What the Coronavirus Is Teaching Us About The Way We Work

The following was originally published on I&CO’s Starship Journal on April 2, 2020.

“We encourage everyone to work from home, starting tomorrow.”

That was the afternoon of Tuesday, March 10, 2020, only about three weeks ago. Everyone at I&CO gathered in our conference room. At that point, it felt potentially premature for a company to be asking its employees to work remotely.

That sounds naive now.

That day, we put together a guideline called “Working Remotely During COVID-19” in order to ready ourselves for this New Normal. It proved to be immediately and tangibly helpful. Since then, the guideline has evolved, and we encourage readers to make comments in the document so we can keep evolving it.

We think that this situation is teaching us how we can collaborate better and strengthen our culture, not only during this unusual time we now face but also, in life after COVID-19.

Here are a few of the principles we’ve observed to be useful that could have lasting implications.

1. Be visible

Working remotely, often from home, can increase your productivity. The minute you finish your breakfast, you can start work just by sitting in front of your laptop, and without…