Catalyst Ranch Founder and President Eva Niewiadomski weighs in on the Pros and Cons for businesses going 100% remote.
And while those Cons do pose challenging, Eva suggests a creative solution, recalling the challenges she sought to solve when she first started Catalyst Ranch.
There have been tons of articles written on the subject of the pros and cons of getting rid of the office and going 100% remote. Here are some and I am sure you can add more to the list.
PROS
- No commute! Employees can use that extra time and spend it with family, friends, pursue a hobby, workout, read a book or do some gardening
- No commute! Means Lower Carbon Footprint and better for the environment
- No commute! Save on transportation costs
- Cost savings! Eliminates all the costs associated with maintaining an office
- More comfort! No need to don business attire
- Flexibility! You can schedule the day around personal appointments or other commitments
- Quiet concentration! It’s easier to put your head down and do serious, contemplative work
CONS
- Distractions! Kids, housework, roommates, spouses/partners
- No end! Forgetting to stop working and transitioning to personal time
- Connections! It’s difficult to maintain rapport with co-workers
- Isolation! Human connection is a basic need
- Visibility with the boss! It’s more challenging to ensure that your boss is aware of your full contributions which might potentially keep you from getting certain promotions and raises
- Project progress! Getting input from teammates, brainstorming and exchanging ideas is much more difficult, thus potentially impeding the quality or completion of projects
- No fortuitous conversations! Running into a colleague, sharing a hot idea and engaging in some instantaneous brainstorming is no longer a part of your life
- Same environment every day! The office is the home is the office is the home . . . can lead to stale thinking
- Company culture! It’s much more difficult to feel that we’re all working together for a bigger purpose and part of a team
How Do We Keep the Good and Fix the Bad?
So how can we address the cons without losing the pros? There are many great technology-based solutions that are being created and implemented every day. And I expect that those tools will only continue to improve day by day. They tackle team communications, projects, brainstorming, teambuilding, learning. But no amount of technology can totally replace our need for in-person connection and the attendant benefits. On the other hand, can we get those in-person benefits without necessarily providing an office space (with its built-in costs and complexities) for teams to gather and work?
Environment Matters
I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject, as when I left corporate and the corporate office environment more than 18 years ago, it was to create a non-office environment that was better conducive to creative thinking and problem solving. While I was still working at Quaker Oats, I got the buy-in to create an off-the-grid small conference room we called the Creativity Room. It was just for our division and wasn’t part of the main scheduling system. You could just sign-up on the little whiteboard and go in there to work solitarily or with some team members. The idea for the room stemmed from the fact that I found it hard to problem-solve and think creatively with my colleagues while in a typical conference room or with all of us piled around someone’s desk. So I created the antithesis, which effectively ended up becoming the pilot for Catalyst Ranch.
What surprised me was the response of my co-workers to this little room I pulled together in a matter of weeks. People loved it and used it – constantly! And it worked in different ways for different people. One woman came to my office and thanked me for creating this space which she enjoyed so much. It gave her a place to go and think and see things from a different perspective.
And as word spread of our little hidden, off-the-grid room, other divisions approached me, asking me to produce a Creativity Room for them. (Unfortunately, they didn’t have the physical space for such a room so there were no additional Creativity Rooms built). It became part of the tour when we took around university students whom we were interviewing and wooing to join our organization.
So, why am I going down this trail of reminiscence? It’s because through the Creativity Room project, I accidentally validated what I instinctively knew that we as humans needed – a creative space in which to work, engage the senses, make new connections, partake in vibrant conversations, hear diverse perspectives, generate innovative ideas and solutions. Eighteen years of providing 15,000 sq. ft. of creative space to corporate and non-profit groups at Catalyst Ranch generated mountains more of validating data. We may not need our offices any more, but we certainly still need our creative working environments.
That led me to consider how could Catalyst Ranch help organizations in a more steady, concrete way beyond just offering meeting space for a 1-3 day offsite? Particularly those that are 100% remote. Yes, there are a lot of co-working spaces out there, but you’re interacting with people from many other organizations. Normally, that’s great, but when you don’t have your own office, that’s not necessarily a positive aspect. You need time to interact with your colleagues, face-to-face.
Creative Satellite Office Space
That’s why I’ve come up with an exciting new option, utilizing our new 3,000 sq. ft. loft space we’ve named The Samba Room. It’s located a couple doors east of our original location and has the same design principles as all of our spaces. We’ll give you exclusive use of the entire space, all to yourselves, one day a week. Same day of the week, every week. It’ll be your Creative Satellite Office Space.
Your staff will know that on that day of the week, they can choose to come in, work with their team on specific projects that can be more effectively dealt with in-person. They can pick and choose their corner in which to work, shifting throughout the day, dependent on whether they want to hang out in a comfy couchy grouping working with a flipchart or rolling dry erase board, spread out on one of our vintage tables or share information on one of the giant screens. The space is fully stocked with snacks, beverages, office supplies, AV equipment and technology. You head out with fistfuls of great ideas, creative reinvigoration and stronger team bonds, and we handle the clean-up.
It’s all the benefits of the office with the comforts of home, plus a large dollop of creativity. Now that’s my kind of “New Normal!”
Learn more here: Creative Satellite Office Space at Catalyst Ranch
Eva Niewiadomski is the Founder and President of Catalyst Ranch
Contact us at (312) 207-1710.
Catalyst Ranch is a unique meeting and events space located in Chicago’s West Loop since 2002, offering Space to Imagine More and solutions for all your in person, virtual and hybrid gathering needs.
