Does Remote Work Hurt Workplace Culture? That’s The Wrong Question

Originally published at Forbes.com

Forbes recently published an insightful story on “the war over work from home,” hoping to answer the remote work question once and for all. While many employers are claiming that in-person work leads to greater creativity and higher productivity, many employees are fighting to retain the flexibility that they gained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Forbes’ Jena McGregor found, the research is unclear. There is no be-all and end-all answer to the “work from home” question. According to the data, it depends, hence why there is more anecdotal than empirical evidence out there.

Is remote work better or worse than in-person work? That’s the wrong question to ask.

The right one to ask is this: What does a high-performing culture look like? And how close are you?

There is very clear research on culture, cultivated over decades, and I have diligently tracked it as a longtime CEO at numerous companies. It should be noted that virtual companies have existed and prospered for a long time, even before COVID.

Remote work is not as unprecedented as people tend to believe. Global banks, for example, have long employed managers of regions and countries who may see each other in-person only a handful of times a year. These bank managers may interact with their own supervisors or the CEO in-person about a dozen times a year, with the rest happening by phone, email, or something else. Even within a single city, consultants or investment bankers may spend more of their time on the road with clients than with each other or their superiors.

Blue-chip consulting firms are known for employing creative, productive workers who don’t often get much office time. They collaborate as necessary and in whatever form necessary.

The wrong kind of culture with everyone working in the same place is no solution. It is just a messier problem.

Start by establishing culture. What increased virtual work does make more complicated is that remote employees need to be more empowered to make decisions, allocate their time, and work in the right way. They must know, without supervision, when to handle a task or refer it up the chain of command. And this requires delegation on the part of managers who instill an understanding of best practices.

The complication is that delegation and empowerment are force and effectiveness multipliers only if a high-performing culture is already in place. The same degree of delegation, in two different contexts, can lead to lower effectiveness when one culture is either lacking or missing certain elements.

Back in the 1990s, McKinsey & Company published a seminal study on high-performing cultures, finding that the 10 percent of public companies which achieved a superior return to shareholders did so over a long period of time, in all economic conditions, and with both headwinds and tailwinds in their respective markets. These companies—a small minority of publicly traded firms—were defined by six key attributes, and they are still relevant today.

Companies that were high-performing had all six of the cultural dimensions present to a significant degree. Those where one or two were missing entirely didn’t perform better than those that had only two or three present. Look at it this way: When all six cylinders of an engine are working, it runs smoothly. But, if one cylinder is missing, the engine sputters like three or four are lacking.

Before even worrying about in-person or remote work, job one is to establish the six cultural dimensions. This is how the highest-performing companies are defined:

1. They are driven by leaders. Leadership comes with a sense of urgency, a demanding view of the future, and a real knowledge of the business’ ins and outs.

2. They pursue before-the-fact strategies relentlessly, with an eye toward differentiating and improving the customer experience. Think FedEx’s “absolutely, positively overnight” mantra from the 1970s and 1980s.

3. They are good, but not “nice,” places to work. The rewards aren’t necessarily benefits and perks; the reward comes down to being part of a winning organization, accompanied and reinforced by a realistic, productive fear of failure.

4. They have simple organizational structures that are easily scaleable. When the company grows, the structure can be reproduced. It doesn’t change fundamentally.

5. They demand and invest in world-class skills, and not just any skills. The required skillset is related to the company’s strategic imperative—whatever strengthens the culture and helps the bottom line.

6. The people systems are designed so that talented employees and their results are visible to management two to three levels down. Problems are not buried, while stars are recognized—and rewarded.

That’s the job: Alignment. The companies that focus on high performance, and align culture accordingly, will be successful. Solve the right problem—culture—first.

If your workplace culture is flawed, in-person work won’t fix it. Neither will remote work. Even if “work from home” is popular, its popularity does not necessarily equate to performance. Remember: It depends.

But there are no ifs, buts, or maybes about the necessity of a high-performing culture. Answer that question, and you are much more likely to answer many others as well.