How New Work opens up silos

Physical presence at meetings used to be completely normal. Today, being connected via video is completely normal. This is just one small example of the changes in the world of work, which is facing far more challenges than face-to-face contact: An ageing society, a lack of young talent, the struggle for urgently needed skilled workers and the strong mix of different cultures due to globalization. All of these aspects are putting companies under enormous pressure and are huge challenges for workplace culture. Is there a simple solution? Not at all! But there are exciting approaches to dealing with these challenges and developing solutions, for example with New Work.

"New Work has to do with movement, flexibility and networking"

But New Work means more than office slides and working from home. As head of the Competence Centre for Organizational and Cultural Development at Mobiliar, Claudia Giorgetti describes it like this: "New Work has to do with movement, flexibility and networking. Breaking down silos for more transparency and better communication. A central element for the physical working environment. Because a new, modern working environment was also the first big step towards New Work for us at Mobiliar."

New Work is the goal, agility is the boat

Flexibility also means changing old management structures. In previously hierarchical companies, teams and employees are now organizing themselves; the keyword here is agility. However, an agile setting needs a cultural foundation in which the company values are lived and breathed, employees trust their managers and colleagues and there is a high quality of leadership. This can create a trust-based workplace culture - and thus the basis for an agile mindset. So if New Work is the goal, then agility is the sailboat, trust is the sails and a culture of error and learning is the wind.

Maximizing employee potential

New Work has been identified as a driver of change, all well and good. But what can companies do to survive the transition to New Work? They need to invest in their employees and managers! They invest in managers so that values are exemplified, credibility increases and employees are treated with respect. And you invest in your employees so that everyone's (as yet) untapped potential is maximized. If employees work in a trust-based workplace culture, their innovative strength and value creation will also increase. This is because employees feel that they are taken seriously and valued in such an environment, which is why they contribute improvements and suggestions. Secondly, they increase value creation because they optimize processes or manufacture or sell services and products with more dedication.

Step by step to New Work - because no stone is left unturned anyway

At Mobiliar, too, the focus was on developing the potential of employees: "The complexity of today's world requires much more teamwork and networked thinking: the right combination of different skills and experience is used to work together on topics; this automatically promotes the movement and attitude of each individual and their potential," reports Giorgetti from her experience. However, New Work does not work without concepts and test phases. Structures are only changed step by step in order to observe newly emerging dynamics first. At Mobiliar, for example, individual offices were systematically abolished - and the changes have been positive: "Open, transparent and network-oriented multi-space landscapes ensure that workspaces can be used in a variety of ways, offering employees a motivating, creative and innovative working environment. They also actively promote cross-divisional and cross-team collaboration," says Giorgetti. "The way people work together in many places has become outdated. Changing customer needs, the advance of digitalization, a shortage of skilled workers and the younger generation's new understanding of careers mean that hardly a stone is left unturned. We need to develop together in order to move forward together."

It remains to be seen how the world of work will change in the future. What is clear is that developing the potential of all employees is key. And who knows, perhaps this will require more physical presence at meetings again.