* By Richard Carnelossi
Black Swans (a term created by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in the book “The Logic of the Black Swan”) are the events that cause cognitive and unexpected transformations, be they trivial or gigantic. These changes have a great global impact on companies and humanity, and as examples I can mention the destruction of a sector in the stock market, a political crisis, what happened on 9/11 in the United States or, to bring it to our current reality , what we are experiencing: a pandemic. The aggravating factor in this context is that the human being and the companies, no matter how prepared they are, have an immense difficulty in dealing with the random and with unexpected events.
Exactly for this reason, Covid-19 created a strong tension and a rupture in the model of the companies. To illustrate this condition, it is enough to go back a little bit in time, to before the pandemic, when the great buzzword was digital transformation and the focus of companies was on technology as the main pillar, also constituting collaboration between employees and productivity. At that time, which now seems so distant, that was the recipe for sustainable growth, but many organizations thought they would have time to make the complete transition from analog to digital.
The fact is that, due to the pandemic, companies had to adapt quickly to the digital transformation, with the imposition of developing 'thinking differently' to survive a health crisis. In other words, it was a virus that accelerated the transformation process.
This is the tipping point that will guide companies after the pandemic. Digital Workplace will become of fundamental importance to guarantee access and productivity wherever the employee is, until you have control over the coronavirus. Anyway, this transition to remote work seems like a path of no return, with or without a pandemic.
However, anyone who thinks remote work is simply making a notebook available and the employee using the internet at home is mistaken. The theme is much more complex than that. It's because?
Today, many companies are satisfied with the availability and productivity of their teams, but have not stopped to think about the answers to fundamental questions involving remote work. I can quote some of them: What is influencing productivity? How to measure this productivity and guarantee information security, since today calls are often heard by everyone at home? How is it going for teams to do the work remotely? How to ensure an adequate process flow?
It is in this context that Digital Workplace enters, with layers of devices, communication, cybersecurity, support, access, flows and collaboration. Many may think that it is a high investment to make at this time, marked by the financial difficulties of many companies. But, you can be sure, it will make all the difference in the post-pandemic, which is already beginning to be designed with announcements to relax the quarantine and resume activities in phases. More than ever, Digital Workplace as a service can be the necessary peace of mind that companies are looking for to resume their business.
On the other hand, there is no point in working on a concept as complete as Digital Workplace if you do not look at a fundamental issue: the people who build your organization. Both leaders and team members need to be aware of their responsibilities, unique characteristics for the job and decision-making skills. It is up to the company to provide all the support so that people become increasingly complete professionals in the post-coronavirus, even with the ability to manage the unknown and be able to find opportunities in the improbable.
I mean by this that the digital transformation and the 'new normal' imposed by Covid-19 will only be used in the best way if companies know how to combine tools such as Digital Workplace with the human factor, which has never been as important for business continuity as and now.
* Richard Carnelossi is Director of Services at SONDA
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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