WFH vs. Return to the Office: Finding Value

I found Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s recent article on strengthening culture and teams both compelling and thought provoking. Unfortunately, most of the press and commentary around the article centred on Amazon’s edict to return to five days in the office.  It missed Jassy’s point about wanting to (re)focus the organisation more on culture and teams.

In this post we’re going to look at what the Jassy’s article says and push further into an area the WFH vs. Office discussion has largely overlooked. The importance of what we call ‘Value Work’.

Andy Jassy’s Article

As a customer, I can’t disagree with Jassy’s point that Amazon is customer-obsessed and always looking to invent (how easy is the return process?). And I’ll take it on faith that Jassy is keen to reduce bureaucracy and increase the speed of decision making, (but then who isn’t?). Amazon’s shift, according to the article, is predicated on four interconnected constructs:

• Continue to hire smart people with good judgement, who act like owners, and
• Have less managers and process getting in the way of decisions, and
• Get teams performing, interacting and collaborating effectively, and
• Return to ‘being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID’.

It’s that last point that set the hares running in the ongoing debate about working from home versus working from the office. However, these WFH vs. Office discussions often miss the core issue. To my mind it’s not about where your employees work from, it is whether your employees are doing Value Work.

While organisations aren’t in business to employ people per se, they need great people to design, create, manufacture, distribute, promote, and deliver goods and services. They also need people to plan and manage finances, and even people to look after other people.

This paradox highlights a fundamental truth: while employment is not the end goal, ingenious people doing value work are essential to achieving long term business objectives.

What is Value Work?

Value Work is work that makes things better. It is work that increases quality, reduces costs, increases sales or market share, and the like. Value work differs from tasks. Value work involves tasks, but not all tasks or processes create value (e.g., Jassy’s point about ‘the meeting before the meeting’). Now, no one spends 100% of their time doing value work because, regardless of our roles, there are tasks that just must be done (which reminds me, I must do my expenses…).

Value work is outcome oriented and underpinned by teamwork and disciplined habits.

As an aside, jobs that are 100% task-oriented will be replaced by technology as soon as the requisite tech becomes economically viable. But let’s leave that for another article.

The Key Elements of Value Work

• Role Clarity: Roles need to be defined by their purpose and the challenges, issues or opportunities to be met, and clearly specify the decision rights and level of freedom the individual has to deliver the outcome. The right person will figure out the appropriate tasks to get the job done.
• The Right People: People who take agency for their work, who constantly look for new or better ways to deliver value for the customer are an essential part of the equation. People with agency put the needs of customers and their team ahead of their own. And people with agency have judgement. They will do the work where it needs to be done.
• Teamwork: All work happens in teams and leveraging teams is the fastest and most effective way to translate culture and behavioural expectations through an organisation. Effective teamwork involves trust, conflict resolution, commitment, accountability, and a focus on results.
• Deep Work: As Cal Newport describes it, deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Deep work is crucial for creating value as it allows employees to focus without distractions, leading to higher quality and more innovative outputs. It enhances productivity by enabling individuals to tackle complex problems and generate creative solutions.
• Discipline and Consistency: Creating value doesn’t happen by magic and quite often takes time. Techniques like the Ivy Lee Method, the Pomodoro Technique and others help individuals manage their time for value creation more effectively. Discipline and consistency are crucial for maintaining productivity and achieving long-term goals.

So What?

My point of view is that before issuing edicts and/or policies on Office vs. WFH vs. Hybrid organisations should first deal with the following questions.

• How many of our employees have roles grounded in value work?
• How many of our employees display agency and urgency in delivering value?
• To what extent is true teamwork a hallmark of our culture?
• What should be the determining factor in where to do value work?

WFH vs. Office vs. Hybrid vs. Flexibility? Let the work be the deciding factor.

Whether working from home or the office, the focus should be on creating value and achieving meaningful outcomes, not where someone is sitting on a particular day. Ultimately, both the team and the individual are best placed to decide when and how to engage in Value Work. This decision should be based on the nature of the challenge and the environment that best supports teamwork, and deep work.

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Justin Miles

Manager Partner, Melbourne at Generator Talent

Justin is the Managing Partner of our Melbourne office, an outcome focused leader with a track record of driving business performance through proven talent and organisation development practices. Justin’s methods and skills have been shaped by working with performance oriented leaders in great companies including PepsiCo, The Campbell Soup Company, Diageo, Rip Curl, Fonterra and Wesfarmers, in Australia, the USA and Latin America.