Ensure a great culture to enable your future business exit
We are all seeing companies handle remote working in a variety of ways. Although we see many recalling people to the office for at least a few days a week, we’re also seeing many still retain some degree of remote working.
If your company is supporting any degree of employees working remotely, ask yourself these questions: How would I describe the work culture I want for my company? And what impact is remote working having on that desired culture?
One dynamic to have in mind is being pointed out in a variety of recent studies on remote working. When employees are working in the office, they are surrounded by co-workers and as a result they are exposed to a variety of viewpoints and opinions on daily matters. In this office environment, they can’t shut these viewpoints out and must learn to process and manage them which means they may remain more open and flexible in their own thinking. But remote workers are not getting this direct exposure as much and unintentionally they are creating what experts call their own echo-chambers. This chamber could lead to myopic thinking and less of a willingness to be open to new thinking. This can impact your culture because it could make an employee less flexible in thinking an issue or opportunity through, less receptive to any sort of change and less willing to have productive brainstorms.
When the day comes that you want to sell your company, know that acquirers will assess what they deem your company culture to be. They will assess whether they like the culture you’ve built of whether there is risk in their assimilating it into their own. Manage your culture, don’t let it manage you. Discuss with your key leaders what your target company culture is and whether any remote working is enabling or disabling the very culture you’re looking to build and maintain.
