Distributed Work in Exceptional Times

3 thoughts on “Distributed Work in Exceptional Times”

  1. Luis, I’ve been engaging with your work more and more–albeit silently. A couple of things I really like about this post:

    “We have all become nodes of a wider, hyperconnected, more complex than ever, giant cluster of networks: The Internet. Yet we keep insisting that’s how we used to work while at the office. No, we weren’t.”

    I’ve felt this for some time, but was missing this:

    “embrace and adapt to new ways of working by making extensive use of a number of (social) digital tools that allow us to earn the merit of being an integral part of those networks and communities: through building trustworthy personal business relationships while working and learning together. Trying to copycat exactly what happens in an office environment is not how we rethink the role we play when we come to think about work.”

    The bold part relates back to some other things you’ve said about people putting on masks. (This was before we all had to wear masks because of covid.) This mask is the hide aspects of myself mask and become a drone, concealing human aspects of our personality.

    Still learning in this space, but posting here so you know that your words have value and cause people to reflect. 💪

    1. Hiya, Justin, thanks ever so much for dropping by and for sharing this fantastic feedback with so many thought-provoking insights! Wonderful stuff!

      Indeed, the topic about people putting on masks when they are the office, in a work setting, has been there for as long as we can probably remember, but, at the same time, it may well have its days numbered! If there is anything that we have learned over the last few months, since the pandemic started, is about how ridiculous people have been by putting on those masks.

      Now that we are all working distributedly, mostly from our home offices, we are coming to terms with how silly wearing masks at work has been all along. It’s only when we show our true selves, when we become more honest and authentic, that we are giving ourselves the opportunity to build those business personal relationships I was referencing above. The funny thing is that it’s very difficult to put on that mask again when working from home because our spouse, children, etc. get to see and experience our own silliness. So, what do we do? We drop them and never wear them again!

      If anything, COVID-19 is helping us all understand how much posturing, mask-wearing, pretending to be who we are not, has been going on and the harm that it’s caused in our relationships. COVID-19 has just awakened us to the reality that once we drop all of that we have got the fantastic opportunity to rehumanising ourselves, the conversations and interactions we have, with an immediate and tangible result: becoming more humanE!

      Funny, and pretty ironic, how we had to resort to all of these social, digital tools to show us who we truly are, both in our personal and work related lives: humane social beings with a need to connect, to belong, to relate (to one another), to cooperate and work together, to learn, if anything, for our mere survival.

      In a way, it reminds me about this blog post I wrote back in 2011 on this very same topic: https://www.elsua.net/2011/09/09/welcome-to-the-social-enterprise-awakening/

      Again, many many thanks for dropping by and for the wonderful contributions into the conversations, Justin! Keep having fun with all of those fab reflections. You are on 🔥🔥🔥

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