Scott Burrows

Scott Burrows, Motivational Resilience Speaker

 

If You Think Resilience is Difficult, Try Inflexibility!

 

About a year ago Wired magazine wrote an inciteful business article on why bosses don’t listen to employees. The article pointed out three problems in what they called a disconnect between bosses and workers:

  1. Bosses are more likely to be content to be back at work than their employees. “And no wonder,” states the article, “they have better homes, better offices, and better pay.”
  2. Bosses tend to be their own best counsel. They won’t listen to concerns.
  3. There is a lack of transparency; bosses don’t share their plans nor do they care to listen. The “need to know” mentality has always been a problem.

As a motivational resilience speaker who speaks nationwide on workplaces developing a more resilient mindset, I know the three concerns raised in the article are valid.

The conversation

The topics of change and resilience are among the most important challenges any organization can face, in these post-pandemic times. I think that as a motivational resilience speaker that it’s important to spend some time on the dangers of inflexibility.

The financial industry, especially, initially wanted to dig in its heels and make the demand that they expect all workers to return to their offices full-time.

Yet, in a report appearing on Buffer.com, the 2021 “State of Remote Work” report, nearly 98 percent of those surveyed “would like to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their career.”

While the worst days, the lockdown days of the pandemic proved that technology could work to keep businesses going, there was also a sense of alienation and a lack of teamwork that people missed. Nevertheless, for upper management to dismiss concerns of workers will result in dissatisfaction and forcing employees into choosing alternatives.

There appears to be a midway point slowly developing as expressed by Daniel Pinto of JPMorgan Chase & Co (CNBC, February 2022):

“Going back to the office with 100% of the people 100% of the time, I think there is zero chance of that. As for everyone working from home all the time, there is also zero chance of that.”

There is going to have to be significant negotiation and beyond that, a determination of organizations to choose mentoring over inflexibility and for executive leaders to practice greater resilience and to start listening to the concerns of staff.

The Future of Work

Despite the doomsayers, the future of work is exciting if bosses and workers alike find a place where resiliency takes precedence over inflexibility. The determination to forge a new, more agile and more technology-driven work place will ask organizations to visualize the benefits and economy of a hybrid environment.

True, offices may undergo change, and virtual reality and more sophisticated work platforms might re-define how organizations function. However, if the end result of change is to have more efficient and more effective workflows and outcomes, is that such a negative outcome? As a motivational resilience speaker, I feel that we should view change as positive and reject an inflexible mindset that has never helped us.

 

To reach Scott Burrows, Motivational Resilience Speaker, please contact Scott today by phone at 520 – 548 – 1169 or through this website.

 

 

 

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