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Future of Work Marathon Series – Day 2  Remote Work – The Future of Work is Now

Future of Work Marathon Series – Day 2  Remote Work – The Future of Work is Now

May 12, 2020 — Scott Edwards

#RemoteWork Our New Normal

After an exciting Day One kick-off, we followed up with a day two that really focused on remote work and how companies can embrace and enable employees to work remotely and effectively not only to navigate our current situation but the future of work.

Our first speaker, Aruna Ravichandran (CMO, Cisco Webex) noted that the future of work has been a hot topic on CxO’s agendas for some time. Companies have been keen to transform due to factors such as a multi-generational workforce, the gig economy, AI, and increasing customer expectations driving companies to adapt their workstyles, workspaces, and workflows. And since the beginning of this year, 5 trends really came to the forefront: 1) working from home with video-enabled in team meetings, 2) Telehealth & remote healthcare collaboration to expand healthcare reach, 3) virtual learning for students at every grade level, 4) virtual events and town halls, and 5) remote agent work in the contact center.

What’s next? Aruna shared a blueprint of how companies must change and pointed out, the future of work is how you can enable employees to work easier and create amazing experiences to collaborate and work anywhere, anytime.

How Leaders can Embrace, Enable, and Empower Teams

Our next speaker, Charlie Johnston (SVP, Cisco HR)  spoke to the human side of our new remote work experience and how to empower your teams to thrive in the workplace of the future.

As an example, he talked about the cultural change that Cisco went through five years ago that enabled teams to be more agile and have a strong sense of purpose. While it required a high degree of trust, it also allowed everyone to have an active role and opened the door for a more diverse workforce. A key to this transformation was implementing the systems to connect and collaborate so team members can play to their strengths.

From this cultural change, we were already somewhat prepared for quickly shifting to remote work, but there were still more lessons to learn. Charlie enumerated what we’ve learned; most importantly paying attention to human connection.

Customer Transformation Stories — Day 3 of the Future of Work Marathon Series

Don’t miss tomorrow’s (May 13) session at 9:00am PDT. We have a fun day hearing from Broadcom, NVIDIA, Under Armour and Jimmy Kimmel Live on how their workplaces had already been transforming and how they’re doing in the new remote work environment.