What if the future isn’t remote? What if it’s a hybrid, remote-first, flexible working operating model that encourages trust, clarity of purpose, free reign and a 4-hr work day?
In today’s episode we chat to Jean-Pierre Levieux, founder of Holisteam, about the benefits of thinking of remote as an operating model & mindset rather than a people management model.
JP is neither remote nor co-located: he works really fluidly with his clients in a way that transcends either a co-located or remote culture. His ‘working model’ adapts to the client, what’s enjoyable, what’s efficient — basically what makes the most sense to create the agreed outcomes and outputs, or as he puts it, the deliverables.
Holisteam is in the business of positive transformation management company: they are a team of experts with a diverse skill set that focus on what has a positive impact inside companies to the benefit of employees, customers, stakeholders and the planet. I hope you enjoy it.
Highlights from this episode include:
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Designing your work style is about knowing what you need personally, and how you want to work professionally
“What I felt was that being in a position where I can have freedom to move, I can manage my agenda, and I can work as a team, with a team, which is not necessarily in front of me, but where I could collaborate with the actual the best people in a specific discipline or for a specific moment in a project.”
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Remote is a mindset that helps you create the perfect conditions to achieve your goal
“It’s not really a model, it’s really a mindset, it’s how you create condition to be creative, to be very interacting to avoid any constraints that maybe will slow your project or, or get your creativity down.”
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It’s becoming more important for leadership to listen to individuals & be very precise about their expectations & why
“I think we are finding out that in the remote work environment the individual connection with the people is becoming more and more critical, because you can’t control people, so you have to listen to them. You have to inspire them, you have to be very precise on what you expect, which role they will do, what will be the impact. And at the end of the day, what collectively you will be building…. In a remote environment, it has to be more precise.”
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Working remotely is about maximising efficiency & enjoyability
“The beauty of the model is I don’t know have to be somewhere to be working or to be seen somewhere to be considered as working. We are focusing on the deliverable. So technology has nothing to do with it. Is it remote, not remote, that’s not really the question. It’s really about the emotional connection and the pleasure to work together, and the clarity on what we do together. And make sure that we don’t burn people’s personal time with something that we can do ourselves separately. That’s the kind of key things I’m trying to apply to myself.”
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The remote model thrives on clarity & trust versus control
“… in terms of trust, we are used to giving trust if we think the other deserves the trust. But what if we give trust and so people can be trustworthy. They kind of know themselves, to accept this trust and then be focused, be engaged and stuff like that. So I think here, the big bencher that will live in maybe or the big trap they will not want to fall into is to make confusion between clarity and control.”
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