Kate O’Neill has a knack for being forward of the curve. Lengthy earlier than “hybrid work” entered the enterprise lexicon, she wrote
Pixels and Place
, a ebook about connecting human expertise throughout bodily and digital areas. As an early worker at Netflix, she developed e-commerce practices along with her workforce that turned trade customary, serving to to form the way in which folks work together with manufacturers over digital platforms. Right this moment her consultancy
KO Insights
advises enterprise leaders and their groups on easy methods to take a human-centric strategy to digital transformation.
Right here, O’Neill talks strategic optimism, a extra balanced strategy to work journey, and the rising applied sciences that excite her most.
WorkLab: In your newest ebook,
A Future So Vivid
, you make the case for strategic optimism within the face of an unsure future. What retains you optimistic?
O’Neill: My optimism is across the rise of hybrid and distant work and the way it has shifted our focus to significant work for workers—and to new methods of measuring that. If we get this proper, work just isn’t solely extra fulfilling for folks, but in addition extra productive for firms. I believe companies are struggling a bit of with easy methods to understand that proper now, however we’ve obtained a very good likelihood of building work norms that profit all events.
What do you attribute that battle to?
I do know that Microsoft has been speaking about
productiveness paranoia
and folks not being in sync about coming again into places of work.
It’s very paying homage to the dilemma: How do you handle productiveness on the subject of issues like writing or writing code? This has been such a long-standing factor within the 25 years I’ve labored in tech—the builders that I labored with have been at all times railing towards being measured by strains of code. As a result of clearly, lots of the most elegant programming options are shorter, not longer. It takes with the ability to have a bit of area and focus to provide you with these extra elegant options.
Proper,
productiveness paranoia
refers to the concept leaders concern staff aren’t working sufficient, despite the fact that all indicators level to folks working greater than ever. How can leaders overcome this?
It’s vital to have sincere and clear communication about what persons are up towards proper now, and what they’re valuing. I believe if we fail to have these conversations it gained’t be potential to construct cultures the place workforce members really feel supported—like they’re making headway on one thing that’s significant to them.
“How do you handle productiveness on the subject of issues like writing code? The builders that I labored with have been at all times railing towards being measured that manner.”
But in addition, leaders have to contain staff in communication round how we carry folks again to the workplace. What I see as a finest follow proper now could be having a really candid dialog with staff and saying, “Look, there’s a variety of nuanced and intangible worth that comes from having folks in individual collectively, and we actually wish to get that profit. However we perceive that there’s a variety of comfort and luxury to with the ability to do business from home or remotely. So how can we bridge that hole? What are a number of the ways in which we are able to go about attempting to perform each of these goals?”
A variety of firms are adopting Goals & Key Outcomes (OKRs) to align staff on priorities and empower folks to do their most impactful work. Just lately at Microsoft
we’ve embraced “NoKRs”
—the work we
gained’t
accomplish that we are able to keep centered on what issues most. What are your present “NoKRs?”
Journey has change into a special animal than it was in 2018 or 2019. After I’m on the street, I’ve conceded that I can’t be a productiveness machine. I exploit my out-of-office notifications to set the expectation that I gained’t be responding instantly until the subject is crucial. And it has been a superb alternative for me to recalibrate with my workforce on priorities extra broadly. A few of our content material plans or enterprise methods might have been too aggressive, so we’re adjusting and reprioritizing in response to the present enterprise surroundings. Ideally we’d at all times be doing that, however typically we enable new work to come back in and simply stress us out as an alternative of considering critically about what issues most.
“On workshop flooring or in warehouses, augmented actuality would supply steerage on wires to keep away from or give nudges of finest practices to keep away from harmful conditions.”
Okay, let’s speak expertise. What rising innovation is most compelling to you proper now?
Augmented actuality. I see it as transformative on each degree. The concept of with the ability to current just-in-time data that’s contextually related and does not take away you out of your surroundings opens up great alternative for
augmenting the human expertise
.
What influence do you suppose augmented actuality could have on enterprise sooner or later?
Probably the most quick transformation could be using
AR expertise in healthcare
. Augmented actuality instruments might be nice studying aids for medical college students and even present further insights for a surgeon throughout an operation with heads-up shows that share sufferers’ important indicators. You may additionally think about the transformation that mechanics or electricians may see of their every day actions with AR expertise. On workshop flooring or in warehouses the place security is a crucial difficulty, AR would supply steerage on wires to keep away from or give nudges of finest practices to stop harmful conditions.
Data staff would have the ability to profit from AR too. The implementations vary from scientists
exploring new ideas
in digital environments to TV correspondents getting just-in-time insights. Possibly that’s offering information anchors with heads-up shows or audio cues that might immediate them to ask interview questions which have labored previously or present them with additional context on a subject of dialogue because it occurs stay.
Okay, let’s come again to the current. Share one key step that leaders can take proper now to assist folks and organizations navigate the way forward for work.
I believe a very powerful step leaders have to take is to concentrate on the reset of the employee-employer relationship. Take this chance to create environments which might be extra reflective of a completely clear and wholly human work tradition. Leaders who embrace all of the change and uncertainty we’re collectively dealing with—and use it as a possibility to realign on the human wants of staff and codify wholesome work habits—might be well-positioned to information their organizations into the longer term.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.