I define collaboration as high quality cross functional interactions with suppliers, budget
holders and procurement to achieve more than what you would within silo working.
Remote collaboration is nothing new. Pre-pandemic many global organisations excelled in
remote cross-functional collaboration due to the adoption of robust planning across many
time zones, a percentage of face-to-face meetings planned well in advance, regular dialogue
and clear objectives defined for the team meetings scheduled (whether that be remote or
face to face).

Businesses rose to the challenge of remote working during the pandemic, and we saw
remarkable results in business survival rates and consumer offerings. Technology played a
pivotal role, with an upsurge in AI adoption too.

Stanford Research indicated a drop of 10% in remote working productivity after 18 months
of lockdown, whereas hybrid working seemed to deliver similar productivity levels to pre-
pandemic. So, the genie is out of the bottle. Hybrid working is the way forward for many
companies, with employees adopting the mantra “work is something we do, not a place we
go to”.

However, Mckinsey has recently reported that activities such as negotiation, collaboration,
ideas generation and decision making excel if undertaken face to face.

My conclusion is that we need to focus on the quality of collaborative processes as we move
forward with hybrid working, as well as the quantity. It’s all about the structured process of
uniting as one team and driving change using great AI tools and systems.
Be selective on the number of face-to-face meetings, safe in the knowledge that one face to
face is worth ten online meetings.

For more on this debate listen to the podcast I attended which was hosted by Jonathan
O’Brien and Paul Philpott.