Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella Says 'New Norms' Needed as 'Real Structural Changes' Rock Workplaces

For the first interview of its new series on "The New World of Work," Harvard Business Review asked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella what team collaboration will look like in workplaces of the future. And Nadella begins by arguing that this tail-end of the pandemic brings "real structural changes" — and two megatrends for the future workplace: One is the trend around hybrid work, which is a result of the changed expectations of everyone around the flexibility that they want to exercise in when, where, and how they work. And then the second mega trend is what Ryan Roslansky, who is the CEO of LinkedIn, termed, which I like, which is the great reshuffle. Not only are people talking about when, where, and how they work, but also why they work. They really want to recontract, in some sense, the real meaning of work and sort of asking themselves the question of which company do they want to work for and what job function or profession they want to pursue... I think we should sort of perhaps just get grounded on what are we seeing in the expectations. For example, when we see all of the data, the reality is close to 70% of the people say they want flexibility. At the same time, 70% also want that human connection so that they can collaborate. So therein lies that hybrid paradox. Interestingly enough, if you look at the other sort of confounding piece of data: 50-odd percent of the people say they want to come into work so that they can have focus time. Fifty-odd percent also want to stay at home so that they can have focus time. So the real thing I would say is right now, it's probably best not to be overly dogmatic. Because I don't think we have settled on the new norms... [W]e are taking what I would call a much more organic approach right now. What I would say is what we want to practice and what we want to evangelize is empowering every manager and every individual to start coming up with norms that work for that team, given the context of what that team is trying to get done. In some sense, we are really saying, let's just use an organic process to build up through empowerment new norms that work for the company to be productive. "Nobody quits companies," Nadella says at one point. "They quit managers." And towards the end, when he's asked what's the greatest source of innovation, he answers: empathy. To me, what I have sort of come to realize, what is the most innate in all of us is that ability to be able to put ourselves in other people's shoes and see the world the way they see it. That's empathy. That's at the heart of design thinking. When we say innovation is all about meeting unmet, unarticulated, needs of the marketplace, it's ultimately the unmet and articulated needs of people, and organizations that are made up of people. And you need to have deep empathy. So I would say the source of all innovation is what is the most humane quality that we all have, which is empathy.

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