changes.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Documentation is key Documenting everything is key to building async workplaces that are scalable and don&rsquo;t collapse under pressure. Ensure employees know how to properly document their work and decision-making, so that knowledge and context aren&rsquo;t lost. Templates and examples of documentation done well can help people understand what they should be aiming for. </li>
<li>Make information accessible Utilize tools that make information and processes visible and accessible (asynchronously) to as many people as possible. The aim should be to minimize or even eliminate the need to ping someone to find a document or get status updates. This becomes even more important for distributed teams across multiple time zones, as otherwise work can quickly become blocked.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Optimize offices Many organizations use a hybrid model, which can make async harder. For those with office space, ensure you create an environment that provides space for focused work, not just open floor plans, which can often be distracting.</li>
</ol>

Find out how to build an asynchronous culture and how to get asynchronous technology right with this 12-step guide.

How to become async first

Our 12-step guide to becoming async first.

Amidst all the talk of flexible working hours and asynchronous communication, some employers and business leaders might be wondering what all the fuss is about and dismiss it as a passing trend
But a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog5" rel="follow">new report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> shows that employers need to pay close attention, as the stakes are high. Two-thirds (66%) of workers surveyed in the report said they would consider looking for a new role if their ability to work flexible hours was removed or limited. This rate was even higher amongst those between the age of 21 and 34, rising to 76%.&nbsp;
And to hammer home the point, more than four in ten (43%) said they would consider taking a lower-paid role if it gave them more flexibility to choose when they work. Again, this sentiment was more common among the younger generation, at 48%.&nbsp;
But what if workers had to choose between two extremes - would they still say the same? Well, we asked them that too. When forced to choose between a &lsquo;9 to 5 schedule and 25 meetings per week&rsquo; (the average number of meetings) and a company with &lsquo;zero meetings and zero expectation of being online at specific times&rsquo;, 62% of workers chose the latter.
The consequences of this should be clear. With talent markets as hot as ever, it&rsquo;s already difficult to attract and retain talent, and flexibility is now a key battleground as companies vie to attract the best people.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ieivY2ovTg2GqzP5Fh1p" alt="undefined" width="805" height="396" />
What&rsquo;s driven this change?
The pandemic shook up the working world and gave everyone a taste of something different. It was desperately needed, too. We had worked the same way for decades &ndash; commuting to an office to do work in the presence of others during a fixed window of time &ndash; and we became used to it. Most of us never imagined that there could be a better way.
And now that workers have had a taste of an alternative, they don&rsquo;t want to go back. Many people reassessed what is important to them in life. The flexibility to choose their own schedule meant they got to spend more time with friends and family, waste less time commuting, and opened up all sorts of opportunities that would have been much more difficult before.&nbsp;
For example, 74% of those surveyed for the report said that increased schedule flexibility had allowed them to spend more time on hobbies, volunteering, and side hustles. As you&rsquo;d imagine, this also had a significant and positive impact on people&rsquo;s well-being. 65% of those regularly working asynchronously said that it had a positive impact on their wellbeing, compared to just 6% who said it had a negative impact.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/uZ3VCDVCR8G3XwVIcMJ5" alt="undefined" width="770" height="379" />
This new, asynchronous way of working, allows people to do what matters to them and makes them happier. No wonder people want more of it.&nbsp;
That doesn&rsquo;t mean our work has to suffer though. Quite the opposite. 81% of people said they were more productive and produced higher quality output when they had more flexibility to choose when they work.
<h3>A long-term shift?</h3>
It&rsquo;s very early in this change to our working patterns and preferences. We&rsquo;re still learning what works and what doesn't, and it may be some time before new norms become firmly established. However, the long-term trajectory seems to be clear, because the younger generation (those aged 21-34 in this survey) consistently valued flexibility more highly.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/UpaBZx2RhmpBIXfSnmmY" alt="undefined" width="805" height="396" style="font-family: sans-serif;" />
The two most likely factors that explain this are a weaker attachment to pre-pandemic working patterns and familiarity with technology, as younger generations are tech natives, and tend to feel more comfortable working and collaborating online.&nbsp;
Of course, the younger workers of today will soon become the business leaders of tomorrow (if they are not already), which will likely result in a more widespread change in attitudes, once they start to make the rules. So, for anyone who still thinks flexible and asynchronous work is a short-term trend, this should be a wake-up call.&nbsp;
<h3>Non-negotiable employee needs</h3>
Ultimately, if companies want to remain competitive, they can&rsquo;t afford to get this wrong. Nearly all knowledge workers know what it&rsquo;s like to work flexibly and they want more. When workers come to assess a prospective new job, they will look at the role itself, the salary, and the flexibility on offer. It is no longer a &lsquo;nice-to-have&rsquo; and, as we have just discovered, for younger generations it will be non-negotiable.&nbsp;
In the end, the laggards will have to adapt or die, as asynchronous work is already proving to be a competitive advantage. Not only can you hire the best people, who have time and headspace to do their best work, but they will be happier and more motivated.
To find out how to transform your organization to an async first way of working - download a standalone guide from Qatalog and GitLab, featuring 12 practical recommendations <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog5#async-guide" rel="follow">here</a>.

New research shows workers would look for a new role if their ability to work flexibly was limited. Insights from the report await you here.

Employers can’t afford to get flexibility wrong

Technology has failed to create a better way of working. This might feel counterintuitive, given that we have thousands of applications specifically designed to help us at work. Nor can we ignore that it has been instrumental in allowing us to continue working through a pandemic. But a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog4" rel="follow">new report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> shows that technology is a double-edged sword.
The technology that frees us from the bounds of an office has chained us to our devices. A deluge of notifications and emails pour into our laptops, tablets, and phones, delivering a constant rush of information, which grabs our attention with or without our consent. And it's only becoming worse, as we rely on tools and technology to support our asynchronous working world. This 24/7 notification firehose has encouraged and enabled a new form of digital presenteeism (which we also discussed in a previous blog post).&nbsp;
<h3>Digital Workplace Presenteeism</h3>
Digital presenteeism has become a significant problem that leads to burnout, stress, and reduced productivity. The research revealed that 54% of us feel pressure to demonstrate to our colleagues that we are online and working, often outside our chosen working hours. As a result, the average knowledge worker now spends an extra 67 mins a day online in order to avoid suspicion that they&rsquo;re not working hard enough.&nbsp;
In a pre-remote world, we would signal to colleagues and our managers that we were working by being physically present in the office with them. Unless you spent all of your time in the kitchen or break room, being at your desk was enough to indicate you were working, even if you weren&rsquo;t being productive.&nbsp;
If you wanted to show that you were working really hard, you'd arrive early and leave late. It didn't always matter too much if you were working, just that you were there. This way of thinking might work if you are making things on production lines, but it has never made sense for knowledge workers.&nbsp;
But old habits die hard and remote workers who still feel the pressure to be visible have found new ways to signal they are present, enabled by technology. They are now replying to emails and chat messages at all hours of the day, joining team calls, even if they&rsquo;re not really contributing, and replying to comments on document editing tools. Even the simple act of changing your Slack status to &lsquo;Active&rsquo; is intended to show you&rsquo;re still there, online and waiting, just in case you&rsquo;re needed.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ir6UDIH8QdfFha3tVIHA" alt="undefined" width="809" height="398" />
<h3>The scourge of constant notifications</h3>
Gone are the days of back and forth on emails and sending endless new versions of files.&nbsp;
Instead, our work is increasingly tied to collaborative tools and platforms that allow real-time sharing, discussion, videoing, and editing. There are chat apps, video conferencing apps, project management tools, task managers, and online HR tools. And that&rsquo;s just the basics. The result is that we're using more apps than ever before.&nbsp;
Given this, it&rsquo;s no surprise that the average knowledge worker now gets notifications from more than six different work-related apps, tools, or software. Moreover, 73% of folks receiving these notifications reply to them outside of their chosen working hours, with 30% saying they do this every single day. More than half of those surveyed also said they find it hard to switch off from work, with notifications ranked second as the second biggest reason. The first was &lsquo;I am often preoccupied thinking about what I need to do&rsquo;.
Ultimately, workers end up feeling like they&rsquo;re "at work" when they shouldn&rsquo;t be. This eats into leisure time and prevents people from winding down and getting decent rest, increasing the likelihood of anxiety and burnout.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/zb1DVnbSThLXpdqqFqkw" alt="undefined" width="803" height="395" />
<h3>Taking Back Control</h3>
As a first step, we need to rethink the way technology is used, and regain control of the apps that nag at us in efforts to "help us" be more productive. To do this, employees should be empowered to turn off notifications or adapt them to fit how and when they work best.&nbsp;
But muting your notifications is only half the battle. Even when your phone isn't bugging you with the latest comment or update from your team, the problem of wanting to appear to be working still exists. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s essential to implement guidelines and set expectations with your colleagues about when you&rsquo;ll reply to their messages. Communicating your working hours and key reasons to be contacted outside of those hours is just as important as changing your notification settings.&nbsp;
But, we should also recognize that this problem won't be solved by guidelines and tweaks to settings. Technology needs to be fundamentally redesigned to be more considerate of its users to combat an always-on culture that leads to burnout and reduced productivity. Work technology needs to be reimagined to support async ways of work, rather than propping up old habits in new environments.&nbsp;

Research reveals broken workplace technology is to blame for an always-on culture and rising digital presenteeism.

Technology failed to create a better way of working

Technology has failed in its promise to create a better way of working

Before the en-masse shift to remote work, sitting at your desk from 8 am until 5 pm was a proxy to indicate that you were working. If you wanted to really show your loyalty and effort toward the cause, you might have put in an extra 30 or 60 mins in the office (whether you worked or not was another thing).
<h3>What is presenteeism in the workplace?</h3>
Presenteeism is defined as the act of being present at work but not actually working. You&rsquo;re doing the hours but the work has almost become performative &ndash; if you&rsquo;re doing it all. In an extreme but comical example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA89H8CgLTQ">Stanley Hudson</a>, from the US &lsquo;Office&rsquo; series has perfected the art of presenteeism and is completely oblivious to anything going on around him.
You might think this behavior would be a thing of the past, now that many workers are spending much more time working from home. But a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog3" rel="follow">new report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> shows that presenteeism is still a problem and getting worse. Except in the new world, it&rsquo;s gone digital.&nbsp;
Over half of those polled (54%) said that they still feel pressure to be visibly online at certain times of the day. On average, this results in workers spending an extra 67 mins each day (5.5 hours a week!) online, in addition to normal working hours, as they attempt to avoid suspicion from colleagues and bosses that they are not working hard enough.&nbsp;
This kind of digital presenteeism manifests as keeping your Slack status set to online, or replying to Teams messages from your mobile device while preparing dinner. Reading and replying to emails during your favorite Netflix show might feel productive, but it is presenting and endorsing an always-on attitude to your colleagues.&nbsp;
<h3>Changing from an always-on culture is hard</h3>
At its core, digital presenteeism is a cultural issue. More than half of workers (54%) say their colleagues are stuck in old habits that make it hard to work asynchronously, while almost two-thirds of people (63%) believe that their managers prefer a &lsquo;traditional culture with employees in the office.&rsquo;&nbsp;
Organizations with this mindset, which prefer the traditional &lsquo;bums-on-seats&rsquo; approach to monitoring productivity, are going to be difficult to change. They are typically led by those who worry that providing more flexibility and allowing employees to manage their own time means giving up too much control. Even if that control was always an illusion. In addition, if workers aren&rsquo;t in the office, but they still feel like they&rsquo;re being measured by how long they spend working, they&rsquo;ll do the next best thing, which means appearing to be online wherever they can.
<h3>Effects of presenteeism in the workplace</h3>
Some bosses will tell you that getting employees back in the office is good for business. The reality is that 81% of workers feel like they&rsquo;re more productive, produce higher quality output, and are happier when they have flexibility over when they work. That&rsquo;s why a culture that values time in front of a computer over the quality of output is fundamentally flawed.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/a6n7seZmRDTpMyIOZbTQ" alt="undefined" width="798" height="393" />
This shouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise. Everyone works differently, and we know that people are productive at different times. Of course, you can still fill your day with &lsquo;stuff&rsquo;, by ticking off tasks to make it look like you&rsquo;re working, but is it really your best work? Our engagement and attention will often ebb and flow during the day and workers who recognize those patterns and have the freedom to adapt their day to accommodate for this will naturally be more productive, in the broadest sense of the word.&nbsp;
Equally, simply putting a whiteboard in a room full of people doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;re going to instantly spit out some great ideas. Creativity requires space and time to think, mull over and execute properly. You&rsquo;ve probably had some of your best ideas in the shower, walking the dog, or sitting in the garden, and countless studies have shown this to be the case. But this is rarely compatible with a rigid 9-5 culture.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/tS0Wt3FPTD2YHgoc9dXa" alt="undefined" width="800" height="394" />
<h3>Does working asynchronously get rid of presenteeism pressures?</h3>
It should do, but you can&rsquo;t do it alone. It needs to be organization-level change, as even those working async might still be worried that their work isn&rsquo;t being recognized if the company isn&rsquo;t set up properly for asynchronous work.&nbsp;
Of all those surveyed, 54% of people feel that there is pressure to be online at certain times of the day. But those who work asynchronously were actually more susceptible to presenteeism pressures. 70% of those surveyed said they experience pressure to be online and available more frequently than their at-work colleagues.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ZAjZAwWET0KULxw0lny4" alt="undefined" width="803" height="395" /> This demonstrates that even in organizations where async is possible and happening, workers still feel like they need to be online when their colleagues are. They worry that people won&rsquo;t recognize they&rsquo;re working, or understand the value they&rsquo;re delivering, because it&rsquo;s not visible. This is likely to be compounded by a concern that performance will be measured incorrectly too, and will negatively impact pay reviews and promotions. All this points to a much deeper cultural problem that still thinks of work in terms of a production line. &lsquo;The longer people are sitting in front of a conveyor belt, the more widgets they can make&rsquo; - or so goes the logic. But the constraints of factory work just don&rsquo;t apply to the knowledge work happening today.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/vi1MLpomQTy2nKisthzT" alt="undefined" width="800" height="394" />
<h3>How to stop the always-on culture</h3>
The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to make that cultural shift. To help, we&rsquo;ve pulled together a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog3#async-guide" rel="follow">short guide to help organizations make the transition.</a> But let&rsquo;s start with some of the basics.&nbsp;&nbsp;
First, you need to normalize asynchronous working. This is really about communication and talking about the way you work as a team or company. Leaders and managers need to make it clear that this is the way you expect work to be done and continue to reinforce this in all of your communication with your team, whether that&rsquo;s All-Hands Meetings or 121s.&nbsp;
But talking alone will only get you so far. If employees still think they are being measured by other means, they will adapt their behavior accordingly. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s critical that you change your recognition and reward structures, to make sure they are aligned with asynchronous working. Ultimately, this is about switching the emphasis from how many hours you work, to your output, and the value you create.&nbsp;
The way to do this is to make explicitly clear what is expected of people and what good results look like. If you get it right, the end result should be that everyone can focus on getting their work done, confident in the knowledge they will be assessed on the successful delivery of it, rather than how quick they have been to respond to messages at 8 pm in the evening.&nbsp;

Study shows old habits from the physical office were carried into the digital workspace. Read why digital presenteeism is a growing problem.

Why digital presenteeism is a problem | Qatalog

New research from Qatalog shows old habits from the physical office have been adopted in the digital workspace. Read to find out why digital presenteeism is becoming a big problem.

Why digital presenteeism is a big problem in the workplace

As we discussed in <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/a-new-era-for-flexibility-at-work/" rel="follow">the last blog</a>, expectations around flexibility at work have changed dramatically in recent years. Workers now expect more freedom to choose not just where, but when they work. As part of this shift, interest in &lsquo;asynchronous working&rsquo; has risen substantially, as companies attempt to adapt to the new reality of remote work.
However, a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog2" rel="follow">new report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> found that the majority of workers still aren&rsquo;t able to work asynchronously, and most don&rsquo;t even understand what the term means. The research also discovered that the ability to work &lsquo;async&rsquo; is often determined by seniority, suggesting the newfound flexibility isn&rsquo;t being shared fairly.&nbsp;
But first, what is asynchronous work, and what are the advantages?
<h2>What is asynchronous work and why is it an improvement</h2>
Asynchronous work describes when people on the same team complete their work during different times of the day on their own timetable, and without the expectation of immediately responding to others, as you might do during a meeting or while using Slack.
There are a number of different reasons that asynchronous work is considered to be an improvement on the status quo:
<ul>
<li>Deep work - With far fewer meetings and no requirement to respond to messages immediately, workers can avoid constant distractions, which allows for &lsquo;deep work&rsquo;. Being in the zone of deep work also improves productivity and reduces the &ldquo;always-on&rdquo; anxiety and stress.</li>
<li>A system for global teams - a rise in teams being distributed globally means that some team members will be working in different time zones. Waiting for colleagues to wake up before you can get anything done just isn&rsquo;t very efficient. Async communication methods, tools, and culture make it easier to stay updated, informed, and get work done, even when you&rsquo;re working on different schedules.</li>
<li>Live first, work second - async gives employees the freedom to fit work around their lives. Without the need to be online just in case, you can properly manage a schedule that involves going to the gym, picking up the kids, and getting that report done on time. This should result in happier, more fulfilled employees.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Tackling misconceptions</h2>
Although it&rsquo;s not a new way of working, async is still uncommon enough that some don&rsquo;t understand it, meaning there are some misconceptions.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>You&rsquo;ll never speak to your colleagues - Asynchronous working doesn&rsquo;t mean you never have a chat with your colleagues. It means that you practice deliberate communication. If your colleagues are not working the same schedule as you, then you need to be more thoughtful about the information you share, so that they are able to pick up where you left off, without the need to ask you follow-up questions. This could be an email, Slack, or a tool like Qatalog, but deliberate communication requires that you increase the quality of communication so that your colleagues can get things done without having you &ldquo;on-call&rdquo;.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>No more meetings - If done right, async should mean there&rsquo;s less of a requirement for meetings, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean they never happen. What changes is that meetings are no longer the default for whenever someone wants to have a discussion or provide an update. Instead, meetings are typically reserved for specific situations where synchronous communication is a necessity or desirable, often for consolidating work done async, or for more social interactions. Companies with experience working in this way will often have guidelines around when to use meetings and when not to.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Async privilege is a problem</h2>
Despite all of the advantages, just 9% of knowledge workers said they &lsquo;Always&rsquo; worked asynchronously, and a further 24% said they &lsquo;Often&rsquo; worked asynchronously, leaving almost two-thirds of people out of the benefits of asynchronous work. But when you dig deeper into the numbers, a pattern starts to emerge.
74% of employees at C-level - CEOs, CTOs and COOs, etc - admit to enjoying asynchronous working practices either &lsquo;Often&rsquo; or &lsquo;Always&rsquo;, compared to just under half at 48% of those at Vice President or Director level. Further down the hierarchy, only 32% of those at Manager or Consultant level enjoy working asynchronously and for Analyst or Administration roles it&rsquo;s only 24%.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/0R5pqS8sSpgZFUkqyMRl" alt="undefined" width="803" height="395" />
It&rsquo;s clear that managers either don&rsquo;t trust those that work for them enough to work asynchronously, or the tools and culture aren&rsquo;t in place to support everyone working this way. C-Suite execs know they can work to their own schedule, perhaps because they don&rsquo;t fear questions from their team about where they are, or what they&rsquo;re doing.
There&rsquo;s no good excuse for this kind of disparity today. For asynchronous working across an organization to be successful, it needs to apply to everyone. Business leaders need to put in the effort, build a framework, and encourage a culture that offers the benefits of async work to everyone.
<h2>Most people don&rsquo;t know what async actually is</h2>
The move to async working for most of the workforce is going to be substantial. Most people know and understand working synchronously - they&rsquo;ve been doing it for decades - but there are a number of barriers to adoption which we discuss in greater detail in our upcoming blog post about digital presenteeism in the workplace.&nbsp;
However, the greatest obstacle is that people simply don&rsquo;t know what async working is, or that it is even an option. Only 15% of the respondents understood what asynchronous working is while 40% of those surveyed had never heard of it.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/gWjCJTkgQ2SyHAnOtnWa" alt="Blog-2-asset-2-May.png" width="802" height="395" />
If you don&rsquo;t know there&rsquo;s a better way of working, it&rsquo;s going to be difficult to make the shift. By contrast, once you understand the principles and methods behind asynchronous working, you'll see that it opens up options for flexibility, makes balancing work and life much, much easier, drives efficiency, and even provides a more profound enjoyment of your work.
But you will also be in a much better position to make that change within your organization. You&rsquo;ll begin to recognize when a meeting could be a written update, or how a Slack message could replace a phone call. You&rsquo;ll start to understand the importance of creating a culture of documentation so that you don't have to ask for information, but have it readily available when you need it. This, in turn, will make you think more about what you need to provide to others for them to get their work done.
<h2>How do we get started?</h2>
Working async is not something that we&rsquo;ve been trained to do. The vast majority of us have worked synchronously most of our working lives, and shifting to an asynchronous culture requires planning, patience, and deliberate practice. It doesn&rsquo;t help that lots of our technology is biased towards real-time communication. Slack, Teams, and Zoom all demand our attention and pull us back into our synchronous ways. Even things like our workflows, processes, policies, and often employment contracts all point towards synchronous work.
That&rsquo;s why it can be a challenge for any organization to move to an asynchronous way of working, but the transition is critical if we want to continue enjoying flexibility in the way we work. The very first step is one of education and advocacy. People need to understand that there&rsquo;s a better way of working before making the leap. Talk to your managers, the people team, and your colleagues about it. It doesn&rsquo;t need to be an all-or-nothing big bang, you can begin to employ some of the mechanics of asynchronous working without waiting for the green light.&nbsp;
<h2>Communication and planning</h2>
One of those mechanics is around communication. Start by making more of an effort to communicate in a deliberate and thoughtful way. Hopefully, this will show that it&rsquo;s possible to reduce the requirement for meetings in certain instances, and encourage others to do the same.&nbsp;&nbsp;
The second is planning, which builds on the communication mechanism.&nbsp; Planning requires you to set expectations around the work you or your team need to do. What are you trying to achieve and by what date? What expectation of quality or quantity is there around the work? Write these things down and communicate them to your colleagues, as this will reduce the likelihood of urgent requests and late-night questions. You&rsquo;ll also need to make sure your colleagues know what you need to get your work done and give them a heads up well ahead of time.
<h2>Using the right tools, in the right way</h2>
Finally, to create and maintain the asynchronous future that we all deserve, the tools we use must support this new way of working. On-demand, real-time chat, and video tools have their place but, when it comes to working asynchronously, choosing the right technology is a big part of the puzzle.&nbsp;
At Qatalog, we live and breathe an asynchronous culture. There is a strong bias towards asynchronous communication and we ask everyone to model the behaviors we want to see, while being mindful of our colleagues' work patterns. We write things down, share them, and make them accessible. The Qatalog platform is at the heart of this, tying all of our work and communication together, and we&rsquo;re more productive than we&rsquo;ve ever been.

Read all about what asynchronous work is, why it is an improvement on the status quo and how to make the transition.

What is asynchronous work | Qatalog

Expectations around flexibility at work have changed. We now expect more freedom to choose not just where, but when we work. Read more about what asynchronous work is and why it is an improvement on the status quo.

What is asynchronous work? (And how many of us are doing it?)

The genie is out of the bottle. A <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog1" rel="follow">new report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> has shown that our attitude and approach to work has changed dramatically, as we have adopted new practices and behaviors that, pre-pandemic would have been almost impossible. Although, as the research reveals, we&rsquo;ve still got a long way to go.
<h3>Is this a new era?</h3>
It may seem hyperbolic to call it a &ldquo;new era&rdquo; but, for some, that&rsquo;s exactly how it feels, as their working lives have changed beyond recognition. The daily commute is gone, replaced by a few steps to a workspace at home.
A select few have enjoyed the benefits of flexible hours and remote work for a while now, as some writers, developers, artists, and other similar roles have been able to work from home (or coffee shop) for the mainstay of their working lives. But even in this cohort of job types, most were still required to commute to an office, sit with their headphones on trying not to get distracted for eight hours, and then commute home again.
The pandemic forced nearly every company with desk-bound workers into exactly the same situation. It wasn&rsquo;t just the lucky few any longer. All the old arguments against working remotely - how do I know they&rsquo;re working, how will we do creative work together, how will I manage people, how will I know what people are doing,&nbsp;etc - quickly became irrelevant as offices shut their doors for months, and necessity forced a radical rethink.
<h3>What was all the fuss about?</h3>
Despite all the fears, work still happened. People talked online, companies didn&rsquo;t fold and money was made. Once workers at home hit their stride and worked out the teething problems, they found they were happier, healthier, and in many cases, more productive.
However, with everyone at home, including partners, flatmates, and kids, getting work done became a bit more of a challenge for some. So, work got done in the windows of time between the demands of our personal lives. Flexible working arrangements started to emerge and the rigidity of the 9-5 slipped away. People started work early or worked late. They worked a few hours on the weekend or took more, or longer breaks to fit real life around work life.&nbsp;
All at once, our collective eyes were opened that working remotely can and does work,&nbsp;if it&rsquo;s done right. And, much more importantly, we can help make work fit around the things in our lives that are meaningful - our health, families, and friends.
<h3>The next big shift is &lsquo;when&rsquo; we work</h3>
So, we find ourselves today in a new era of flexibility at work. It isn&rsquo;t hyperbole. It&rsquo;s real and it&rsquo;s right now. A huge, almost overnight, shift to a richer, more fulfilling work/life balance. Over 65% of knowledge workers in the <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog1" rel="follow">report from Qatalog and GitLab</a> said they now have more flexibility to choose their working hours, compared to before the pandemic. A new era indeed!
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/OdH7A7zFSkCPyBZac3Fv" alt="undefined" width="810" height="399" />
The problem for businesses now though is that as a workforce, we&rsquo;ve proved flexibility can work &ndash; we&rsquo;ve proved the net benefits are greater and now we are going to demand more of it. There is no turning back. Indeed, 49% of knowledge workers said that over the next three years, they expect to have even more flexibility to choose when they work.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/2l7UD2aNRPqojMcsdehB" alt="undefined" width="810" height="399" />
Remote working was the first big shift, focused on where we work, but now we should start to see more businesses having open discussions about flexible work schedules, with a focus on when we work.&nbsp;
<h3>The end of the 9-5?</h3>
Up until now, many companies and their employees have fallen into this new way of &lsquo;asynchronous&rsquo; working almost by accident. However, this change needs to be intentional and sustainable. Many of us work in a team, with others dependent on our work, so knowing when we can be contacted or when it is appropriate to book meetings is hugely important. That means companies will need to create clear flexible work guidelines, frameworks for communication, and provide workers with the tools that make asynchronous collaboration possible.&nbsp;
Perhaps you&rsquo;re an early bird and leap out of bed, brush your teeth and you&rsquo;re off. Perhaps you&rsquo;re the opposite and find your most productive hours are late at night. Perhaps you&rsquo;re neither but really enjoy working out in an empty gym or walking in the park in the morning to come up with new ideas. Perhaps you&rsquo;d like to spread your work across a 12-hour day, so you can fit in a proper lunch and some time with the kids.&nbsp;
The point is, for the very first time, many of us have the opportunity to build our work around our lives. In fact, in <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=killing-time&amp;utm_content=blog1" rel="follow">Qatalog and GitLab&rsquo;s research</a>, 79% of knowledge workers said that increased flexibility over when they work had allowed them to spend more time on hobbies, volunteering, or side-hustles.&nbsp;
Now that workers have had a taste of flexible work arrangements, they are not going to give it up easily, and forward-thinking employers will recognize this as an opportunity to create happier, more productive employees.

Research shows a new era of flexible working is upon us. Read more about the next big shift from 'how' we work to ‘when’ we work.

A new era for flexibility at work | Qatalog

A new era of flexible working is upon us. Read more about the next big shift from 'how' we work to ‘when’ we work.

This is a new era for flexibility at work – and workers know it

We&rsquo;re always taught that money can&rsquo;t buy happiness at work.
But while it&rsquo;s true that you can&rsquo;t order a jar of happiness on Amazon Prime, you may be able to put a price tag to it after all.
A recent study from MIT revealed that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/07/uk-workers-would-take-pay-cut-above-average-happiness-study?CMP=fb_gu&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1657209619">a majority of UK job seekers would take a pay cut of up to 10.5% if it meant greater happiness at work</a>. When we deduct that from the average national salary of &pound;32,000, it seems you can buy happiness for just &pound;3,360 (though I for one would argue that you can get short-term happiness for &pound;4.50 at selected supermarkets in the form of a packet of Little Moons Ice Cream Mochi).
The study, which was done by the university&rsquo;s Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research, surveyed 23 million workers from the UK, US, and Canada, concluding that candidates were more likely to apply for companies with an above-average happiness score of 75 out of 100.
In this case, happiness at work was measured in terms of work-life balance, social relationships, enjoyment, and a sense of purpose, with pay and benefits coming in much lower on the list of contributing factors.
All of this comes at a time when employees (and some employers) are pushing for better well-being support at work. Last month alone saw Peter McGetterick, Chairman of the British Safety Council, urge companies to put well-being practices on par with health and safety, as it emerged that <a href="https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/wellbeing-should-be-on-a-par-with-health-and-safety-says-bsc">nearly a third of workers felt their needs weren&rsquo;t being met by their employer</a>.&nbsp;
Shunning workplace happiness not only leads to dissatisfied workers &ndash; it could also affect company performance. Businesses that are consistently named the &lsquo;best companies to work for&rsquo; have <a href="https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/986811/happiness-index-best-companies-to-work-for-outperform-market-most-in-a-crisis-986811.html">outperformed the market over the past 25 years</a>, especially during times of crisis. So a successful well-being policy could be the difference between sinking or swimming.
While there have been positive moves toward improving work-life balance, such as the introduction of a four-day week, Qatalog&rsquo;s CEO and Founder <a href="https://uk.style.yahoo.com/pros-and-cons-of-a-four-day-working-week-124159266.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZWNvc2lhLm9yZy8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHoCFzKLb427zKOdsPATOVbuFzHvHzW0-5P7m4Luhik33623OWVpcO1gb-r6XCrudWjwx-sOuOkhwAAaAMEJSe9PkLCA1CiyJzXRwkZXot4uh9zvwOamXySl1E2jRI77phuzUtCFcokydq6XQHFS4wnRtY1uk8T_5sXHtyIhSOw3">Tariq Rauf</a> has said that these quick fixes can&rsquo;t be seen as a &ldquo;magic bullet&rdquo;.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Without trust, a four-day week is unlikely to do anything for a team&rsquo;s wellbeing, just as working from home only benefits mental health when employees are protected from the chaos of pointless Zoom calls, endless Slack chatter, and splurging working hours."
&ldquo;One of the great lessons of the pandemic is that knowledge workers [are happier] when they have the freedom to arrange their workloads and schedules in line with their own needs,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Without being constantly checked in on by their superiors, they have the space for renewed creativity, focus, and calm. And this, in turn, boosts the company&rsquo;s bottom line.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s why at <a href="https://qatalog.com/">Qatalog</a>, we create everything with true flexibility in mind. With our Work Hub, you can centralize everything you need to run your business in one place; employees can access important <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/company-culture-and-documentation-culture/">context at their fingertips </a>and collaborate asynchronously, so there&rsquo;s less pressure to conform to one rigid schedule. And above all, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/putting-trust-back-into-teamwork/">trust should be a number one priority</a>.
Being happy at work shouldn&rsquo;t have to come at the cost of a pay cut. So while the importance of it is a testament to the priorities of UK workers, these findings are just indicative of a wider well-being crisis at play in the workplace.

Should you take a pay cut for happiness? Read about the price of happiness at work in Qatalog's workplace trends blog series.

Not happy at work? A pay cut might help | Qatalog

We discuss the price tag on happiness at the workplace in our new bi-weekly series focusing on workplace trends.

Not happy at work? A pay cut might help

Over the past two years, I&rsquo;ve spoken to more than 500 operations leaders in tech, from big tech giants to high-growth startups, in all sorts of different verticals. Despite this, they all have one thing in common; they are still trying to figure out remote work.&nbsp;
More than two years after the entire industry started working from home, it&rsquo;s still proving a challenge. That got me thinking. . . why is it so hard, and how do we get it right?
<h3>Too many tools&nbsp;</h3>
First, some context. The tech industry has evolved unbelievably fast in the past two decades. We&rsquo;ve built new technology for almost everything and incorporated it into how we work. We&rsquo;ve acquired deep, specialized knowledge, created new, better ways of doing things, and new teams and functions to do them. That should have supercharged our productivity, but it came at the expense of simplicity. Now, with all this new complexity, we&rsquo;ve lost the shared context among teams, there are silos everywhere, and it&rsquo;s become harder and harder to actually get work done.
Let&rsquo;s look at a modern software company. There are typically more than 10 teams involved in the development process. Front-end developers, back-end developers, devops, reliability engineers, data scientists, growth engineers, designers, product managers, project managers, and that&rsquo;s only product. If everyone isn&rsquo;t aligned, it breaks.
Yet alignment has become harder because each team has a different set of tools and a unique way of working. Engineering might document tasks in JIRA and follow agile methodology, while the Design team uses Asana, Figma, and a design thinking approach. Product Managers use another shiny new thing. Sales and support, another still. Everyone ends up working in their own little silos, speaking their own languages.
Meanwhile, work across teams still needs to be done. So, we fall back on one of the three things teams still have in common: Email, Slack, and Zoom.&nbsp;
<h3>The unholy trinity</h3>
Email, Slack, and Zoom have become the de-facto coordination layer within a company. We send hundreds of emails and spend hours on calls, just telling people what we&rsquo;re doing, translating it from one tool&rsquo;s language into another.&nbsp;
Company announcement? Email. Project update? Zoom. Looking for a doc? Slack. Who&rsquo;s working on what? The dreaded &ldquo;@here.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s pure brute force. Scale this process up to 5,000 people and it falls apart completely.
But it&rsquo;s not realistic to expect Email, Slack, or Zoom to be the foundational coordination layer of your business. These tools don&rsquo;t have enough structure. They weren&rsquo;t built for it. We default to them because they&rsquo;re the one thing everyone still has in common. A lot like a tourist grunting and gesticulating to get by in a foreign country where they don&rsquo;t speak the language. But we can&rsquo;t operate this way at scale.
Cornell University&rsquo;s Idea Lab partnered with Qatalog to investigate this idea. According to the <a href="https://language.work/study/" rel="follow">research</a>:
<ul>
<li>69% of people report that finding the information to do their job is time-consuming</li>
<li>59 minutes each day are spent finding information trapped in different applications</li>
<li>48% said they had made mistakes because they can't keep track of information stored across online tools and apps</li>
</ul>
<h3>Technology has failed</h3>
This explosion in specialized tooling started as a way to enhance productivity and <a href="https://qatalog.com/product/collaboration/" rel="follow">improve collaboration</a>. Now, it&rsquo;s wasting our time, driving us apart, and causing mistakes. It has failed. We&rsquo;ve lost our shared context and we&rsquo;re forced to operate at our company&rsquo;s lowest common denominator: Slack, Email, and Zoom. We spend hours in these systems each week, translating our work from one language to another. It has become unsustainable. According to Asana&rsquo;s Anatomy of Work Index, it now consumes over 60% of working time. That&rsquo;s not just a problem, it&rsquo;s a fatal flaw in the way we&rsquo;re working today.
<h3>Anarchy or tyranny?</h3>
In my experience, once companies identify the issue, they go down one of two paths:
1) Total anarchy - &ldquo;Let everyone use whatever tool, system, or methodology they want. We&rsquo;ll deal with it.&rdquo;
As the company grows, teams will get disconnected from each other and any work happening outside their own bubble. Next thing you know you regress to brute force processes.
2) Tyranny - &ldquo;Everyone has to use the same tool stack and they have to operate in the same, standardized way. I don&rsquo;t care if people don&rsquo;t like it, they&rsquo;ll do it.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In this scenario, the team gets slowed down by process, stifled by the one-size-fits-all approach, and ends up stuck with outdated tools.
<h3>A common language</h3>
Thankfully, it doesn&rsquo;t have to be a choice between the two. Instead, we can give back to ourselves what the great unbundling took away. We need to rebuild our shared context and introduce a common language and shared structure to organize the work of myriad diverse teams. Something designed for how work happens today, not just messages and calls, and not a poor imitation of the office. A <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-paradox-you-need-a-work-hub/" rel="follow">new way of work</a> that drives unity through visibility and connection.

Are we using too many tools at work? Qatalog research suggests we are, and it's become a barrier to collaboration and communication.

The unholy trinity of work tools

The tools designed to boost productivity and collaboration are driving us apart. Learn how to build a common language and create a new way of work.

When collaboration tools become barriers to collaboration

Qatalog recently came together with the <a href="https://designopsassembly.com/about" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">DesignOps Assembly</a> to host a panel discussion on the growing strategic role of DesignOps in the new world of work.&nbsp;
The session was hosted by the founder and <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/qatalog-founder-ceo-tariq-rauf/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">CEO of Qatalog, Tariq Rauf</a>, who was joined by three DesignOps leaders:
<ul>
<li>Kamdyn Moore, Head of DesignOps at Spotify</li>
<li>Frances Yllana, DesignOps Lead at Coforma</li>
<li>Sarah Klein, Lead Design Program Manager at Cisco&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
It was a brilliant discussion, so for those who missed it, we&rsquo;ve summarized some of the highlights and learnings that explain why DesignOps roles will continue to become more important, how to put your people first, and the need for a single source of truth.
<h3>What is DesignOps?</h3>
Kamdyn Moore: At Spotify, we have over 300 designers across a broad range of disciplines. For me, DesignOps is about supporting and enabling those designers to do what they do. We are a centralized function that supports a decentralized team, and we have to scale alongside the design org, to ensure we can continue to support each of our design verticals.&nbsp;
Frances Yllana: I support a growing 70+ person civic design and technology team of designers, researchers, engineers and delivery leaders. DesignOps empowers the work design teams do, by facilitating everything except the actual design work. That&rsquo;s supporting career growth and development, optimizing tooling and project frameworks, encouraging better collaboration across teams and departments and much more. This work has always been done or needed, but it&rsquo;s still relatively new as its own discipline, so we still have a chance to define what DesignOps can be.&nbsp;
Sarah Klein: I would echo what Kamdyn and Frances said. Thinking about my role at Cisco, I would also add that it&rsquo;s about allowing people within your organization to see the value of design, and ensuring that designers have a voice that is listened to. This means we can start to bring design thinking into requirement setting processes, where previously it was just design-focused conversations.
Kamdyn: Yes, that&rsquo;s interesting, because we have structured our team around two strands of DesignsOps roles now. We have the type that Sarah describes, which is about the execution of the design work itself, and they are much closer to the end product and business decisions. Then we have folks who are focused on the designer experience, prioritizing the people aspect, which involves onboarding, talent, growth, culture and the sense of belonging.&nbsp;
<h3>The crucial role of DesignOps in the new world of work</h3>
Frances: With the rise of hybrid and remote work, DesignOps becomes much more important in every sized organization. We can&rsquo;t have helicopter management anymore, so you need frameworks and systems in place that give your team the autonomy to do their best work, which can be harder for managers when they&rsquo;re not in the same room. That&rsquo;s where someone in DesignOps can help.&nbsp;
Kamdyn: One of the reasons I love operations so much is because I think people have realised it&rsquo;s one of the ways we can make radical change within organizations. We are the systems, the infrastructure and the processes that actually orient a company in a certain direction. And over the past two years the shift to new ways of working has forced companies to look again at all of these things. This means we have the opportunity to implement very meaningful changes in our organizations, which gives us a critically important role.&nbsp;
Sarah: Building on what I said earlier, the increased prominence of designers within Cisco can largely be credited to leaders that now embrace human-centered design and see value in transforming from an engineering centered org to more of a design-centered org. That is something that DesignOps has helped facilitate and naturally, means we, as DesignOps leaders, have a bigger seat at the table too.&nbsp;
<h3>Balancing a tech first and a human approach</h3>
Sarah: As a large organization, one of the biggest challenges we face is communicating across large teams and across departments to get alignment on objectives. We&rsquo;ve taken a balanced approach, making use of certain software tools, implementing certain processes, but also thinking about our culture more widely. It&rsquo;s always going to be a combination of these things to sew it all together, but it&rsquo;s a constant work in progress to stay aligned. It doesn&rsquo;t stop.&nbsp;
Kamdyn: At Spotify, we place a lot of value on giving designers autonomy, but that extends to tools too. That does mean there is some fragmentation, which can be difficult to manage, as it means we have information spread across tools like Excel, Jira, Coda, and every single project management tool you can imagine. Our job is then to figure out the tools that people feel incentivized to use to stay connected.
Frances: We collaborate with so many different experts and clients, each of them with their own ways of working and systems. That&rsquo;s why a single source of truth is so important, as it means when someone pings the team asking a question, you can point them to the relevant resource that already exists. This is crucial for ensuring consistent delivery and quality control. But everyone learns differently. So we&rsquo;ve also done some work to ensure there are different ways of consuming that knowledge, whether it&rsquo;s a video, information cards, or training sessions we can arrange when needed.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>Building consensus with distributed teams</h3>
Sarah: It can definitely be difficult to build consensus remotely, but we&rsquo;ve been distributed for a long time at Cisco, so it&rsquo;s something we have got used to. We generally take a human-centered approach, because when you have people from multiple orgs coming together to make a decision, frequently the blocker is personal. That&rsquo;s where we as DesignOps folks have been able to come in and break down those walls and have more human conversations to remove those points of friction.&nbsp;
Kamdyn: Whenever I look at a problem our team is trying to solve, I often think about what we are optimizing for. Because if you are focused on consensus, you are not necessarily optimizing for speed. There may be situations where a consensus approach doesn&rsquo;t make sense, because speed is important, and a disagree and commit approach is more valuable. Knowing what you are optimizing for helps you to focus on moving forward in the right way.&nbsp;
<h3>Setting up a knowledge base</h3>
Kamdyn: When you have an organization as big as ours, the reality is that you can&rsquo;t just have one centralized place where all of this information lives. That exists, and it hosts our main design system, but we also need something for each vertical that is unique to their needs, which then ties back to the centralized place. It&rsquo;s more of a hub and spoke model. We then have individual programme managers in the DesignOps team who are responsible for each of those verticals, and that&rsquo;s the only area they have to focus on, which means they become specialized.
Frances: Knowledge bases are great, but being able to see who worked on a project is critical too because it means you have the ability to go and ask that person questions, and there are always some important bits of tacit knowledge that weren&rsquo;t captured. Something else we do is to curate &lsquo;Brown Bag&rsquo; sessions with key individuals, often external people, which we record and add to our knowledge base. That means anyone who joins the company later on, can still access those insights on demand when they need it. Again, it&rsquo;s all about creating that single source of truth across the organization.
Want to find out how you can build your own unique knowledge base with Qatalog? <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">Book a call with our Customer team here.</a>

Industry leaders explain what DesignOps is and why it matters. Read our highlights from Qatalog's DesignOps Assembly panel.

DesignOps in the new world of work | Qatalog

What is DesignOps and why has it become more important in this new world work.

DesignOps in the new world of work

Tariq Rauf is the CEO of Qatalog, which he founded in 2019. The company has grown quickly since then, helping to power thousands businesses, with a distributed team of almost 50 people spread across four continents.&nbsp;
I spoke to Tariq to understand more about Qatalog&rsquo;s unique approach to software for work, why his background in architecture gives him an edge, and how he sold his first piece of software at 12 years old.
For those who are new to Qatalog, how would you explain it to them?
Qatalog is an entirely new way of using, thinking about, and building software for work. It&rsquo;s a Work Hub that centralizes your people, teams, projects, goals, documentation and processes. Think of it as the single source of truth for work that makes cross-functional initiatives visible, processes more efficient, and gives your work structure.
There are lots of productivity tools already. Why is Qatalog needed?
The &lsquo;software for work&rsquo; market is enormous and has produced some of Silicon Valley&rsquo;s biggest success stories. But the reality is that innovation has been stagnant for a very long time. We&rsquo;re still using primitive tools that have remained the same for many decades.&nbsp;
Yes, they have slicker UI and more granular features, but the foundational structure of these products has barely changed. Slack is effectively the same as Internet Relay Chat from the 1980s. Microsoft Word&rsquo;s original incarnation in 1983 looks remarkably similar to today&rsquo;s. Dropbox is an online version of the same file manager that&rsquo;s existed for almost forty years.&nbsp;
The consequence of this stagnation is that the productivity software we use doesn&rsquo;t actually make us more productive. It has failed in its promise. This is largely due to the fact that while the products themselves haven&rsquo;t really changed, their scale has increased massively, often by ten or even one-hundred times. Suddenly, you have 5,000 or 10,000 person organizations using software that was initially designed by a small team for another small team. The ergonomics don&rsquo;t fit and it starts to break.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Qatalog is different because we set out to solve this challenge from day-one. Our goal was always to build something that considers how organizations actually function at scale and help them to operate and collaborate efficiently.&nbsp;
Why have you thought about the problem differently, do you think?
Perhaps it&rsquo;s just a difference of perspective. I am a trained architect and I specialized in large technical and transport buildings. I&rsquo;ve worked on designs for an airport terminal for 60 million people annually and a $400m large scale cancer research center. My mentor was Charles Correa, who designed these buildings, and the experience was transformational.&nbsp;&nbsp;
When designing these types of buildings, you always have to think about how many people are going to be in that space. Take the airport terminal, which might have more than 200,000 people using it on some days. With that many people, you need corridors of a certain width, a certain number of toilets, check in counters, gates, runways, and so on. If you don&rsquo;t get one of these right, everything falls apart. Thankfully, we know what works, because these are analog-native solutions that have been iterated on, tried and tested over decades and sometimes centuries.&nbsp;
But when it comes to the workplace in the digitally native world, engineers and designers are still figuring out what works at scale, and you need to think from first principles to deliver an experience that&rsquo;s new.&nbsp;
Have we built true digitally native solutions in any other industries?
Yes. Tinder, Airbnb and Uber are examples of great digitally native solutions. They all work by leveraging economies of choice and scale that just cannot be replicated offline. You can&rsquo;t meet 100 people in 10 minutes as you can on Tinder, you&rsquo;ll never have a friend with a spare room in every city, as you can on Airbnb, and you cannot connect to every taxi driver within a mile radius as you can on Uber. These are all entirely new possibilities enabled by the digital paradigm, rather than skeuomorphic digital solutions to an analog problem.&nbsp;
And how does this compare to Qatalog and work software?
When you look at work software today, most are first order solutions to collaborating online, addressing a single use case. Notion for documentation, Asana for task management, Slack for messaging, and so on. This generation of software does not understand who each person is in a chat, document or file. It doesn&rsquo;t know which teams they&rsquo;re on, what projects they&rsquo;re part of, or what their objectives are. Nor does it have any metadata meaningful enough to automate lots of the manual work around their jobs.
At Qatalog, we&rsquo;ve rebuilt the organization itself, along with its people, its teams, and projects, and made it digitally native, whilst allowing information to flow naturally between these entities. This allows it to understand intentions, objectives, and org-charts, and it has the necessary metadata to automate a lot of the grunt work.&nbsp;
Taking a step back, how did you go from being an architect to a founder of a software company?
Software was actually my first passion. I was born in India and started coding when I was around six years old. We later moved to Saudi Arabia for my father&rsquo;s work, which led me to start my first business when I was twelve. He was a photocopier salesman who sold computers on the side and I would talk to his clients about their computer problems and build them software for managing databases with Microsoft Access.&nbsp;
My second business came a bit later, when I was around 17. By this point I had moved back to India to focus more on my education. It was a software consultancy that advised on complex system design, covering everything from large-scale booking systems, websites to building bespoke technical software. That was when I first started to think seriously about how to build software for scale, and it also gave me a taste for business.
Given all of that, what made you decide to study architecture?
People ask me this a lot. While I loved coding and computer science, I had taught myself so much outside of formal education, and I knew that would continue without a formal setup. Architecture was a brand new challenge that combined lots of the engineering and design problems that I love about computer science. It also gave me a new creative outlet for my interest in software.
In those days it was also quite rare to design buildings using software and by the time I graduated I had won two national architecture awards. All of this helped to open doors that would normally have been closed to someone of my age. That was how I landed my role with Charles Correa, who is credited with the creation of modern architecture in post-independence India. He was my mentor, and we worked on some iconic projects all over the world, such as the <a href="https://www.fchampalimaud.org/champalimaud-foundation/champalimaud-centre" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Champalimaud Center</a> in Lisbon, the <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2015/06/04/charles-correa-completes-crystalline-islamic-centre-ismaili-toronto-aga-khan-museum-canada/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Ismaili Center </a>in Toronto, the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai and a bunch of other projects.
And so why didn&rsquo;t you continue on that career path?
I had never really moved away from software, and I found myself wanting to focus more of my time on it. It takes years for blueprints to become a building, and there&rsquo;s something magical about writing lines of code and seeing the result in a matter of seconds. I was still doing some software consultancy on the side so, when one of my clients asked me to come to Oxford (UK) and work on projects to find new IP applications for NASA, I made the leap.
What came next?
In 2014, I joined Transferwise (now Wise), leading the Product &amp; Engineering teams responsible for driving new users. I eventually got on Amazon&rsquo;s radar and they invited me to work on similar projects, but on a global scale. I worked on projects spanning Prime, Prime Video, Alexa and Twitch with hundreds of colleagues in teams stretched across 32 different floors and 17 different countries.&nbsp;
Work was about as disjointed as it could get. The Alexa organization alone was around 8,000 people, with all kinds of dependencies on the Video organization of another 4,000 people. I started to notice valuable nodes sticking out between the two teams that would fail to connect. Despite Amazon&rsquo;s incredible documentation culture, there was nothing that could bring everything, from internal wikis, to messages, teams, initiatives, together in one place.&nbsp;
And this was when the idea for Qatalog was planted?
Yes. Everywhere you looked, there was the same fundamental flaw in the modern workplace. The design was messy, the system was breaking, there were huge inconsistencies from team to team. A lot of these costs were paid by employing more humans, incurring more manual effort to make it all work together. Work was not working, and the architect in me was screaming. This was a valuable ergonomic problem, and there had to be a systemic solution. That&rsquo;s when I saw the potential to create something that tied all of this together into a single source of truth. The day after I got my permanent residency in the UK in 2019, I left Amazon to start Qatalog.

Blueprints for a new way of work. Qatalog founder and CEO, Tariq Rauf tells us  about his journey from architecture into software.

The story of Qatalog and its founder & CEO, Tariq Rauf

Blueprints for a new way of work. The story behind Qatalog and its founder, Tariq Rauf.

The story of Qatalog and its founder, Tariq Rauf

Dana Gagnon is a marketing leader with a background rooted in storytelling. Today, she is the CMO of <a href="https://www.everee.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Everee</a> and focused on building their marketing team and messaging. We spoke with her about marketing trends across the customer journey, strategy shifts, and what she&rsquo;s learned in the last year.&nbsp;
<h3>What content have you been consuming lately?</h3>
I consume a lot of marketing blogs and newsletters regularly. Some of my favorites are <a href="https://www.everyonehatesmarketers.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Everyone Hates Marketers</a>, <a href="https://marketingexamples.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Marketing Examples</a>, and Ariyah. I&rsquo;m also a member of Dave Gerhardt&rsquo;s marketing community on Facebook, DGMG, which has endless insights, and I reference his blog and DGMG University fairly often. I&rsquo;m almost always reading a marketing book as well, and I&rsquo;m currently reading &ldquo;Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.&rdquo; I listen to several podcasts, like Chris Walker&rsquo;s <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-demand-gen/id1511588213" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">State of Demand Gen</a>.&nbsp;
And of course, it&rsquo;s not all work stuff. Ever since the pandemic, I&rsquo;m always looking for some sort of escape, usually in the form of a show to binge. I think I was the last person on Earth to watch &ldquo;Schitt&rsquo;s Creek&rdquo; but I finally did recently.&nbsp;
<h3>In what ways has the shift to more work flexibility impacted marketing audiences?&nbsp;</h3>
Even before the shift, marketing teams were competing for attention against other brands and anything our buyers or community consume. But the pandemic has made buyers even less tolerant to noise and impersonal communications.&nbsp;&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re all burned out and only want to engage with companies and brands that truly understand our pain and have our best interest and success in mind. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s more important than ever to provide value to our audiences before asking for something in return.&nbsp;
<h3>How does your marketing team cut through the noise?</h3>
You have to really get to know your buyer. The first thing I did when I joined <a href="https://www.everee.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Everee</a> was interview existing customers and people unfamiliar with our product who fit our ideal customer profile. You can&rsquo;t just ask them questions related to your product or their buying process. You need to understand what keeps them up at night and what success looks like for them. Then you can build positioning and messaging that truly resonates with these audiences.&nbsp;
To refine this even further, we&rsquo;ve focused on the verticals that have the most pain that we can solve. This has allowed us to take our insights on these personas and get really tailored in our messaging, copy, and programs on what matters most to them. It allows us to narrow our focus on the channels and places where they already are vs. distribute a generic message everywhere and hope the buyer finds us.&nbsp;
<h3>Do you think there have been major strategy shifts in marketing that have come from hybrid work?</h3>
The shift has certainly impacted marketing strategies that relied heavily on in-person activations, whether it&rsquo;s booking sales meetings, hosting closing events, or exhibiting at trade shows. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a single marketer who thinks that virtual events are as impactful as in person.&nbsp;
People are sick of attending webinars or all-day Zoom calls. These teams have had to find improved efficiencies in their digital channels and enable their sales teams in new ways.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>How do you think marketing teams can set themselves up for success?</h3>
In addition to understanding their customers and buyers, it&rsquo;s critical that marketing teams establish healthy internal relationships, particularly with sales, product, and customer success. There are far too many organizations that get hung up in the great marketing vs. sales debate around leads vs. SAOs. Or too many marketers who never take the time to fully understand their product. Or marketing teams who never talk to their customer success teammates around at-risk accounts or expansion opportunities. At the end of the day, marketing can&rsquo;t be successful or bring strategic solutions to the business without these relationships.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/K6cNHuVwQ42mrVlY66fV" alt="undefined" width="691" height="340" />
<h3>What "future of work" topics are you paying close attention to?&nbsp;</h3>
I read a lot about the way worker expectations are changing. I think the pandemic was a wake-up call for businesses everywhere. The perks that attracted workers in 2019 &mdash; free food, cool office environments, gym memberships &mdash; aren&rsquo;t relevant anymore. The pandemic accelerated a trend that was already in the works around employees wanting more flexibility to work when and where they want. They also want to see the value of their work faster. The Venmo generation is used to paying for anything in seconds. It&rsquo;s only a matter of time until they expect to get paid for the work they do as quickly.&nbsp;
Read more Future of Work articles from Qatalog: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/job-van-der-voort-future-of-work-remote/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="background-color: #eccafa;">Job van der Voort on building strong connections remotely</a>
<h3>What do you think work will look like a year from now?</h3>
There will likely still be a tight labor market and hybrid WFH-office environments. But I think there will be more comfort around these disruptions by then. Companies will have found better ways to attract and keep talent, and will also feel settled with flexible work arrangements.&nbsp;

Dana Gagnon, CMO of Everee, spoke with us about 2022 marketing trends and how marketing audiences have changed since working model shifts.

Dana Gagnon 2022 marketing advice | Qatalog

We spoke to Everee CMO Dana Gagnon about customer journey, strategy shifts, and what she’s learned in the last year.

Dana Gagnon on connecting with today’s B2B audiences

Our Future of Work series was developed so that we could learn from business leaders who have opted-in to the new ways of work. We got to speak with Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote, who encourages companies to fully embrace the differences that a remote working model brings and to implement those differences within your culture.&nbsp;
<h2>Since Remote is remote-first, are there any challenges your team faces that you're also trying to solve for customers?</h2>
We try to <a href="https://remote.grsm.io/hom1qvpiqfsb" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">lead by example on the remote-first practices that make life easier.</a> Asynchronous work is probably the most important thing. We practice a culture of documentation, so we keep everything publicly accessible when possible. That means communicating in public Slack channels instead of in DMs, building documents for new processes and discussions, and pointing to documentation instead of answering questions in messages. The more people lean into the documentation, the easier it is for people across multiple time zones to get the information they need to do their work.
<h2>When did you start working remotely, and what are your favorite parts about it?</h2>
I started working remotely six years ago when I joined GitLab as one of the first employees, a web-based DevOps platform. I helped to grow the company from five to 450 people. The unique thing was that all of us worked remotely across 45 different countries. Yet, after five years of working at <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">GitLab</a>, I couldn&rsquo;t find one platform that could facilitate local laws, benefits, banking, and local payroll. It was hard to hire talented workers remotely on a global scale, and that&rsquo;s why I left to create <a href="https://remote.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Remote</a>. That&rsquo;s exactly the challenge Remote provides a solution for.
Remote work hugely benefits not only the business but also everyone on a personal level. The remote working model means that you are able to hire the best talent despite where a person is based. For the employee, it means having more time to spend at home, less time commuting, and the choice to live anywhere in the world. It means employees no longer have to make a sacrificial choice between their career and their personal development, hobbies, and family
<h2>What "future of work" trends/topics are you following?</h2>
The redistribution of talent is a big one. Our research found that 71% of workers would consider moving to another country if they could do so without sacrificing their career in the process. Remote helps employers continue to employ people when they move to other countries, so we want to ensure businesses understand they need to be ready for more employee relocation.&nbsp;
We also use VR headsets for team bonding and some collaboration. Everyone at Remote receives an Oculus Quest 2. So we&rsquo;re exploring new ways to connect around the world.
<h2>What is the biggest challenge for you or your team right now?&nbsp;</h2>
Some may argue that &ldquo;water cooler conversations&rdquo; are hard to replace when working remotely, but I would say that as long as your company makes a conscious effort to employ methods of social connection and wellbeing, that&rsquo;s not lost at all. In fact, we find that working remotely can improve an employee&rsquo;s wellbeing because they spend less time commuting and less time away from their families, so in fact they tend to be happier at work.
Building strong connections between our team has been a key focus at Remote. Our team actually operates on the fundamental value of kindness. Starting with the initial hiring process, we ensure that each member of our team embodies this virtue, as without kindness at the core, remote workforces suffer. We assume the best of our colleagues and trust them to get their work done and do it well, and we know they do so, because our culture of documentation leads us to catalog our work and communicate constantly.
To foster more connections and collaboration among our teammates, we recently changed our meeting structure to schedule at least one bonding call a day for people in different time zones. We also have one all-hands meeting per week, which alternates between two meeting slots to make it easier for more people to attend. Without the benefits of in-person communication, these initiatives have been essential to upholding our structure as a team, and addressing instinctual, human needs for connection, clarity, and creativity.
<h2>What is your collaboration tool stack?</h2>
It&rsquo;s incredibly important for a business to invest in the tools necessary for teams to be able to work efficiently when remote. At Remote, we make clear recommendations to the team on the tools they should be using, which you can see on our website. These tools help us to connect with clients (Zoom), keep in communication with the team (Slack), collaborate between teams (GitLab, GitHub, Miro, Invision), store all documents and assets (Notion, Dropbox, G-Drive). We even have a tool that runs a weekly watercooler trivia.
<h2>I read this piece on building belonging for women in remote work - how do you think Remote's transparency around a commitment to equality is helping to shape the workplace for women?&nbsp;</h2>
Transparency is important, but action is better. Remote is one of the unfortunately rare companies in tech that employs just as many women as it does men. Our excellent People team is working on several great projects to ensure everyone at Remote feels like they belong here, and that extends to equality in compensation as well, across not only gender but also location. We never fill a position until we have received applications from and interviewed people from a variety of backgrounds. When you commit to doing that from the very beginning of the hiring process, you are able to build an organization where belonging for everyone is possible. But you still have to continue to do the work on transparency and belonging once you hire the people.
<h2>And finally, what does work/life balance mean to you?</h2>
I believe everyone should be able to enjoy a good work-life balance and work for a good salary, no matter where they live. Working remotely made those things possible for me, and now I want to help others enjoy the same benefits.

Building strong connections has been a key focus at Remote, says CEO Job van der Voort.

Future of Work with Remote | Qatalog blog

Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote, saw a missed opportunity to hire workers on a global scale. Now, his company operates on a remote-first basis.

Job van der Voort on building strong connections remotely

People first, corporations second. That's the way companies should be operating nowadays. The new world of work has offered autonomy, flexibility, trust, focus, and belonging to workers everywhere. When companies don't rise to that standard &mdash; they are at risk of falling behind the competition.&nbsp;
I wanted to uncover the truth behind the management, access, sharing, and creation (MASC) of information in a software-enabled workplace where professionals work in distributed teams.
<a href="https://assets.qatalog.com/language.work/qatalog-2021-workgeist-report.pdf" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Qatalog teamed up with Cornell University</a> to get a better understanding of tacit knowledge in respect to the modern workplace.&nbsp;
They looked at how you use internal knowledge, such as cognitive learning, mental models, and technical skills to make high-quality decisions. The 1000 participants were asked about how they organized information, made it available, and passed it on to generate practical and creative ideas at work.
The three separate surveys revealed that 62% agree there is a reduction in opportunities to collaborate with others with a shift to remote work. And yet, the majority of knowledge workers aren't willing to return to the office and go back to the old methods of collaboration.&nbsp;
Our <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-tools-killing-productivity/" rel="follow noopener">slew of software tools</a> that are theoretically supposed to connect us aren&rsquo;t helping. We're drowning in the noise and struggling to find focus in the workplace.&nbsp;
But more than that &mdash; our companies require a mindset shift. And since companies don't have brains, that responsibility falls to our leaders.&nbsp;
<h2>Trust makes flexibility possible</h2>
How does your team perceive trust when it comes to the workplace? It's not just about being reliable. It's about having mutual respect and confidence developed due to faith in each individual's expertise. And that is reinforced with consistently fulfilled expectations.
When you have aligned and managed performance expectations, every member knows their objectives and how they need to achieve them. And they provide support to each other to make that happen.
Enabling complete transparency for your team when they're working together on projects also increases their ability to be flexible and trust each other. If everyone's apps are and shared tools are part of a streamlined <a href="https://qatalog.com/" rel="follow noopener">work hub</a>, their workflow is improved.
Empower your team and reduce micromanagement by increasing independent work tasks. What decisions can you make without approval? What can they do without your consent? Demonstrate which tasks have the highest priority. Then let them know which tasks need a supervisor and what they can manage individually.
In a remote environment, the lines between personal and professional lives can become blurred. There is no "buffer zone" of leaving work. It can lead to your team feeling they have no safe space when getting feedback. If employees think you are going above and beyond when it comes to considering them being empathetic and vulnerable, they will respond with more ideas, pose more questions and give more feedback. And in turn, they will feel more valued.
Ask these questions when you are considering the levels of trust in your team:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your team members have confidence in their support of each other's goals?&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do they feel valued enough by their supervisor to ask questions safely and take smart risks?&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h2>Empowering flexibility in your people-first team</h2>
Now that your team has flexibility created through trust, how can you manage this optimally?
A remote work environment needs to be managed with an agreement of expectations. Make sure your team understands the boundaries and implications of your remote work policy schedule, and they have reviewed the agreement.&nbsp;
And yes, while flexibility does have a degree of autonomy and self-management, your team members need the right resources to do this efficiently and effectively. You can provide this through <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-a-work-hub/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">a work hub</a> that enables easy access to solutions and answers so they can overcome hurdles independently.
Provide an <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-definitive-guide-to-async-communication/" rel="follow noopener">asynchronous digital infrastructure</a> with your software tools that can be utilized regardless of time or region.
When work location is global, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/building-a-digital-office-in-a-hybrid-world/" rel="follow noopener">a recorded communication charter</a> is also integral to the organization. Your cultural standards need to be aligned so your team members are unified and can fulfill expectations, irrespective of time or place.
Ask these questions when you are assessing flexibility for your people first team:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your team members have the autonomy necessary to manage their tasks and schedules?&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Is anyone's productivity dependent on certain people, places, or times?&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h2>Flexibility enables focus</h2>
When your team has focus, it can unlock their true creative potential. But did you know context-switching can drain cognitive function? And this can be very tiring for team members.&nbsp;
In Qatalog&rsquo;s research, 89% of respondents said they believe their company thinks they can find all or most of what they need on the company system.&nbsp;
But in reality, 7 in 10 people (69%) report that finding the information to do their job is time-consuming.&nbsp;
Create a work-life balance that <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-employee-experience/" rel="follow noopener">enables your team members to unplug and recharge.</a> And make it clear what is expected of individuals when responding outside of those hours.
Give your team space to create mental energy to participate in creative and innovative processes. While it's great to get good results, too much pressure to deliver can actually be detrimental to performance.&nbsp;
Delegate fairly by using metrics in your project management system to measure assignments.
Ask these questions when you are assessing focus for your people first team:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Are there specific tools or channels that indicate an emergency? (This can be a signal deep work can commence, and you can silence all other channels)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do we ever lose time or concentration looking for specific files or information? If so, are there commonalities between the types of resources that get lost?&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h2>Focus makes belonging possible</h2>
One of the critical aspects of "company culture," which is hard to imitate with a remote workforce, is the lack of proximity from being together in the same space. That sense of belonging and security that you get when interacting with each other physically and personally face to face. But does that mean you are truly unified?
If you have a positive, transparent culture that encourages interaction, praise, and reward, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/keeping-virtual-teams-connected/" rel="follow noopener">proximity in person is not essential.</a>
By regularly encouraging <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/redistribution-of-credit/" rel="follow noopener">public recognition and celebration</a> on a virtual platform, you can recreate that sense of community.
Your remote work environment also allows you to have a greater diversity of individuals and access to ideas, skills, and experiences. And with these different working styles and cultural perspectives, you can increase the capabilities of your team and company.
However, it is essential to note that without stopping by someone's desk to check in on how they are, it can sometimes be challenging to assess how your team members are feeling. But by creating a system of signals and various communication methods, you can empower employees to illustrate how they feel.&nbsp;
Ultimately, you need to unite your team through a common cause to create that sense of belonging. When everyone is working together towards the same goal, their shared experience will make them feel more connected than spending time together in an office environment.
Ask these questions when you are assessing belonging for your people first team:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your team members feel valued and appreciated?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Which tasks, projects, or brainstorming sessions would it be helpful for your team to work on together using interactive screen sharing and video calls</li>
</ul>
<h2>Wrap up: leading people-first</h2>
When your team shares trust, they can embrace a flexible working environment irrespective of whether they are in the same place or working simultaneously. And the flexibility that comes with that means they can arrange their workloads to fit their optimum creativity and productivity.&nbsp;
<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/autonomy-and-employee-engagement/" rel="follow noopener">Giving your team autonomy</a> doesn't mean they are being left to fend for themselves. Ultimately focus can lead to space for deep work and collaboration.
And when your team is focused and has space to be creative, they feel more unified. Your team will have a sense of belonging, which means they will trust each other to a higher level.
This blog was based on Qatalog&rsquo;s research with Cornell University. You can find the full report, as well as the Modern Work Index <a href="https://language.work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">here. </a>

Learn how to shift to a people-first way of working using trust, flexibility, and focus in place of legacy working model thinking.

Trust, flexibility, & focus in the workplace | Qatalog

The importance of trust, flexibility, and focus in the workplace

This Future of Work Q&amp;A is an exciting one, because we reached out to Allison Whalen, co-Founder and CEO of Parentaly. <a href="http://www.parentaly.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Parentaly</a> works with employers to help them optimize their parental leave and early working parenthood policies and programs. Allison works with organizations to level the playing field and has seen a lot of future of work topics come up over and over again with her clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>What is the biggest challenge for organizations you work with as it relates to parental leave, and how are they overcoming it?</h3>
 It&rsquo;s now abundantly clear that companies that want to attract the best talent need to offer more paid parental leave. As a result, many companies have recently increased their paid parental leave from eight or 12 weeks to 16+ weeks. This is wonderful and it&rsquo;s absolutely the way of the future.
But when companies only increase the number of weeks of parental leave &ndash; without providing the support to make the execution of this policy a success &ndash; they suffer major unintended consequences.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Teams and managers struggle to meet their goals in the absence of a key employee. Teammates are overburdened, managers don&rsquo;t know how to navigate the situation, and business results suffer. Worst of all, when the employee returns from parental leave they feel lost and unsupported &ndash; and often quit or suffer career stagnation as a result.
There are many ways to overcome this challenge and build a program to support employees taking parental leave. Solutions include manager training, process guidance, checklists, coverage planning frameworks, career coaching, budget to give spot bonuses to the coverage team or bring in a contractor, a formalized return program that includes re-training and networking, and thoughtful processes around career progression, promotion, and performance reviews in the context of parental leave.
The good news is we have seen that with the right support, parental leave can actually be a positive inflection point for an employee&rsquo;s career. They get to step back and really evaluate their goals and rethink their approach to work in a way that gives them greater energy and commitment going forward.&nbsp;
<h3>How have you seen organizations optimize for distributed/hybrid work? </h3>
The employees who go through our programs (new parents planning for &ndash; or returning from &ndash; parental leave) almost universally love working from home and feel that it has been an &ldquo;equalizer&rdquo; of sorts. They no longer must make a choice between rushing home to see their baby or going to an after-hours event. It&rsquo;s an easier transition especially for breastfeeding mothers to have more privacy at home. Therefore, the conversations we&rsquo;re having now with the employers is how do we make sure that when companies move to a hybrid environment there is still the opportunity for new parents to work from home for a period of time, if not forever?&nbsp; 
<h3>What &ldquo;future of work&rdquo; topics are you paying close attention to? </h3>
There are a few things that I&rsquo;m closely watching and that come up quite a bit with our clients:&nbsp;&nbsp;
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Moving from full-time work to part-time work, but not letting that impact career progression: how can we ensure employees are able to reduce their hours but still be considered for high priority and intellectually challenging work? How can we ensure the option remains enticing for them to return to full-time work down the road if they choose to do so?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Prevalence of contractors: people starting one-person consulting entities as another way to optimize the part-time or flexible scheduling lifestyle, taking a portfolio approach to your career</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Embracing unconventional work hours: this is so helpful to so many working parents</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Increased frequency of leave of absences: to take care of loved ones, take a sabbatical, etc.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>What are some practices companies should leave behind? </h3>
First, we need a national paid family leave policy in the US. It&rsquo;s shocking that this does not exist today, and that the vast majority of women not only don&rsquo;t get paid leave but also can legally be fired for having a child. Second, companies need to stop just offering women extended paid parental leave and instead start offering this leave to women and men. Only offering leave to women is not at all reflective of how modern dual-income households operate.
<h3>In what ways will work change a year from now?</h3>
We have all seen the data about the number of people &ndash; specifically mothers &ndash; leaving the workforce over the last 18 months. We actually believe the trend will continue if not accelerate of parents leaving large corporations to pursue entrepreneurship or consulting or other more flexible, independent ways of working. There used to be bigger barriers to starting your own business, but so much has changed that makes it easier for people to do so. And what we see, especially among women, is that not only do they increase their flexibility in working independently, they often increase their compensation and their overall engagement and passion for their work.
Given this trend &mdash; employers are going to have to work even harder to attract and retain top talent.
<h3>What does work-life balance mean to you? </h3>
I prefer to think of it as &ldquo;work-life sway&rdquo; because that&rsquo;s exactly how it feels. As a founder, it&rsquo;s difficult (maybe impossible?) to truly turn off the wheels in my head. I am always thinking about my business. But that&rsquo;s also fun for me. So the main thing that I protect is time with my family, and I have very strict boundaries. For example &ndash; I almost never work on weekends unless it&rsquo;s nap time, and I never work between 5pm-8pm. But still, work and life never truly feel balanced but instead, I sway more in one or the other direction over time, and I think that&rsquo;s fine.&nbsp;

This Future of Work Q&A features Allison Whalen, Co-Founder and CEO at Parentaly. We spoke about the importance of supporting employees through benefits, including parental leave.

Allison Whalen from Parentaly | Qatalog blog

"It’s now abundantly clear that companies that want to attract the best talent need to offer more paid parental leave."

Allison Whalen on building programs that support employees

In our Future of Work series, we speak with influential business leaders to learn about new ways of work. We spoke with Jennifer Leary, Head of Revenue Enablement at the French insurtech unicorn Shift Technology, about her onboarding experience during the pandemic and how organizational culture impacts everyone's day-to-day.&nbsp;
<h2>How would you describe the organizational culture at Shift?&nbsp;</h2>
Shift is based in Paris and in my general observation &mdash; albeit early having been there just shy of one year &mdash; is that there is a slightly different culture around remote work than in the US, particularly in high-growth or tech companies. More urgency to get back to the office and less familiarity with remote work and hybrid schedules has been more of the norm at HQ versus in other parts of the world, particularly in the US. As of today, we are planning to have a hybrid structure moving forward and that seems to be working well.&nbsp;
<h2>You joined Shift during the pandemic, how was your onboarding experience?&nbsp;</h2>
Excellent. I intentionally joined a company where I would be &ldquo;the remote office&rdquo; (I am in Boston) and wasn&rsquo;t sure what to expect. Having run onboarding myself in the past, I was super impressed to see the international FedEx arrive (on time) with Shift swag (mug, notebook, etc.), my laptop with instructions, and a schedule for Shift Academy &mdash; our corporate onboarding scheduled for the following week. All for an org that at the time has fewer than 300 employees and a tiny HR staff.&nbsp;
<h2>What are some of the biggest friction points in working across remote teams?</h2>
I would say the number one experience that is challenging to replicate in remote teams is the interpersonal exchanges that happen outside of regularly scheduled meetings: hallway chats, grabbing coffee, walking to your car/public transit &mdash; for that matter running into someone during public transit to or from the office. Even in business interactions, this is where some of the best personal connections are made and problems are solved. No matter how many Zoom cocktail hours an organization sponsors, I&rsquo;ve yet to see it replicate this same experience. And in my work in start-ups, an effort to schedule a coffee break in between meetings is tough given the typical workload and meeting schedule.&nbsp;
<h2>What "future of work" topics are you paying close attention to?&nbsp;</h2>
Return to office, flexible schedules (aka the four-day workweek), data on productivity pre/post-pandemic, and real estate and commercial construction (where and for who). As managers and employees, we&rsquo;re in a unique time where the job market, particularly in the US, is very strong and candidates have choices. Remote work and flexibility on location are considered key competitive differentiators so organizations need to be prudent when making decisions around work preferences, carefully weighing the pros and cons for the employee and what makes the most financial sense for the business.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s really interesting being part of the leadership team at Shift where different countries present and support different work styles. Having direct reports in both France and the US during this unique time in history is providing me with the opportunity to observe cultural needs when it comes to working styles and that will have an overall positive impact on how I think about teams and organizational management in the future.&nbsp;
<h2>How do you think companies can set themselves up for success?&nbsp;</h2>
Have the right teams, process, tools, and content to support hybrid teams. One without the others results in a suboptimal experience for the employee and the organization overall. Invest in the best tools that integrate into your core systems to keep your tech spend manageable, and have the right people to run point on those tools. Make sure to drive effective content and programming that results in high adoption, efficiency, and ultimately higher return on investment.
<h2>What is the biggest learning that has come out of remote work for your teams? Personally?</h2>
I&rsquo;m amazed at the relationships I have formed with my team and colleagues at a personal level without ever having actually met them in person. I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re hearing this from a lot of your interviewees, but it really amazes me how the power of the human spirit really can overcome adversity, and how a rising tide really does lift all boats! There is a lot that goes into that of course, but in general, my two huge appreciations during this time have been the power and resilience of people to connect and work together towards a goal, and the incredible speed and ingenuity behind the technology catalyzing hybrid work.&nbsp;
<h2>What do you think work will look like a year from now?&nbsp;</h2>
I think it depends on where you are globally and what your role is. I think in the end, fully remote organizations will have advantages/disadvantages (e.g. risk of overworking/burnout) as well but it will be interesting to see how things shift and the results that organizations face if we move to remote and/or hybrid environments as standardization of work. I think we will see more of what we have seen during the pandemic &mdash; preference for remote/hybrid work options and employers promoting it as a benefit to recruit and retain top talent.&nbsp;
<h2>What tools has your team used to increase collaboration and streamline distributed communication?</h2>
Slack, Google Workspace, HighSpot, Brainshark, Zoom, MSFT Teams&nbsp;
<h2>What does work-life balance mean to you?</h2>
Work-life balance means I am invested in both my professional and personal priorities and understand when one is out of balance and take action to self-correct. I personally don&rsquo;t think that is on the employer but on the employee and their personal outlook, position in life, etc. to set the right boundaries and stick to them. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate always in my career to work for organizations that have respected requests for unique working models, for both myself and the teams that I have managed. At the end of the day, good hires are producing, driving impact, and getting results. How, where, and when they do it is secondary.

Jen Leary on the organizational culture of Shift and the ingredients that make up a successful hybrid model.

Jen Leary on hybrid team success | Qatalog blog

Jen Leary on remote friction points

We were all forced into this new way of working. Now with a full year under our belt, we&rsquo;ve collectively learned what it means to operate in a fully distributed, and now hybrid, working model.
We have seen the benefits of working from home, the positive impact on employee well-being and flexibility. But we&rsquo;ve also exposed the cracks in how we work with each other, how we support remote employees, the tools we use, and their impact on productivity.
Qatalog recently partnered with Cornell University&rsquo;s Ellis Idea Lab to survey around 3000 workers across the US and the UK who are familiar with remote work. Then we put together a panel of hybrid experts &mdash; Lila Millsap (InVision), Laurell Farrer (Distribute), Chase Warrington (Doist), and myself &mdash; to discuss the results.&nbsp;
You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0xJfiPSG8s" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">watch the discussion here</a>, or read through this recap:&nbsp;
<h2>We&rsquo;re missing the critical components of a healthy workplace</h2>
We saw an explosion in tools focused on enhancing our productivity and engagement. With all that attention on remaining productive, we&rsquo;ve been neglecting trust, flexibility, focus, and belonging.&nbsp;
In a remote world, you need to have trust. 32% of people surveyed reported that their company was not investing in programs that help build relationships. When we change the dynamics of how we work, we need to change the way we support employees in this environment.
<h3>Takeaways from our experts on trust in the workplace:&nbsp;</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">To instill and maintain trust, you need a level of transparency about what is happening across your organization. It also helps to make goals, files, and projects accessible to everyone to enable flexibility for today&rsquo;s employees.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We felt a collective trepidation as companies were forced to move to remote models, and because of this, we have to be a lot more intentional about how we connect and build relationships with our colleagues.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Emotional intelligence is a skill that is highly valuable in a remote environment. Advocating for yourself, sharing when practices/procedures aren&rsquo;t working for you helps the whole company move forward.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Trust needs to be part of the core values of your company. Focus on outcomes, not daily tasks. Focus on transparency.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Flexibility and communication go hand in hand:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Communication standards are the core to your success. At Doist, you&rsquo;ll never see communication that expects an immediate response. That&rsquo;s because they&rsquo;re prioritizing a healthy async workplace. These standards and expectations are also built into onboarding since transitioning into a new remote environment involves getting used to new communication norms.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We have to be aware of how we work and collaborate with others, especially in a remote environment. Knowing your communication and working preferences and communicating them will go a long way.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Leadership should set expectations in the interview process and be transparent about what type of behaviors are going to be successful within your working environment.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Build a communication charter that focuses on specific methods of communication, not many many many tools.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Deep work can only get done when we prioritize asynchronous ways of working:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Build in the time and space to focus. We know about the concept of deep work, and remote can actually increase distractions and impact focus negatively. Calendar holds work well for designating that &ldquo;deep work&rdquo; time away from distractions.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The more that we can use tools to set expectations, and people have an opportunity to report on that success, helps us determine when deep work is getting done which in turn impacts trust between coworkers.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Remote culture is still culture:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Culture may be the single hardest thing to maintain in remote, and arguably, the most important. But who decided that culture happens around the water cooler? Your culture adds should be unique to your company - so pay attention to your employees.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RIGHT??! "Who came up with the idea that culture happens around the water cooler?" <a href="https://twitter.com/dcwarrington?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dcwarrington</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/doist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@doist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/qatalog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@qatalog</a> roundtable on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hybridwork?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hybridwork</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/remotework?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#remotework</a> <a href="https://t.co/gd9J2343kV">pic.twitter.com/gd9J2343kV</a>
&mdash; Leah Taylor 💃🏼 (@leahtaylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/leahtaylor/status/1415351256583872520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Culture is built into the little moments. And all of the things listed above, when done correctly, will showcase your dedication to a people-focused culture.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

And what&rsquo;s a good webinar without those few golden-nugget quotes? We&rsquo;ll probably be coming back to these for a while:&nbsp;

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;Work is something that we do, not somewhere we go.&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Laurel Farrer

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;&ldquo;Culture is built into the little moments&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Lila Millsap

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;Trust can sound abstract, I don&rsquo;t know any remote company that thrives that doesn&rsquo;t focus on trust.&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Chase Warrington

Again, a huge thanks to our panelists and viewers for making our first webinar such a fantastic learning experience. We&rsquo;re already thinking about what to chat about in our next webinar, so keep your feedback coming.&nbsp;

We spoke with Lila Millsap (InVision), Laurell Farrer (Distribute), and Chase Warrington (Doist) about building healthy hybrid habits.

Build your digital office | Qatalog blog

What we learned about building a healthy hybrid workforce in our panel discussion.

Webinar recap: building a digital office in a hybrid world

If you&rsquo;ve ever wondered where the product roadmaps of work hubs, collaboration software, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-tools-killing-productivity/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">and productivity tools come from</a>, look no further than some of your most organized coworkers. The tricks and hacks they implement to optimize communication and collaboration are, unintentionally, the beta tests which often mature into company-wide best practices, which in turn reveal a potential market for features and products.
In short: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/becoming-a-world-class-knowledge-worker/" rel="follow">effective communication</a> is a user experience, and as your best people outgrow your available tools, they piece together better experiences with whatever they can.
Using a handful of examples below, we can illustrate not only how hacks inform the future of business tools, but why it&rsquo;s crucial for business leaders to be aware of the hacks being used in their own workplace, so that any operational investment in new tools or software actually addresses the current collaboration hurdles.
<h3>Search &amp; information recall</h3>
Few user tasks, if any, launch more new solutions than the task of searching. Before the days of highly discoverable Slack feeds and Gmail inboxes, searching communications tools was technically feasible, but practically infuriating. One solution to this information recall problem was keyword stuffing, and in fact you&rsquo;ll still see co-workers practicing it wherever their tools come up short.
Keyword stuffing is simply adding a pile of useful recall terms to a conversation or document, based on an assumption of how you might search for them in the future:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Find yourself repeatedly hunting down the same slide deck for engineering diagrams? Add an appendix slide stuffed with keywords that provides context to a document otherwise locked out of search due to the visual nature of its content.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Stuck on an email thread vaguely titled &ldquo;Re: yesterday,&rdquo; containing some juicy stakeholder insights about your biggest competitors? Send yourself a reply to that thread with the contents, &ldquo;CI, competitive intel, competition landscape, Competitor X.&rdquo;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Dealing with a spreadsheet full of unstructured data? Add a &ldquo;Notes&rdquo; column where you can plug in whatever keywords make the row easier to recall later on.</li>
</ul>
What&rsquo;s important to note about the keyword stuffing hack isn&rsquo;t just that it motivated office products to build smarter, more reliable search features &mdash; it also emphasized the need for tagging, labeling, and otherwise classifying content. After all, search and classification have a cyclical relationship.
Most collaboration software worth it's salt these days will have tagging or labeling functions, which serve in part to properly locate and classify content. And because labeling information is how we train machine learning, the humble hack of keyword stuffing lives on as next-gen collaboration tools rely on highly-descriptive labeling to automate processes and anticipate information access.
<h3>Meetings</h3>
As a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/virtual-meetings-audio-insights/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">black hole of business intelligence</a> and the most expensive part of the workday, meetings have always been a place where high performers employ creative communication hacks.
We all know about the best practice of providing an agenda in the meeting invite (even if few of us ever make the effort to do so). But you&rsquo;ve probably seen some teammates take it further:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Providing a shared meeting notes doc where the agenda can be read, where invitees can ask questions, and where action items can be documented and assigned.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Transcribing the meeting (if allowed) using a machine-reading service, and dumping that transcription into the appropriate destination so any non-attendees can read or search the discussion in the future.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Enforcing a culture where participants can comfortably leave any meeting once they feel they&rsquo;re no longer contributing or gaining useful information.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Prefacing meeting titles with emojis (e.g. ✍, 💲, 📣) so attendees with packed schedules can be better prepared at a glance.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Offering a simplified or templated response to invitees so that they can do more than just accept or decline the meeting &ndash; let them downvote the meeting with an explanation as to why, or suggest that the meeting is blocked by X dependency, or that it should be nixed in favor of an asynchronous update, etc.</li>
</ul>
It&rsquo;s rather startling to see just how much ad hoc project management a meeting owner still has to undertake in order to make the best use of their coworkers&rsquo; time. But as we see more advanced, next-gen collaboration tools blend communication spaces, progress is being made towards an environment where teammates get just the right amount of exposure to collaborate &hellip; where two people can record a synchronous discussion, send the recording out to a third who wasn&rsquo;t available, and log the transcript for a fourth who only needed to read a bit of context about an action item they were assigned.
<h3>Participation &amp; accountability</h3>
One of the toughest balancing acts in work is the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-do-you-search-for-files-at-work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">level of information</a> exposure you give and receive. Too little can confuse or misinform accountabilities, while too much can overwhelm users and hurt effective participation. Many collaboration tools try to aid or automate this balance, and it&rsquo;s no surprise these advanced capabilities are inspired by the best practices unicorn employees implement manually:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Maintain a transparent, shareable list of your priorities or workload so stakeholders proposing new work can see what (and who) stands in the way of prioritization.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Give teammates the lightest obligation possible. Start message threads with an indication of the workload it entails (e.g. Review, Decision, Question, FYI) so they can prioritize their tasks as needed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set reminders or snooze periods on conversations &mdash; and communicate them &mdash; so your follow-up is timely and nudges don&rsquo;t come across as surprising.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Tag coworkers on the specific sections of a task or document where their participation is needed; avoid forcing them to digest extraneous information just because their role is unclear. If tagging isn&rsquo;t available, bold the coworkers&rsquo; names or add an action item section where participants can see what role they&rsquo;re playing.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Use work hubs to cross-link and cross-reference information between applications, and ensure some macro layer or master document always serves as the source of truth for work that might be splintered or duplicated across multiple applications.</li>
</ul>
Notice how many of these tricks don&rsquo;t simply become individual features of next-gen collaboration tools, but rather that the underlying focus on optimizing exposure drives new user experiences like targeted notifications, activity feeds, and document access history. The continuous optimization of such platforms relies on users to push the current UX to its limits, and then venture forward into experimentation on what a better tool could do. It&rsquo;s a virtuous cycle, as long as you&rsquo;re paying attention to it.
Arguably, the greatest takeaway from watching your best employees work around the limitations of their current tools is the gained understanding of what features you should be looking for in next-gen collaboration tools, and where you should expect immediate performance improvements in your org&rsquo;s communication efficacy once you invest in such tools.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Special thanks to the following experts for contributing some of their best practices to this article: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abraund/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Allison Braund-Harris</a> at Hardly, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hallieexall/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Hallie Exall</a> at Remote, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraineklee/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Lorraine Lee</a> at Prezi.

The collaboration workarounds great employees invent to save time, and how those tricks end up influencing the market.

How next-gen collaboration tools emerge | Qatalog blog

How your best people accidentally build next-gen collaboration tools

It&rsquo;s easy to rely on Slack as your only personable tether to your coworkers. But amidst the GIFs and weekend catch-ups, there&rsquo;s actual work and files getting thrown back and forth in different DMs and threads.
In 2016, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-better-than-slack-these-companies-have-some-ideas-11615118401" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote-friendly Doist quit using Slack</a> and opted for an internal message board. CEO Amir Salihefendic cited the instant messaging platform&rsquo;s addictive qualities, the inability to conduct in-depth conversations, and general disorganization as the determining factors for finding a more async-friendly alternative.&nbsp;
Doist is a great company to look at for being ahead of the curve in many aspects. For one, author Cal Newport&rsquo;s notion of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-cal-newport-transcript.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">&ldquo;hyperactive hive mind&rdquo;</a> is catalyzed by constant pings, switching apps, and instant messaging adrenaline &mdash; part of what Doist was looking to find a solution for almost five years ago.&nbsp;
Most of the communication and collaboration issues that plague today&rsquo;s workers existed years ago, and Doist is great proof of that. Now that we&rsquo;re all experiencing more remote-friendly models, these massive gaps in our working habits are becoming rapidly apparent.&nbsp;
<h3>Slack is just one example of app chaos</h3>
Slack launched in 2009. Asana was founded in 2008, and Zoom came in 2011. The productivity and messaging tools most of us are familiar with have populated the market for upwards of ten years.&nbsp;
And whether or not they were founded on the promise of solving for increasing hybrid work needs, that&rsquo;s exactly what they&rsquo;ve been adopted for. For the most part, these tools serve their purpose. They deliver a fantastic user experience for the specific use case they were designed for.&nbsp;
But these days, knowledge workers need tools that work together. They need a solution that doesn&rsquo;t dredge up five more problems when trying to find them. The amount of tools we have now lends a great metaphor for the number of papers I imagine messy desk drawers had before computers were invented.&nbsp;
<h2>The delayed gratification of async work</h2>
Slack isn&rsquo;t productivity&rsquo;s biggest enemy, but the correlation between instant messaging and gratification doesn&rsquo;t mix well with async or remote-friendly working models. A majority of asynchronous communication works because it allows people to get things done in their own time frame, and sometimes in their own time zones. Because of this, there is limited instant validation or gratification.
We&rsquo;ve developed tool fatigue for a lot of reasons. Perhaps one of the most logical reasons is because in our search to find the best applications to speed up/make work more productive, we became more and more used to a wall of notifications and instant gratification.
And I know I&rsquo;m not the only one to continuously shift through tabs or tools to search for comments or feedback. Employees are digging through cloud storage systems, scouring message channels and cycling through tabs, <a href="https://language.work/study/" rel="follow">wasting around </a><a href="https://language.work/study/" rel="follow">59 minutes</a><a href="https://language.work/study/" rel="follow"> per day</a>.
<a href="http://www.language.work/study?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=productivity-tools&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/BueJevZDTo27dupf3dkg" alt="undefined" /></a>
New research from Qatalog and Cornell University shows that productivity tools are actually killing productivity. Human brains were not wired for a working day of glancing between instant messaging, various documents, project management platforms, and more. <a href="https://language.work/study/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">45% say this makes them less productive</a> and 43% say it is tiring to regularly switch between tools and communications channels. &nbsp;
In order to be a people-first hybrid or remote company, your organization and employees have to improve their async literacy. What does this mean exactly? It means prioritizing the procedures that help your teams to collaborate confidently and communicate effectively. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-lead-distributed-teams/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=productivity-tools&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener">Improving discoverability and transparency</a> within your company directly <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/get-hybrid-in-order/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=productivity-tools&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener">impacts your async literacy,</a> because it puts the power in the hands of employees rather than gatekeeping the information they need.&nbsp;
<h3>Knowledge sharing has never been easy</h3>
54% of people say that applications can make it harder to find information. One in two employees says they&rsquo;re not always certain the information and updates they&rsquo;re posting within their company's apps are reaching their intended audience.
In the age of the knowledge worker, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/limited-visibility-at-work/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=productivity-tools&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener">sharing information should be organized and specific</a>. Because of our tool portfolios, it&rsquo;s anything but. Accessibility ranges between teams and seniority levels. Having too many apps actually restricts our access to knowledge rather than opening information up to the entire company. What was once an array of tools that opened the working world to the possibility of remote and distributed workers has spiraled into unnecessary friction for employees.&nbsp;
<h3>Clean up your app landscape</h3>
Doist turned to an internal messaging board. Your company could do the same thing, but then you may run into the crux of having yet another solution that solves a singular problem. That&rsquo;s why many companies are shifting to a work hub so they have a connectivity layer for their maze of tools, people, and work. 
This new way of working can allow teams to rise above the instant gratification of the hyperactive hive mind and graduate to a more satisfying level of performance. One where team members are aligned, engaged, and have space for deep work &mdash; and where order trumps chaos.&nbsp;

In the age of the knowledge worker, sharing information should be organized and specific.

Productivity apps are killing productivity | Qatalog

In order to be a people-first hybrid or remote company, your organization and employees have to improve their async literacy.

Are productivity apps killing productivity?

For all the emerging hype around hybrid workforces, the concept itself isn&rsquo;t what&rsquo;s novel &mdash; it&rsquo;s the impending scale of it across teams, departments, and partners that is unparalleled. Of course, that&rsquo;s both the good and bad news.
If you were a thoughtfully process-driven organization before all this, then going hybrid is more or less a matter of scale. But if you&rsquo;ve historically been a people-driven org, the model you&rsquo;ll be scaling is one of burnout and disarray.
A new study <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/">co-authored by Qatalog and GitLab</a> reveals that 42% of companies are sleepwalking into unplanned hybrid work models, driving a larger wedge between teammates who were having trouble getting on the same page to begin with. The same report states 50% of coworkers complain they&rsquo;re drowning in tools, and 60% have no clue what their colleagues are working on.
<h3>Good people can only save bad process for so long</h3>
Such results are to be expected from organizations running on a &ldquo;gods &amp; martyrs&rdquo; model: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/workload-management-snowball-and-the-meteor/">executives who are exempt from accountability</a>, and unicorn employees who sacrifice their sanity to act as the glue keeping all the madness together. Unicorn employees cannot be scaled, and attempting to do so eventually produces one of two results: process or burnout.
The office is the natural habitat for people-biased operations, because that&rsquo;s where all the company&rsquo;s best-laid processes and priorities can be skirted to favor whoever&rsquo;s got the authority or personality to manipulate face-to-face interactions. This much has long been obvious to all but the perpetrators of such behavior. What may not be so obvious is how this approach misguides decisions around hybrid work.
Without confronting the inefficiencies of the office, any attempts to extend it into coworking spaces or virtual environments will just perpetuate the same bad habits.
How can off-site coworkers successfully engage when leaders maintain a perspective that the most engaged employees <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-ceo-says-workers-who-want-back-into-the-office-are-the-most-engaged-11620837018">are the ones they see in the office</a>?
Why would placemaking be planned any better in a hybrid working model when <a href="https://www.density.io/blog/the-most-important-metric-in-corporate-real-estate">40% of corporate real estate is traditionally vacant</a>?
What are the odds of nurturing objective performance metrics in a virtual-heavy environment when executives won&rsquo;t acknowledge that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6795352372404117504/">75% of office work is actually virtual work</a>?
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/IiW6PhWSqrGcMf73GQlQ" alt="undefined" />
<h3>Get your house in order</h3>
A hybrid working model, in its simplest definition, is a location-blended workforce. That means the task at hand lies in enhancing the portability of your office so that everyone is on a similar playing field at any given time, whether they&rsquo;re on-site amidst a dozen coworkers, at home alone, or out at a park or pub with a team member. In short, your office must embrace becoming an API of communications, protocols and processes, rather than a homebase of operations.
The closer an organization can get to full portability, the more nimble, resilient and equitable a hybrid working model will be. It&rsquo;s not about taking personal interaction out of the picture though: it&rsquo;s about mitigating the disorder and manipulation created by face-to-face interactions. Success on this front looks like:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">An employee who can see what their day&rsquo;s workload looks like at a glance, and know it won&rsquo;t shift drastically based on the undocumented whims of a supervisor</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A new hire who searches a robust knowledge base for documentation, rather than ask a unicorn employee who then has to ask the SME</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A project lead who can communicate updates and obstacles concisely to the stakeholder group instead of fielding backdoor status requests and priority-shifting orders</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">An coworker who feels comfortable declining a meeting based on the agenda information provided by the meeting&rsquo;s creator</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A management team who can see a department&rsquo;s workload and collectively prioritize newly-conceived work, rather than individually pitching the team lead with conflicting priorities</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">An HR department and a Marketing department who realize that spending some extra content resources on instructional design and mentor coaching can serve both employee and customer audiences</li>
</ul>
Note how these more portable examples solve for interactions both physically and virtually. The location flexibility of a hybrid working model is merely the happy outcome of well-managed processes and platforms.
The future of work promises much in the way of innovation &mdash; piling every shiny new thing on top of a people-biased operating model threatens to cripple an already-precarious organization with confusion and burnout. Instead, build a mindset of processes, platforms, and portability to ensure you&rsquo;re ready to scale. Don&rsquo;t chase the shiny things until you&rsquo;ve appraised the gems you already possess.

The key to hybrid work models is portability, and you don’t get it by burdening your people with every shiny new productivity toy.

Get your hybrid model in order | Qatalog blog

The key to hybrid work models is portability, and you don’t get it by burdening your people with every shiny new productivity toy. Alignment comes first.

Don't get gassed up on hybrid working models just yet

Six-hour workdays. Four-day workweeks. Unlimited vacation. To hear our LinkedIn feeds tell it, this recent mass telecommuting experiment has thrust an entire white-collar workforce into a potential revolution of labor arrangements.
In all honesty, the previous bar was set pretty low. We can get much more creative &mdash; and since the &ldquo;future of work&rdquo; is actually many futures (it wouldn&rsquo;t be progress if we all had to follow the same path), there&rsquo;s no time like the present to be thinking out loud. The reshaping of corporate culture can&rsquo;t happen without a restructuring of working arrangements.
Below are several alternative flexwork scenarios &mdash; all of which address the notion that our problem at hand isn&rsquo;t necessarily that we work too much, but that poorly structured work doesn&rsquo;t work for us. Notice, crucially, how these arrangements require a foundation of strong teamwork platforms and processes, as any healthy work environment does.
<h2>PAR (Part-Time, Asynchronous, Remote)</h2>
Part-time contract laborers arguably represent the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-not-fewer&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">earliest iteration of remote work</a>, yet the once-tenuous communications aspect of such arrangements has made significant strides towards normalcy in the workplace as <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/collaboration-software-vs-work-hub/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-not-fewer&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">asynchronous tools have improved.</a> Of course, not everyone is willing or able to work on a part-time contract in exchange for the freedoms of being a digital nomad, but the implications of this growing worker population creates food for thought across the labor force.
As roles and personnel transition into PAR for the sake of work/life balance, two interesting organizational consequences often emerge:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Structure increases, because as more people place hard caps on their workload (<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-new-normal-is-dead/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-not-fewer&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">and work outside the office</a>), informal processes become difficult to sustain. Working with a PAR employee is a constant reminder that a coworker&rsquo;s time is the company&rsquo;s money, and spending it requires justification.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Profitability increases, because the valuable work gets done, while the work that traditionally festers <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/workload-management-snowball-and-the-meteor/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-not-fewer&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">due to lack of resistance</a> now gets challenged, or dropped altogether.</li>
</ol>
As PAR becomes more appealing to management-level positions, the notion of time as the true currency &mdash; not money &mdash; will get much more interesting. Conventional organizations typically don&rsquo;t know how else to reward employees than with raises and bonuses; a practice that guarantees diminishing returns in the long-term. Rewarding high performers instead by offering to limit working hours is not only a practice that tends to lead to mutual benefit, but also mitigates the burnout that comes with leaning too hard on your best people to carry the weight of others.
Historically, PAR employees have also served well as affordable solutions to servicing international clients &mdash; or, particularly needy clients. It&rsquo;s a vital counterpoint to one of the strongest anti-async arguments, which is that clients and customers have level of service demands which include presence and prompt response times. Dealing with the client conundrum &mdash; namely, taking the leap to manage your client expectations rather than cater to them &mdash; is perhaps where we see the greatest distinctions between orgs that run innovative work/life cultures and orgs that can&rsquo;t seem to adapt.
<h2>Productivity Windows</h2>
Academic research aside, we&rsquo;re only recently starting to see for ourselves just how unproductive an eight-hour office shift is. With the advances made in asynchronous collaboration platforms and work hubs, productivity windows offer a natural progression.
Jane might be most focused from 8 am-12 pm and most collaborative from 4 pm-7 pm, whereas Carlos may thrive in a synchronous environment from 1 pm-6 pm while doing his best isolated work from 11 pm-1 am. Knowing the productivity windows of our coworkers can help us build teams and cultures that vastly improve both collaboration and productivity &mdash; a difficult, double-barreled goal that has traditionally been tackled sloppily and unsuccessfully with environments geared towards forced interaction.
We could very well find our future selves applying to jobs based on how well we complement the existing team&rsquo;s productivity windows.
<h2>Zero Commitment</h2>
Let&rsquo;s take a hard reset on the unfortunate management tactic of pressuring employees to leave their Slack status as &ldquo;available&rdquo; 24/7, and consider how innovative a zero-commitment working environment could be.
Many of us have seen the bevy of workplace studies making arguments such as &ldquo;deep work is ruined by distractions,&rdquo; or &ldquo;most collaboration happens after meetings rather than during,&rdquo; or &ldquo;employees have natural productivity windows.&rdquo; A lot of this research carries a common thread: people function better on their natural clocks than on the company clock.
We addressed this previously, but to take it even further, we could theoretically implement a zero-commitment work schedule using just two tools:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A platform that communicates whether an employee is currently available, busy, or offline (statuses come in many flavors but I&rsquo;ve chosen these for their ease of automation)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A platform that tracks employee performance (with organizational KPIs, and/or with ongoing 360&deg; evaluations)</li>
</ol>
So, what does a &ldquo;zero-commitment&rdquo; workplace look like in practice?
Quite simply, each employee interacts with the organization as often or as little as they like. No required hours, and no vacation &mdash; if you only decide to work one day a year, and all your performance metrics and peer feedback is positive, then you&rsquo;ve done your job. If someone else tries to adopt such a working arrangement, and their contributions begin to suffer as a result, then that feedback will reel them back in towards the arrangement that best balances their preferences with their performance.
Undoubtedly, such an arrangement can only succeed when the org has both the means to measure productivity objectively and the kind of culture where feedback is welcomed and protected across the organizational hierarchy. What prevents the &ldquo;race to the bottom&rdquo; of employee participation is ongoing assessment &mdash; whether it happens every week or every month &mdash; which ensures the employee is still pointed in a direction that management and peers are satisfied with.
Zero commitment also does away with the facade of being &ldquo;busy&rdquo; at work because whatever you&rsquo;re busy doing has to eventually contribute in a way that can be measured by KPIs or assessed by your peers.
For many leaders, extending this much short-term trust to employees sounds outlandish. But ironically, it is only the lack of solid feedback that would send this model off the rails &hellip; and the organizations that have the most to fear in that case are the ones that already fail to hold feedback sacred in their corporate culture.
Regardless of how revolutionary your working arrangement may or may not be, what&rsquo;s important to remember is that concerns about adopting new labor conditions typically don&rsquo;t stem from logic or wisdom; they stem from fear, bias, and the natural inertia of human reluctance. We have virtually no body of evidence (neither scientific nor anecdotal) to justify our conventional approach to work, and growing proof that the undercurrent of good corporate culture lies in flexible working arrangements. Again, there&rsquo;s no better time than the present to be examining what your future of work could be.

Here are 3 innovative models for improving work/life balance.

The future of work is flexible | Qatalog blog

When revolutionizing the workday, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to “less of the same." Here are 3 innovative models for improving work/life balance.

When it comes to the workday, aim for better, not fewer

Raise your hand if you&rsquo;re sick of the phrase the new normal &mdash; whatever that even means. Nothing is &ldquo;normal&rdquo; about forced office closures and everyone working from home during a global pandemic. And nothing is normal about the impact that&rsquo;s had on the way we work. Qatalog recently partnered with Gitlab on the <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/" rel="follow noopener">2021 Remote Work Report</a> to understand exactly how people feel in today&rsquo;s environment, and what companies can learn from it.&nbsp;
Remote is hard. I spent over five years at InVision &mdash; one of the largest fully remote companies in the world &mdash; where we were fully remote from day one. It took a lot of time, focus, and support to make it a successful model. And there were still issues. To think we can flip a switch and enable businesses to instantly create a collaborative and engaging remote environment is unrealistic.&nbsp;
Now that the world is slowly opening up, we&rsquo;re starting to see the movement back to offices &mdash; if not wholly, then with the &ldquo;hybrid&rdquo; approach. There is nothing normal about this working model either: having part of your company in the same office, and part of them scattered all over the globe.&nbsp;
With more than a year under our belts working in these new models, we can begin to assess what worked and what we need to improve. 3,900 remote workers responded to the 2021 Remote Work Report survey and we&rsquo;re breaking down how they feel about remote and hybrid.
Let&rsquo;s start with the good. Overall, the sentiment toward remote work has been positive, with almost four in five saying they&rsquo;re satisfied with their remote work set-up. 82% of workers praised their leadership for understanding how to operate a team remotely.&nbsp;
According to our survey data, most people think there has been a positive impact on <a href="https://qatalog.com/goals/" rel="follow noopener">productivity, efficiency, and employee morale</a> as well.&nbsp;
So people have a positive sentiment toward remote work. Great. Now it&rsquo;s time to change the model again: 42% of companies have already proposed a hybrid working model. How do remote workers feel about it?
 
Given the choice, over half (52%) of respondents would leave a co-located company for a remote role. And if staying remote is not an option, one in three people would not go back to a commute, and more than a quarter would look for a new role, relocate, or retire. So the shift to hybrid becomes a significant risk to retaining employees who would rather stay entirely remote.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h2>Four ways to improve your working model</h2>
Whether your company goes hybrid or not, there are a few things we&rsquo;ve learned from the <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/" rel="follow noopener">2021 Remote Work Report</a> that we can put into practice to improve working conditions wherever your employees are.&nbsp;
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Be transparent. 34% of respondents noted that transparency from leadership leads to connectedness at work, while 38% noted that more visibility into the organization improved their sense of connection. Companies need to over-communicate to enhance a sense of belonging. Specifically by:&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Reinforcing the company vision and how everyone&rsquo;s daily work contributes to that. Don&rsquo;t underestimate the value of consistent and creative company updates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Status against goals. Everyone loves (or hates) things like OKRs. However you structure goals, they need to be vibrant and visible, not color-coded sheets you update before the quarterly review meeting</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Two way communication. Give people a voice. If they&rsquo;re not in the office with the ability to voice questions or concerns, make sure there are the appropriate vehicles to understand employee sentiment, engagement, and feedback.</li>
</ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Audit your meetings. Everyone wants a 1/1 to &ldquo;catch up&rdquo; or have more meetings to get updates, etc. You need to adjust your meetings to meet the needs of employees. Including:&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Separating 1/1s for check-ins, forecast updates, career development, and &ldquo;catch-ups.&rdquo; Set expectations up front and layout the schedule. Career development is one of the biggest reasons people come to companies, and stay. Set expectations when those meetings will occur, and in what format.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Move to asynchronous updates on key projects to save time and only prioritize &ldquo;update&rdquo; meetings when things are needed.</li>
</ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Audit, and re-audit, your tool stack. There has been an explosion of tools to help you collaborate and communicate. But with this comes more confusion. More noise. Different teams using different tools, some tools not being used to their full potential.&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Understand what each team is using, and then assess the usage.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Set up enablement and expectations for the tools you are prioritizing.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Centralize usage and reporting across the different tools.</li>
</ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Enhance social context. You don&rsquo;t always know as much about people personally if you know them behind a screen. Provide layers of social context wherever you can.&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Prioritize time for social connections &mdash; remote happy hours, etc.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Add elements of social contexts into the tools and processes you&rsquo;re using (org charts, etc.).</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Focus on recognition and celebration. Tools like bonus.ly give you those mico rewards or virtual &ldquo;high fives&rdquo; in daily work. Set goals and take time to celebrate achievements.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Celebrate cultural expectations. Using your company values or principles, highlight people who are setting examples for each value. Give awards.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</ol>
The reality is the shift to remote has forced companies over the last year to build the muscle for healthier organizations, whether or not they go back to an office. In order to survive the new normals to come, companies should focus on the single most important asset at any company, the people.
Nothing is normal anymore, and the way companies operate can&rsquo;t be either.&nbsp;

Nothing is normal anymore, and the way companies operate can’t be either.

The new normal is dead | Qatalog blog

The new normal is dead

This week, GitLab released its <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/index.html?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=remote-work-report&amp;utm_term=2021&amp;utm_content=report" rel="follow noopener">2021 Remote Work Report</a> co-sponsored by Qatalog. We spoke with Darren Murph, GitLab&rsquo;s Head of Remote, about the report&rsquo;s findings, how he sees remote work advancing, and his cautions for companies thinking about a shift to hybrid.
<h3>1. What survey data did you find most surprising in this year's report?</h3>
Darren: There&rsquo;s an interesting parallel between transparency and belonging. 34% of people said they feel more connected at work when their leadership works more transparently. 38% said they felt more connected when they had more visibility into the work being done throughout the organization. It speaks to an important factor in remote collaboration: it&rsquo;s easier to feel like part of a team when you can see what bigger-picture outcomes you and your teammates are contributing to.&nbsp;
<h3>2. Are there any companies you would point to as good examples of the report's Key Takeaways? i.e. how "talent flows where flexibility reigns" or how "transparency = belonging"</h3>
Cimpress transitioned to remote-first after the pandemic and already found itself on a &ldquo;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/accelerating-remote-first-paul-mckinlay">Best Of</a>&rdquo; list for remote-first places to work. They&rsquo;ve seen US hiring coverage expand from around nine states pre-COVID to over 30 today, and are attracting a more geographically diverse workforce in the process.&nbsp;
<h3>3. The report notes, "There's a disconnect between the ostensibly high levels of satisfaction with remote work and the actual pain people are feeling day-to-day." Why do you think this is the case?</h3>
People can sense that the pros of autonomy and added flexibility are worth fighting for, and are very tangible outcomes of an intentional shift to remote. However, it takes work to reach utopia. In the here-and-now, pandemic-related stressors are compounded by a reality that many workforces were not equipped to be excellent at remote work right away. Short-term pain is being felt as we work towards long-term benefits from building remote fluency.&nbsp;
<h3>4. One interesting statistic from the Remote Work Report is that 70% of organizations still default to tools (video, chat, and phone) used for office-centric, largely synchronous workflows. If a global pandemic won't change habits here, what will?</h3>
The pandemic has shifted minds. Minds will change before process, as process is a slow-changing organism. Smaller, more nimble organizations can easily pivot to new tools. Larger organizations must consider switching costs and legacy connections. It will likely take several years for the data to show that change is happening on the process front, but the seed has been planted on the mentality front.&nbsp;
<h3>5. What would you say to organizations that are thinking about shifting from a remote work model to a hybrid one?</h3>
Hybrid-remote is a popular alternative, but one that should be embraced with great deliberation, care, and intentionality. Hybrid-remote generally requires more effort to execute well than all-collocated or all-remote given the <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/what-not-to-do/">two-tier work environment</a>. Consider hiring a Head of Remote or designating a leader to ensure that all workflows and policies are audited and ported to remote-first, ensuring that work is as location-agnostic as possible. Ideally, executives will stay out of the office to signal that an office isn&rsquo;t a place to politic or advance one&rsquo;s career.&nbsp;

Darren Murph, GitLab’s Head of Remote, spoke to us about the findings of GitLab's 2021 Remote Work Report.

GitLab's Darren Murph on remote work | Qatalog

Darren Murph on approaching remote work intentionally

We&rsquo;re about to embark on another global work experiment.
As we come off a shift to remote work that for many businesses was involuntary and took months to stabilize, one would expect that these new dimensions &mdash; and challenges &mdash; of how we collaborate would shape our next steps.
Workforces are moving toward hybrid models with staff divided between in-office and remote work. Similar to the shift to remote, this is new territory. But it will be far less sudden, likely taking years to play out as work teams search for their equilibrium.&nbsp;
There will be a learning curve that comes with hybrid. Even companies that nailed the shift to remote will be <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f568997c-513c-48b0-8422-fabacda46418">kept on their toes</a> in the switch to hybrid, which presents entirely new demands. Those that apply learnings from their new remote set ups stand the best chance to stay ahead.&nbsp;
The clearest warning signs that challenges lie ahead for hybrid workers come from <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/index.html?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=remote-work-report&amp;utm_term=2021&amp;utm_content=report" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">GitLab&rsquo;s 2021 Remote Work Report</a>. It exposes generational divides in the workplace &mdash; specifically divides between the perception and reality of how well remote work is going. This in turn opens questions on employee burnout and blind spots, with critical lessons for people leaders.
<h2>Younger generations feel more of the remote work pain</h2>
Today&rsquo;s digital work experience brings dependencies on quality asynchronous communication &mdash; with significant benefits for those who take time to simply write things down. But remote work can also bring stress and anxiety for knowledge workers who bear the brunt of disorganization within their companies.&nbsp;
The culprits? Manual process documents, tool silos, inefficient ways of sharing basic status updates, and making work only about work. While these factors may seem obvious to high-performing teams, leaders risk missing these signals if they feel remote work pains less than their younger counterparts.&nbsp;
<a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/index.html?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=remote-work-report&amp;utm_term=2021&amp;utm_content=report" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/lMsdoCRaTiiSOFpXanox" alt="undefined" /></a>
According to the GitLab report, 63% of 21-38 year-olds say they have to update process documents manually, compared to just 45% of those over 55.&nbsp;
When it comes to challenges around visibility and accessing basic information, more young staff report silos created by different teams using different tools (66% vs. 55%). They also report in higher percentages the need to ping colleagues for information or status updates (74% vs. 61%).&nbsp;
In the battle against feelings of isolation, almost half (46%) of young employees say they feel more connected at work through social activities, compared to just 33% of older employees.&nbsp;
All these findings make it obvious why young workers yearn for a greater sense of meaning in their day-to-day lives. And perhaps further evidence of young workers&rsquo; desires to level-up the employee experience: they list a top benefit of working in a remote environment as &ldquo;hiring the best and brightest,&rdquo; whereas older employees list &ldquo;less politics and bureaucracy.&rdquo;
<h2>What are the consequences of these generational divides?</h2>
As we see higher proportions of young employees reporting manual processes, fragmented information, and a lack of belonging at work, it&rsquo;s no wonder we keep hearing about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/apr/22/burnt-out-is-the-exhausting-cult-of-productivity-finally-over" rel="follow">burnout culture</a>. The proliferation of collaboration and productivity tools has created a <a href="https://digiday.com/media/the-pressure-cooker-is-primed-to-explode-how-instant-messaging-tools-are-contributing-to-burnout/">pressure cooker</a>, and the constant alerts, pings, and notifications suggest <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/new-way-of-work/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=shift-to-hybrid&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">it&rsquo;s time for a new way of work</a>.&nbsp;
Employers should take note, because team members are twice as likely to seek employment elsewhere if they aren&rsquo;t satisfied with workplace applications, according to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/document/3985043">Gartner</a>. Although these challenges surface across geographies and industries, leaders may think their companies are immune to high turnover. But even the most reputable companies risk an exodus as part of the &ldquo;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/technology/welcome-to-the-yolo-economy.html">YOLO&rdquo; economy</a>, where <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/employee-burnout/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=shift-to-hybrid&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">burned-out</a> workers who have managed to build up some savings are quitting stable jobs in search of post-pandemic adventure and a higher quality of life.&nbsp;
And if the human pains of remote work aren&rsquo;t felt evenly across a company, the financial consequences may quickly draw attention from employers. The average cost to replace a mid-range position is <a href="https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/employee-retention-the-real-cost-of-losing-an-employee">$8,000</a>, while the average cost of a disengaged employee is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlynborysenko/2019/05/02/how-much-are-your-disengaged-employees-costing-you/?sh=4cbd06333437">$16,000</a>.
<h2>Leadership blind spots have emerged from over-optimism</h2>
While many companies navigate their second major work model shift in just two years, team leaders need to recognize blind spots from the previous pivot. The GitLab report survey data includes a variety of examples of how leaders may have dangerous degrees of over-optimism as they head toward hybrid work.
Of the c-suite and executive-level employees surveyed, 88% say they have a good view into teams and projects in the organization. Yet, almost half (49%) say that a lack of visibility creates silos or blocks <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/category/collaboration/" rel="follow">collaboration</a>. Additionally, 80% of these executives say they often ping colleagues for information or status updates, suggesting that if they feel they have good visibility, it has to be manually achieved, as opposed to coming from written visibility via asynchronous communication.
Moreover, 88% of c-suite and executive employees say they&rsquo;re satisfied with the level of productivity in their team. However, 58% agree that they &ldquo;lose time searching for documents and links across tools and folders,&rdquo; and 47% agree that &ldquo;different processes and ways of working from one team to another&rdquo; block collaboration.
These contradictions suggest that although leaders like the idea of stewarding effective teamwork, both their own admissions as well as the struggles many young employees disproportionately face mean there&rsquo;s a lot more to be done to master remote work. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210406-how-asynchronous-communication-could-change-your-workday">Asynchronous work isn&rsquo;t going away</a>, so it&rsquo;s clearly time to invest in processes that enable <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-cal-newport-transcript.html">increased productivity</a> rather than reverting to old norms.&nbsp;
<h2>Hybrid work could light a fuse under the hidden remote work challenges</h2>
For many companies, the shift to hybrid seems inevitable &mdash; and similar to the shift to remote, they assume everyone will &ldquo;figure it out&rdquo; at the same time. But <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f568997c-513c-48b0-8422-fabacda46418">switching to hybrid will be hard</a>. Process disintegration, office cliques, a reversion to presenteeism, and uncoordinated timetables are just some of the trials newly hybrid companies could face. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/what-employees-are-saying-about-the-future-of-remote-work">Employees want to know what to expect</a>, and want to know there&rsquo;s a plan.
Before leaders knee-jerk their way toward hybrid, they need an honest remote work report card. Beyond surviving the shift to remote, they should recognize the benchmarks for what <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/">successful remote work</a> really looks like. Leaders will recruit and retain top talent if they foster a culture where things are written down (public and editable), where repeated tasks have clear workflows, where asynchronous communication is valued, and where output is more important than hours put in. These modern work lessons will pay dividends no matter where a team operates &mdash; remote, in the office, or anywhere in between.

GitLab's 2021 Remote Work Report shows us that the gaps in remote work will impact the shift to hybrid work.

Hybrid work could light a fuse | Qatalog Blog

GitLab's 2021 Remote Work Report exposes generational divides in the workplace — specifically divides between the perception and reality of how well remote work is going.

Remote work blind spots need to be addressed before a shift to hybrid

Welcome back to our Future of Work series, where we speak with influential business leaders to learn about new ways of work. We spoke with Kurt Schrader, CEO and co-founder of Clubhouse Software, who built Clubhouse to make product collaboration easy for teams and organizations. 
<h3>Qatalog: What "future of work" trends are you following closely?</h3>
Kurt: Once we get through the pandemic and everything that's going on now, I think we're going to see many, many companies move to a fully or mostly distributed way of working. The toolset for that had already been growing in recent years, but things have obviously accelerated. Teams need a better way to asynchronously talk about their work and get that work done together, but also need to be able to identify points where finding times to sync is necessary. 
<h3>Q: According to Asana's Anatomy of Work Index 2021, distributed teams found they were using 60% of their time doing work about work. What do you think of that?</h3>
K: A meta survey about doing work about work feels a bit like work about work about work, but let&rsquo;s put that aside.
Any time spent doing work about work is ultimately not getting you to the finish line. I&rsquo;d think that a big driver of this is just time spent finding things and trying to track down where an important conversation is happening. This creates a lot of overhead and the easier we can make it to put key info directly in front of people, the better and more productive teams can be.
The other piece is I don't know exactly how they're defining work about work here, but we think it's very important that there is conversation. The conversations that you would have been having before in-person in a meeting room now could happen, I think, in a better way, in a more thoughtful way inside some of these tools. I think we're learning that there need to be better signals that let people know their feedback is important and needed.
I think what a lot of organizations struggle with in getting to the finish line is simply saying, "This is what we're going to do. The work about work has come to an end and the actual work of execution has started."
I think there can be a real lack of clarity in a lot of organizations about when we should stop or put aside most of the work about the work and actually do the work.
<h3>Q: What's your collaboration tool stack?</h3>
K: For most of our collaboration at Clubhouse, you may not be surprised to learn that we use Clubhouse. It&rsquo;s the focal point all our collaboration revolves around. We also use Slack. Engineering uses GitHub. Product uses Miro. Design uses Figma. Support uses Zendesk. We do some of our prototyping and documenting in both Google Docs and Coda. A lot of stuff we do eventually makes its way into Clubhouse as we naturally evolve and improve it to meet our own needs as well as our customers&rsquo;. 
<h3>Q: What is the biggest challenge for you and your team and how do you work on overcoming it? &nbsp;</h3>
K: The biggest challenge is the same one a lot of companies are facing: The inability for us to ever get together in person. It's hard to have those human moments that you had a year or so ago, and your entire lifetime before that, and figure out a way to connect with people. All that stuff's really hard right now, and I say that as the CEO of a company that has always been about half remote. 
<h3>Q: What challenges do you expect Clubhouse Software will be addressing for its community a year from now?</h3>
K: Right now we&rsquo;re focused on helping product led teams collaborate better in this new remote environment that we all work in now.
A year from now, this way of working will probably broadly continue, but there'll be an emerging challenge where some people will be back in their offices while the majority of their teammates will still be working remotely. We're thinking about how to continue to really enable collaboration in this model where small groups of people are together and they're working with people who are remote.
What's the best way to make people most productive in those hybrid models? I don't think we have a lot of data points there yet, but I think we will soon. We want to be the best tool for not just distributed teams, but for these hybrid teams too. 
<h3>Q: The rise of distributed work has given rise to the introduction of additional workplace tools. How do you support your new customers to ensure successful use of Clubhouse Software?</h3>
K: We&rsquo;ve worked to build great integrations with the tools that our customers are already using, as well as with tools we think they might be using in the future, while centralizing the communication for all the work they&rsquo;re doing with those tools in Clubhouse.&nbsp;
We look to hook into these tools to show the work that's being done, show how things are moving forward within that tool, and then bring the discussion and collaboration and feedback within Clubhouse. 
<h3>Q: What do you think will help teams transition from surviving to thriving when it comes to distributed work?</h3>
K: Being able to go outside and see their friends. Have a beer with someone you like, who's not your significant other, who I'm sure we all also like. Even if it was just a random longshoreman at a bar, it would be nice to talk to people without a mask on, to interact with them without sounding like Bane in the Dark Knight Rises. 
<h3>Q: If you could read an interview of anyone about the future of work, who would it be?&nbsp;</h3>
K: Dylan from Figma. I don't know him, but he does a good job of talking about work, at least from the design perspective. Which is a perspective I like to hear.
<h3>Q: Finally, Kurt, tell us what work-life balance means to you today?</h3>
K: Absolutely the wrong person to put this question to right now. There's so much overlap between our work and home-life and work-life for everyone right now, that it&rsquo;s hard to disconnect. It certainly is for me.&nbsp;
Making sure that you explicitly set aside time to connect with the people that are important to you because it's way too easy to always be working on something.&nbsp;
Let's be honest, there's less and less of that other life out there than we've ever had before, at least in the modern era. You gotta make sure, in a very explicit and deliberate way, to disconnect from work and make that part of the thing you do, every day and every week.

Next up in our Future of Work series: How Kurt Schrader balances remote work and focuses on collaboration.

Kurt Schrader on remote collaboration | Qatalog

Kurt Schrader, CEO and co-founder of Clubhouse Software, has been working to make product collaboration easier for teams and organizations.

Kurt Schrader on collaborating in a remote world

Considering how much of an organization&rsquo;s working hours are dictated by meetings, it&rsquo;s difficult to admit we put near-zero effort into synthesizing or quantifying the interactions those meetings contain.
Meeting productivity, or lack thereof, is a <a href="https://meeting-report.com/financial-impact-of-meetings/0" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">$400 billion-dollar problem</a> by some measures, and that might even be a conservative estimate.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Think about <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-run-effective-meetings/" rel="follow">how many meetings you&rsquo;ve been to this month that could have been an email update</a>. Instead of taking 30 minutes out of your day, you could have found the answers on your own if your organization had a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/work-management-tool-vs-work-hub/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=virtual-meetings-audio&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">connected work hub</a> that promoted asynchronous work.&nbsp;
But this isn&rsquo;t the norm yet, and in a theoretical sense &mdash; most of our meetings happen because we don&rsquo;t already have the answers. Ergo, the holy grail of meetings is not to need them at all.
This got me thinking about the makeup of meetings. What do we actually talk about, and how can this be analyzed to prove or disprove a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/work-management-tool-vs-work-hub/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=virtual-meetings-audio&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">meeting&rsquo;s efficiency</a>? As we see more knowledge workers increasingly move to a hybrid or remote model &mdash; we might just be able to answer those questions.&nbsp;
To understand a little bit more about the productivity of meetings, I spoke with Rich Maloof &mdash; Director of Programming for a political non-profit. Unlike many of us who are asked to navigate the world of virtual meetings day-in and day-out, Maloof has a background in audio engineering, which has proven critical for analyzing the patterns of his calls.&nbsp;
Maloof has noticed a prominence of the Rashomon effect, he told me.&nbsp;
The Rashomon effect describes how different people have contradictory interpretations of the same incident.&nbsp;
&ldquo;In virtual meetings, each participant has total control over their environment, their distractions&hellip; even who they choose to focus on,&rdquo; says Maloof. &ldquo;One person&rsquo;s experience of the meeting&rsquo;s value and tone could be entirely different from another&rsquo;s."
<blockquote class="bq1" cite="http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/top-css-editors-reviewed/">
"The flip side is that virtual meetings open up so much potential for meta-communication. Going digital here means documenting conversations through audio signals, and sound engineers can read that audio. The pattern, the amplitude... all that data reveals a lot more than the average person might think. Given enough of it, one could automate organizational insights and actually improve future collaboration."
</blockquote>
Hopefully, it might even reduce our reliance on meetings altogether.

<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/cB4Db09tRohxRZr4mgLw" alt="undefined" />
<h2>The potential power of audio insights</h2>
What types of organizational insights can one gather from a mere sound wave? Let&rsquo;s start with the low-hanging fruit and dive into the more aspirational as we imagine what impact sounds can have on our meetings&rsquo; efficacy.&nbsp;
<h3>1. IT &amp; logistics&nbsp;</h3>
We&rsquo;ve all been in a Zoom meeting where someone&rsquo;s sound isn&rsquo;t up to par. Maybe they have a case of robot voice, or their laptop microphone picks up immense amounts of background noise. A tool that could tie those audio issues back to a user would offer IT the ability to step in with better gear or best practices training to make that person&rsquo;s participation more communicable.&nbsp;
<h3>2. Talking time</h3>
The person who talks the most in a meeting has an enormous impact on what value other participants get from that event. Having data on what ratio of the call time is being led by one person would help acknowledge who is being relied on too heavily and who should probably <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/becoming-a-world-class-knowledge-worker/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=virtual-meetings-audio&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">create some documentation</a>.
<h3>3. Attendance</h3>
Paired with talking time, knowing each employee&rsquo;s attendance and tardiness rates could lead to scheduling meetings more efficiently and whether the company ought to save everyone a ton of time by mandating meeting notes to marginalize low-value meeting participation.
<h3>4. Communication styles</h3>
Your coworkers may struggle to collaborate because they communicate differently. An algorithm fueled by audio geeks and linguists may be able to understand communication gaps through sound waves. Monitoring how distinctive personalities engage with others throughout the workday could unearth some wisdom on team building, meeting types, and times&mdash;even empathy and diversity training.
<h3>5. Rhythmic relationships</h3>
Suppose we&rsquo;ve got personality types quantified, and we&rsquo;ve already brought linguists on board to analyze audio. In that case, we may as well go the full monty: Attempting to assess the value and tone of any given meeting by reading the conversational rhythm of its sound wave. Screenwriters, therapists, and other language experts are infamous for their ability to <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-iambic-pentameter-with-david-mamet#what-does-iambic-pentameter-sound-like" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">analyze a conversation without even hearing</a> what&rsquo;s being said. People speak to each other with rhythm&mdash;and the more exciting the conversation, the more of an audio performance it tends to be.
<h2>Meetings: A thing of the past</h2>
All this new data will, of course, require coordination across productivity tools and business platforms. Thankfully, as workforce solutions advance and converge, departments traditionally dismissed as cost centers (HR, Finance, etc.) are now taking a more active role in optimizing the business&mdash;it&rsquo;s no longer just the COO or CIO who can justify the value of operations layer technologies.
Interpersonal communication skills are becoming true talent differentiators in the modern workforce, and employers stand much to gain from hiring more diverse candidates. Anyone with a knack for analyzing and optimizing communication will fit into this new data puzzle. For all we know, their fresh insights could reveal more useful and engaging collaborative approaches, making standard meetings a relic of 20th-century business.

Meeting productivity is a $400 billion-dollar problem. How can we analyze meetings to prove or disprove their efficiency? Audio insights could be an answer.

How sound could drive better meetings  | Qatalog

Meeting productivity is a $400 billion-dollar problem. How can we analyze meetings to prove or disprove their efficiency? In this article we talk about the potential power of audio insights.

How sound could drive better (and fewer) meetings

Welcome to the first in a series of interviews around the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/category/future-of-work/" rel="follow">Future of Work</a> by Qatalog. We&rsquo;ve started this program as a way to engage and learn from global business leaders who are championing new ways of work. We&rsquo;re kicking things off with Jim Kalbach, MURAL&rsquo;s Chief Evangelist. Jim&rsquo;s commitment to &ldquo;leveraging collective imagination&rdquo; has inspired us, and we&rsquo;re pleased to share our recent interview with him.
<h3>Qatalog: The &ldquo;future of work&rdquo; topic is receiving a lot of attention. What trends are you following most closely?</h3>
Jim: We&rsquo;re most interested in the future of team collaboration and new ways of working. We believe that how teams work together is a critical business factor and competitive advantage. The trends we&rsquo;re watching include things like:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Facilitation.&nbsp;We believe facilitation skills will become more of a priority as a result of increased distributed teams. You don&rsquo;t have to be a trained Facilitator (with a capital F) to facilitate: anyone leading a conversation can benefit from knowing how to drive towards the desired outcomes.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Visual methods. Visualizing work not only builds alignment and increases engagement, it also accelerates problem solving. Frameworks like the business model canvas show that visualizations aren&rsquo;t only for creative disciplines.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Remote work. Of course, here at MURAL we&rsquo;re committed to continue to understand the remote condition. We learned a lot in 2020, but we&rsquo;re really just getting started in general.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Q: &ldquo;2020 was about emergency distributed work, 2021 is about optimization for distributed work.&rdquo; Do you agree?</h3>
J: Yes, I do agree: remote collaboration took off in 2020 out of necessity. Moving forward we&rsquo;ll likely see two things. First, the optimization of distributed work, as you say, which includes not only new tools but behaviors. That&rsquo;s really the frontier we need to work on collectively. How do we better engage remote teams? How do we bring clients into creative conversations in a distributed setting? The list of questions goes on, and we&rsquo;re still learning as we go.&nbsp;
But also I think we&rsquo;ll start to see a shift towards partially distributed collaboration as some people start going back to the office post-vaccine, perhaps in the second half of the year. The challenge of hybrid meetings&mdash;where half of the team is in-person together and the other half is distributed&mdash;is achieving equality of interaction. It&rsquo;s easier for in-person conversations to out-pace those with folks dialed in and to interact with materials in the room.&nbsp;
I believe that what the working world learned about remote collaboration in 2020 will stick. That is, we&rsquo;ll continue to think and work digitally even as we slowly head back to our offices later in 2021.&nbsp;
<h3>Q: What kind of organizational cultures do you think best serve those adapting to distributed work?</h3>
J: Culture does play a big role, and the ones that adapt best already have the necessary qualities to adapt to effective distributed work. For example, we&rsquo;ve found some of these cultural aspects to be most important:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Encouraging engagement. Distributed work is best when people can participate and stay interactive with the group. Otherwise, it&rsquo;s far too easy to drift off and multi-task on something else and not contribute. Work cultures that seek engagement from everyone in the group thrive better in distributed contexts.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Inclusion of diverse perspectives. Distributed teams can be more inclusive in the range of people included because there are lower barriers of distances and location. Cultures that are open to diverse opinions&mdash;even if they are outlier opinions&mdash;not only collaborate better but are also better prepared to innovate. Having a diverse mindset helps to adapt to remote collaboration and produce better results.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Creating psychological safety. A certain flexibility is required with distributed work and openness to experimentation. Failing needs to be OK: If you get it wrong, that&rsquo;s OK&mdash;you&rsquo;ll learn from your mistakes and move on. People have to feel safe about contributing creative ideas, even if they end up failing.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Q: What's the biggest challenge for you and your team at work these days? And how do you work on overcoming it?&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
J: As a company, MURAL has changed dramatically in the last year. Of course, we&rsquo;ve been advocating for <a href="https://www.mural.co/ebook" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">improving remote work</a> for years and we believe we have a solution that can help. When companies found themselves &ldquo;<a href="https://www.mural.co/blog/suddenly-remote-recap" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">suddenly remote</a>&rdquo; because of the pandemic, we were there to help, e.g., with content, guidance, extended offers, etc.&nbsp;
But there&rsquo;s no doubt that our business grew at the same time. We&rsquo;ve tripled the size of the company, and we received <a href="https://www.mural.co/press-releases/series-b" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Series B funding</a>. Although we&rsquo;ve always been a remote-first company&mdash;with global teams on four continents&mdash;any organization would struggle to scale under this rapid growth.&nbsp;
So our challenge was less around how we work remotely than it was how do we scale as a remote company to meet market demand.&nbsp;
<h3>Q: It's believed by some within the creative industry that there's no real substitute for face-to-face collaboration. Do you agree with that? How are you addressing this idea at MURAL?</h3>
J: Yes, I agree with that sentiment on one level. In fact, one of our guidelines for good remote collaboration is to &ldquo;meet in person.&rdquo; If you know your colleagues personally, remote collaboration is a lot easier.
But you could also say there is no substitute for distributed collaboration as well. So I find it problematic viewing face-to-face collaboration as all or nothing, black and white. The reality of our modern work environments should best be seen as a continuum of modes&mdash;from completely in-person collaboration to hyper-distributed teams. You have to be able to function across a range of modes and settings, and be able to move between them as well.
At MURAL we&rsquo;re committed to developing best practices for digital collaboration, whether in-person or distributed. For instance, <a href="https://www.mural.co/blog/5-tactics-seamless-remote-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">here&rsquo;s a short post I wrote a while back summarizing some techniques for moving between modes of collaboration</a>. And we continue to learn new techniques from our community. As work moves back to the office post-pandemic, we&rsquo;ll be watching closely how customers and partners think and work digitally, and how the line between in-person and remote blurs.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ve also built capabilities into our platform to make the transition easier. MURAL Scan is still in beta, but will be released soon. With it, you can scan a wall of physical sticky notes and drawings, and digitize them to a mural canvas instantly.&nbsp;
<h3>Q: You've been running innovation and design workshops for a while now. What are your strategies for facilitating successful collaboration?</h3>
J: There are lots of details to consider, many of which we captured in our book, <a href="https://www.mural.co/ebook" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Facilitating Remote Workshops</a>. But at a high level, there are two overarching principles that guide my style of remote facilitation.&nbsp;
The first is to design an experience for the workshop in advance. When I give in-person workshops, I can improvise some of it on the spot. It&rsquo;s also possible to observe progress in a room and determine if a person or group is lost. In remote settings, that&rsquo;s harder to do.&nbsp;
Laying out your workshop visually in MURAL forces you to break things down and get more granularity. Instead of 30-minute chunks of time, you want to think in 10-minute or even 5-minute chunks. And you want to be much more explicit about your instructions: don&rsquo;t leave anything to chance. This requires more upfront planning and preparation, but you gain that time back afterward with reduced consolidation and transcription time.&nbsp;
The second thing to consider is how to maintain engagement. You have to get creative on how you can involve others and get their participation with the tools available to you. I find using a range of inputs and planning for frequent calls for participation increases engagement. For instance, you might share your audio and video with a conferencing tool like Zoom. But also consider how you can use the chat function for quick polls and inputs. Or use an online polling tool like Menti for live input. Adding interaction in a MURAL canvas increases the engagement even more.&nbsp;
When you put it all together&mdash;a designed experience with frequent engagement&mdash;you can not only keep a group&rsquo;s attention for four or more hours, you also get better results.&nbsp;
<h3>Q: Tell us more about the Jobs To Be Done toolkit. We're especially interested in how it could be used to advocate for change.</h3>
J: The <a href="https://www.jtbdtoolkit.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">JTBD Toolkit</a> is a follow-up project to my book, The <a href="https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/jobs-to-be-done-book/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">JTBD Playbook</a>. The two complement each other. The book covers a lot of ground work and points to other resources to learn more. It&rsquo;s really a hub of resources to get started with. The Toolkit focuses on deepening knowledge and skills around core concepts of JTBD, so it&rsquo;s a lot more focused. We also offer live workshops each month through the Toolkit. Combined with our monthly webinar, it&rsquo;s really a place for ongoing conversations and learning around the topic of JTBD.&nbsp;
For me, Jobs To Be Done is a way of seeing the people you serve independent of technology or solutions, including your own. This gives you a new and unique perspective on your business and points to hidden opportunities. The techniques of JTBD guide you in finding new possibilities through a structured language of analysis and techniques for modeling human behavior.&nbsp;
<h3>Q: And finally, tell us what work-life balance means to you today?</h3>
J: Great question. Not sure if anyone really knows the answer to that, do they? But one thing I&rsquo;m finding more and more is people seeking purposeful, meaningful work. Employers pay you in money, which is a renewable resource for them. In return, you give them your time, which is a finite resource you never get back. If you&rsquo;re going to spend ⅓ of your day working on something, it should be meaningful and rewarding to you.
So, yes: things like flex-time and the option to work from home may contribute to better work-life balance. For sure, we want colleagues at MURAL to have that control over their time and work. But at a deeper level, working for something you really care about brings work-life balance as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Welcome to the first in a series of Future of Work interviews by Qatalog. In this series you’ll hear from global business leaders championing and defining new ways of work.

Jim Kalbach on the future of team collaboration | Qatalog

If you had to introduce yourself in one sentence, what would you say? I’m MURAL’s Chief Evangelist, committed to spreading our mission of new ways of working together and leveraging collective imagination through visual methods anywhere, anytime. The “future of work” topic is receiving a lot of attention. What trends ...

Jim Kalbach on the future of team collaboration

The last time you shared your screen with colleagues, you shared a lot more than the latest version of a presentation. You let your colleagues into your work home. Not the work home with the new backdrop setup for Zoom meetings. The work home that you look at for hours everyday &mdash; your laptop screen, and all the tools and docs and other things packed into it.
What do they usually see? If you work in a modern company, there's a good chance it's a jungle of Slack messages, Google docs, Asana tasks, or code in GitHub that you&rsquo;d been switching between right before the meeting started. Unless you minimized the windows, so it's all just waiting for you after the call.
Your work home is a powerful indication of whether you&rsquo;re operating in a place of peace, order, and balance &mdash; or somewhere else.
For most, that place is somewhere else.&nbsp;
We have a new SaaS app for every niche need, to the point where each team in a company seems to go out of its way to use a different tool. And each tool, each browser tab, each alert creates an environment more like a carnival than a zen home.
In our attempt to promote new ways of working, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/lost-in-the-jungle-of-workspace-apps-2020/" rel="follow">we&rsquo;ve adopted too many SaaS tools</a> that in aggregate produce a counter-effect. We&rsquo;ve gone full-circle.
There are of course many incredible SaaS applications out there. But the ability to balance them together so they don&rsquo;t interfere with each other, or become walls, has become a rare art.&nbsp;
Perhaps nowhere is this pain more acute than in tech companies experiencing the havoc of hyper-growth. But the challenges certainly aren&rsquo;t limited to this group. Any company that segments its work by teams has employees that battle this complexity on a daily basis. Teams develop micro-cultures with their own language, acronyms, data, work styles, and now tools.&nbsp;
Layer on top of this concoction the fact that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2020/09/08/new-research-suggests-the-future-of-work-is-a-flexible-one/?sh=65e254ca3267%2080-90%%20of%20knowledge%20workers%20conducting%20their%20work%20from%20home%20during%20the%20pandemic" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">90%</a> of employees are operating in a remote capacity&mdash;many for the first time&mdash;and we have a perfect storm of SaaS app chaos.
As a surprisingly <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2020/07/08/are-we-entering-a-new-world-of-remote-work/?sh=398aed965959" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">large number of jobs can be done remotely</a>, and many companies have implemented remote work plans that are <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/01fd6ad5-b062-4699-b098-ab81bdc8f7b2">unlikely to reverse</a>, this new paradigm means a stark contrast will emerge between companies that are problem-aware and nail these challenges head-on, and those that flutter in this increasingly digital work life.
So what symptoms should team leaders watch for?
<h2>The new way of work reduces noise</h2>
A typical knowledge worker makes <a href="https://www.inc.com/heidi-zak/adults-make-more-than-35000-decisions-per-day-here-are-4-ways-to-prevent-mental-burnout.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">35,000</a> micro-decisions a day. It&rsquo;s a constant struggle not only to make all those decisions, but to determine what data points should inform them, and what can be discarded. With the rise of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-right-mindset/201910/the-rise-and-grind-hustle-culture" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">hustle culture</a>, many think it&rsquo;s just a matter of working harder. Not smarter.
Much of this can be addressed by fostering a culture that <much of="" this="" can="" be="" addressed="" by="" fostering="" a="" culture="" that="" span=""><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90547415/6-key-traits-leaders-must-develop-for-the-future-of-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">values quality over quantity</a>. It's also important to make sure that people, teams, and projects are visible and accessible across the organization, without the need for real-time coordination. Because <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/09/remote-work-doesnt-have-to-mean-all-day-video-calls" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">all-day video meetings</a> result in no time to get s%$&amp; done.&nbsp;</much>
This balance between synchronous and asynchronous is critical to getting the context you need to work productively.
<h2>Eliminates constant context-switching&nbsp;</h2>
But once people are freed from video calls to really get down to work, the struggle to cycle between tools also becomes very real. This form of multi-tasking can lead to a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking">40%</a> loss of productivity.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, the SaaS market is <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/cloud-computing-now-even-more-of-your-apps-are-about-to-make-the-jump/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">expected to keep growing</a>&mdash;as companies who signed onto different productivity and collaboration tools during the pandemic are <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/19/why-bessemers-byron-deeter-thinks-saas-companies-could-grow-even-faster-in-2021/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">unlikely to turn them off</a>&mdash;so the cognitive weight of all this context-switching may very well grow.&nbsp;
<a href="https://qz.com/work/1561830/why-the-eight-hour-workday-doesnt-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">According to one study</a>, the optimal way to multi-task is to do 52 minutes of work with 17-minute breaks. We&rsquo;re not robots, but these types of benchmarks can provide a healthy reminder to stop app shuffling and start focusing.
<h2>Makes routines collective</h2>
Of course, most companies don&rsquo;t operate with school-like schedules of defined periods and transition times to get between classes. But they could certainly use <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b5d70caa-bd91-4613-a944-3654990643ea" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">better collective routines</a>.
Fortunately, collective routines don&rsquo;t always need to be done at the same time. For example, team members could each start their day by looking at a common dashboard, even if they&rsquo;re in different time zones. Or they could each finish their day by posting an update with just enough detail, and for the right audience.
<h2>Improves visibility</h2>
When team members don&rsquo;t know what they don&rsquo;t know, collaboration can only go so far. No wonder employees say transparency is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/10/16/10-things-transparency-can-do-for-your-company/?sh=7ff8ce4025d0" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">the number one factor in determining their work happiness</a>. Teams that make their work discoverable to colleagues when they produce a new artifact, for example, can make significant strides in building a sense of connection.
This is especially the case for distributed teams, where <a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/five-ways-leaders-can-support-remote-work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">frequent, transparent, consistent communication becomes essential</a>. Without it, team members will <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/350724" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">parse the meaning</a> of emojis, phrases, or punctuation to an unnerving degree.
<h2>Stops process confusion</h2>
Helping your teams transform their digital work homes into true clearings also means taking the ambiguity out of basic procedures. Defining clear, step-by-step processes for activities like onboarding remote hires or getting sign-off for a virtual event can have a surprisingly massive impact on morale.&nbsp;
For example, <a href="https://www.thehrdirector.com/business-news/flexible-agile-working/appzen-survey-reveals-impact-of-covid-and-remote-work-on-employee-expense-claims/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">83 percent </a>of employees who received an updated work from home expense policy said their employer fairly compensates them, compared to only 29 percent where the policy wasn&rsquo;t updated.
To be sure, in most of the corporate world, there&rsquo;s no shortage of procedure. But with distributed work on the rise, there&rsquo;s a new opportunity to define lightweight processes for the sake of clarity. Otherwise, too much flexibility can actually <a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/future-of-work-leadership-flexibility" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">stress employees out</a>, to the point of not knowing when to start and stop work.
<h2>Hope amid a sea of SaaS apps</h2>
Awareness of these problems alone will not solve them. And in high-growth, segmented, or distributed organizations, it can be both socially and technically complex to achieve a sense of cohesion between teams.&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s talk of a need for a <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3913794/create-a-culture-of-digital-dexterity-with-the-new-work-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">new work nucleus</a>, or a new <a href="https://kwokchain.com/2019/08/16/the-arc-of-collaboration/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">metalayer</a> that bridges the many gaps between teams and within them. Knowledge workers, managers, and executives all need to find that glue that lets them escape the digital mayhem.
Businesses that figure this out will win. The coming months and years of work will be led by companies that empower their distributed workforces to operate with a different type of rhythm. They&rsquo;ll attract top talent, grow market share, and earn the type of soft power that you hear about in politics&mdash;the non-tangibles that create gravitas. And they&rsquo;ll define a new way of work.
Those that just turn on <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/communication-overload/" rel="follow">Zoom all day</a>, trying to replicate the in-person, will run out of time.

The ability to balance all the productivity SaaS tools out there in a complementary fashion has become a rare art. Businesses that figure this out will win.

It’s time to define a new way of work | Qatalog

There are many incredible SaaS applications out there. But the ability to balance them all together in a complementary fashion has become a rare art.