An important question, remote work, and one that is often asked, or that I often ask myself. Here are the short answers that I bring, and that I share with you to bounce off your feedback. (Personally I haven’t yet found the key in my activity to switch to remote work, one of my only regrets).

Is remote work necessary in our modern organizations?

Is the question really worth asking? No, probably not. Let’s take as a postulate that we deal with remote work, that the question doesn’t really arise, that for a multitude of reasons (economic, ecological, etc.) it’s the future. Of which I am convinced.

Mitigate the drawbacks?

Naturally we quickly perceive certain disadvantages related to group dynamics and communication. But they are not so heavy as that and can be circumvented. How? I suggest:

• A “summit” at the project launch: a phase where everyone is together, for several days.
• Presence at key events (it’s up to you to judge what a key event is).
• A remote work limit of 60%, that is 3 days out of 5 per week; and this limit is probably just my old beliefs still struggling a bit, so you can forget this point…

It seems very important to me:

• The same level of communication between all actors: whether they are on site or remote: everyone takes part in the hangout or skype or the like: not an octopus (conference call) with three people around it and two on the phone. Everyone at the same level of communication, it’s important. We seek to have “distributed” teams (same level of communication, trust, sharing) and not “dispersed” (inequality in communication, trust, sharing).
• Video conference rather than audio conference to avoid conversations in the void and with the mic on mute… We talk to each other, we look at each other, 70% of communication is not oral.
• Therefore a very good physical network (I’m talking about bandwidth, conference equipment). Yes it’s a necessary investment.
• And good organization “at home” or in “co-working”.

Here are the key elements.

Performance

But yes we must move toward remote work: performance will be at the level of the person’s motivation and pleasure, and remote work will help them in this direction if they request it.

And contrary to beliefs the person who works remotely doesn’t do less. Quite the contrary. I even think that remote work will force reflection on oneself, on one’s aspirations, a clarification of one’s expectations and values, and thus provoke an even better engagement as well as more global, systemic thinking.

Today for modern employers and entrepreneurs it’s also a real way to capture talent.