Welcome to this new Zevillage newsletter.
I am Xavier de Mazenod. Every Thursday I send ideas and discoveries to your inbox so you can understand what the future of work has in store for us and help you work better and live better.
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In the previous episodes of our series, I dealt with the topic of risks and crises that force companies to review their operations, then the topic of the workplace.
Today’s topic: the agility to be acquired in the organization of work with the flexibility, breathing and calmness exercises it requires.
Breaking down silos in the company, enabling employees to better balance their personal and professional lives, giving flexibility to office hours is good. But we can do much better: change our point of view. Yes, but how?
Development of hybrid work complicates life for many companies : difficulties in leading teams, leaving the office, disengagement of employees for the best known. The temptation for leaders is to return to the pre-Covid situation, on familiar ground. However, the known ground no longer exists.
Ultimately, what is the purpose of the company? Overall, it’s customer satisfaction. This is therefore a central point about which the organization of work must be rethought. And in the rest you have to let go.
If we adopt this new point of view, everything will follow. Why argue about flexible working hours, telecommuting days or the importance of the four-day week? If the entire organization is focused on results and not on bureaucracy and hierarchy, problems with attendance and working hours will disappear.
Once the mind has changed and the rest follows, all that remains is to implement the change. A change that assumes confidence, responsibility, autonomy and transparency. Trust from managers, responsibility and autonomy for teams, managers, transparency of work. Trust: a risk to be taken from the beginning of the process. Because it pays: more economical in resources than controlling employees, their working hours and presence in the office. This does not lead to a lack of work quality control.
Leading by example has always been the best way to train troops. It is good to require employee trust as a driving force for new operations. But if the leaders give theirs first, it is better.
A large financial company opened a new headquarters a few years ago in a new building organized to enable flexible working. Seven floors, all comfort, organized into open spaces, shared offices, zones Hot Desk (unallocated offices), comfortable meeting rooms of all sizes, premium relaxation areas. The eighth floor, that of the management team, is organized into closed offices. What is the message to the teams?
THE the principles are simple but the road can be long. You can’t move an organization in a few weeks.
But the benefit is huge: the company focuses on the essentials. She becomes more reactive and adaptable in the context of the polycrisis we saw in the first episode of this series. Quality of life at work, employee loyalty and productivity will also be given.
PS: u last delivery from her excellent newsletter, which I recommend, Noémie Aubron quotes an old article by Philippe Silberzahn (and yes, again) on uncertaintyvery appropriate for our topic.
Next week, the last episode of the series: How to revive the team at work?
Episode no. 1: reed strategy
Episode no. 2: Work in an ugly, neon-lit office?
Converting vacant office buildings into residential, the old sea serpent becomes a reality. In San Francisco, the architectural firm Gensler identified old office buildings in the financial district conversions into apartments and condominiums.
More than 2,700 homes could theoretically be built in the city center by converting 12 office buildings to residential use.
🎓 Transformation, fingers in the nose
Contractual labor law, Generative artificial intelligence in business, psychosocial risks and mental health, digital transformation of VSE-SMEs : three MOOCs from CNAM and an online course from the University of Montpellier help managers in business transformations.
😱 Why are office properties failing?
Investments in commercial real estate increased from €25.3 billion in 2019 to nearly €12 billion in 2023, a drop of more than 43% compared to the 5-year average before the pandemic. Causes and consequences.
🤠 Smart people
Do you remember those MEPs who came to Brussels just for the membership fee before leaving? If you force your employees to come back to the office, they might force you too “cafe-badge” trick..
😴 A little vacation?
Do you want to be more efficient and less anxious at work? It’s easy, practice reset the day once a month. Or remote work, it’s even better 😉
🕶️ Hidden labor market?
Did you know that Le Bon coin is the second job site for SMEs after France Travail, formerly Pole Emploi? The site publishes its own Employment barometer. Discover regional and national market trends, the most in-demand occupations and the regions that employ the most per capita.
💪 Should I go there or not?
Before you leave your comfortable permanent contract and become a freelance influencer on YouTube, think twice. What if the creative economy the lark’s mirror ?
⛺️ Low-budget nomadism
No more house in Bali or life in Portugal. Instead, discover how the camps are becoming new hotspots of coworking for 80 million nomadic workers.
It’s no longer a poll, it’s a plebiscite! (François, I recognized you 😜).
Why we love them stinky cheeses ? 🌀 When you work remotely, we thread the pearls 🌀 The Luddites are back: a brief history of this movement 🌀 Soon there will be no more cars in the city, and it is discussed 🌀 This tells you remote work from your van ? 🌀 Fifty job offers in full remote.
In San Francisco, one of the leading heartlands of technology, a crowd blocked and set fire to an autonomous taxi in Chinatown. Fortunately, the taxi was empty. A bunch of Luddites go!
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