Ohashi: Many people are feeling confused by the sudden spread of teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic change in work styles. For example, we often hear people complaining about the difficulties of management, such as "I can no longer see how my subordinates are doing, which was easy to see when we were face-to-face," or "It's become harder to ask for advice from my boss," as the amount of communication within the company has decreased significantly.

In response to this, the word "resilience," which represents flexible strength, has been gaining attention. It is the ability to quickly recover from damage and change oneself to suit the environment. If one has high resilience, they should be able to smoothly adapt to new ways of working and new environments. But how can we increase this resilience?
And what are the differences in thinking between people with high and low resilience?

Yamaguchi: That's right. First of all, I believe that the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have not completely changed our worldview, but rather that "changes that were already occurring have accelerated." What I mean is that even before the COVID-19 shock, there had been a gradual transition from an "industrial society" to an "information society," but this triggered a sudden advance. In other words, this is a change that would have occurred eventually, even without COVID-19.

However, there are people who can adapt to the speed of change and those who cannot. This is reflected in the fact that there are people who can adapt to new ways of working and those who cannot. So what is the difference? I think there are four "differences in thinking" that lie in this. You could say that there are four "points" to adapting to new ways of working.

Ohashi: Is there four points ?

Yamaguchi: Yes, to give a rough outline of the keywords,

The first question is "Are you positive about new environments and technologies?"
The second is "working independently"
The third is "ways of thinking about 'how to do it' or 'methods'"
The fourth is "respect for others."

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Let me start by explaining the first point, "Are you positive about new environments and technologies?" Humans have a tendency to become negative about "new environments and technologies" when they have been in the same environment for a long time. In fact, past empirical research conducted by my research team has revealed a tendency for "creativity to decrease as years of employment increase." Similar trends have been seen in other research in management science.

Ohashi: I think many people would find that surprising.

Yamaguchi: That's true. In the past, I have researched the relationship between agriculture and IT, and found that the longer someone has been working in agriculture, the lower their rate of IT usage. On the other hand, people who worked in other jobs until their 60s and then switched to agriculture were more likely to actively use IT. This shows that people with less experience are more positive about new ways of doing things.

If we apply this to the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, people with long tenure will be stuck to their old habits and will find it difficult to adapt. On the other hand, it is hypothesized that people with short tenure will be able to adapt without being bound by habits. From this, it can be said that it is important for both individuals and organizations to be aware of a certain degree of turnover and to be positive about new environments and technologies.

Ohashi: I see. I am researching the relationship between the nature of offices, working styles, and creativity, and I feel that people who see the sudden advances in teleworking, which had been slow to take hold until now, as an opportunity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are more likely to have an "innovative temperament." However, there are many people in the world who cannot work remotely due to their occupation.

Yamaguchi: Yes, of course there are people like that, and I don't think that productivity will increase if everyone teleworks. In other words, in the new normal, various forms will be "mixed." In that environment, I think what is required of organizations is to look at each individual and flexibly change how they work.

Ohashi: Yes, I think that we will be in an era where individuals can choose the work style that best suits their performance. There was a time when working from home was popular in the United States. However, due to the dilemma of the effectiveness of face-to-face creative activities, there was a backlash, and IT companies in Silicon Valley and other places returned to their offices in the past. Japan has become a distributed remote type due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there may be a backlash in the future. If that happens, what kind of "work style" and "work environment" will individuals choose? Flexible and diverse work styles will be required, such as gathering and cooperating, or distributed and work remotely. Also, will companies continue with the Japanese "partnership type employment" that is based on general employment? Or will they change to the Western-style "job type" that can be established even if it is autonomous and distributed? Or will they explore a "new Japanese style job type employment" that is a good mix of the two? What do you think, Yamaguchi?

Yamaguchi: That's something that management at every company is unsure about. I think that if this situation continues for a year or two, we will probably see a shift to "new job-based employment."

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The two of them continue to talk, looking even further into the future.
Next time, we will talk in more detail about the second of the four points for adapting to new ways of working: "autonomy."
Please take a look at the secrets to smoothly navigating the new normal era!