The subject of this first interview is Maggie Hu, a senior work style consultant based in Shanghai, China. We asked her how she became a V+C consultant, work style trends in China, and how ABW is being received in Asian culture.

Maggie： I had a career spanning over 30 years before becoming an ABW consultant. I studied engineering at university and started my career as an engineer, then worked in sales and marketing before moving into back office work due to family circumstances. I have worked in HR for over 25 years, in a variety of roles including recruitment and C&B (compensation and benefits administration). I also worked independently as a senior level recruiter.

Maggie： I first encountered ABW when I was working at LEGO. At the time, there was an ABW promotion project in the LEGO China office, and I joined the company as a project leader because of my experience in the human resources field.

Through that experience, I became interested in ABW, and after the project was successfully completed and I left LEGO in 2020, I looked for a job that would allow me to continue working with ABW. So I approached V+C and decided to work as an independent consultant in China.

Besides my consulting work, I also work as a coaching expert. As I am a certified professional coach, I utilize my coaching skills in my consulting work. In particular, it helps me to determine the direction of ABW by asking appropriate questions and conducting appropriate interviews when communicating with senior leaders.

Maggie：: I felt that ABW was a Western way of thinking in the sense that it gives employees a high degree of freedom in their work. ABW is an autonomous way of working in which employees choose where and when they work based on their own activities and those of their organization. On the other hand, in countries like Japan, China, and Korea, regular employees are expected to follow instructions from their superiors and senior leaders and carry out the work that is given to them.

So when workers are given a lot of freedom and choice, like in ABW, they may feel confused if they have not been autonomous in their thinking. They suddenly have to make more decisions on their own and they don't know what to do. In the past, they would go back to their desk, put their bag down, get a cup of coffee, and start working, but when they start ABW, it's natural for them to get stuck on which desk to sit at and which space to use.

Interviewer： I think the keyword "freedom" is important for companies in Asian cultures. At school, we are taught to follow the rules, and it's the same in companies. However, by changing the way we work with the introduction of ABW, we realize that "we have choices." At the same time, having choices means that we need to make conscious choices ourselves. When that happens, most people don't know what freedom is within a company. People who have always been strict about following the rules may have a higher hurdle in understanding the concept of ABW.

Maggie： China has cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou that are on par with the world's top cities, but it also has cities in the provinces and rural areas, so I think trends in China vary and are diverse depending on the region.

I believe the pandemic will be a driving force behind the spread of hybrid work in China. Before the pandemic, few companies, except for multinationals, were considering working from home, but now, after experiencing working from home, workers have come to recognize its benefits. Considering their intentions and organizational productivity, leaders and companies will be more flexible about working from home. However, education is needed for hybrid work to improve productivity and well-being.

However, I think there will be a large variation in the prevalence of hybrid work among companies and organizations. In the multinational company where I work, workers have become accustomed to working from home and it has become the norm. However, state-owned enterprises and other private companies are still in the growth stage and are focused on correcting their course after the pandemic and surviving their business, so it is not the time to talk about working from home or hybrid work. Chinese companies are diverse, and it is necessary to look at them from a perspective that suits the stage of the company, such as growth, maturity, or decline.

Maggie： After a long period of working from home, many workers want to return to the office, and plans to return to the office have been positively received. However, it seems that some people feel that working from home also has Advantage, such as the ability to balance work and life, and some people think that it would be better to have some flexibility. But too much freedom is not good either. In the end, it depends on the company's policy. Management also wants to avoid a situation where it is difficult to return to the office, as in the United States and Europe.

Interviewer： That's an interesting story. In Japan, workers need a clear purpose or reason to return to the office, which is a source of concern for companies.

Maggie： I understand that. As I said, we need to assess what stage of growth each company is at.

Compared to Shanghai, where I live, I feel like Japan enjoys more freedom. China is on a different stage than Japan, and there was no freedom to begin with, so there is nothing to lose. In Japan, when you are required to come to the office, you may feel like something that should be yours is being taken away, such as working from home, but in China, it is the norm in the first place, so you don't feel uncomfortable or have any trouble.

Maggie： The number of ABW projects in China is still limited, but from what I've seen there, we haven't had many consultations about plans to return to the office. Instead, we've heard more about concerns about the hybrid work model among leadership.

As I mentioned earlier, when you give freedom to your team members, they don't know how to use it at first. However, people are smart, and after a while they realize the Advantage, and some employees try to abuse the company rules. They think that if they can work from home, they don't have to go to the office, and they can escape from the supervision of their boss. I'm not saying that all employees are like this, but it's a tendency that applies to some employees.

Also, at the leadership level, there is no culture of trusting subordinates because Chinese organizational culture favors a top-down approach, and they do not believe in self-discipline. As a result, when working from home, people work longer hours without being able to keep an eye on them, and even if productivity drops, they do not know how to properly manage or deal with the problem. I have seen these problems at both workers front-line worker and management levels in many companies.

Interviewer： There are always such concerns when introducing a new way of working. When introducing a highly flexible way of working, not just ABW, there is a risk that some people may misuse the freedom. In one ABW project in Japan, some people were too focused on their own way of working and did not pay attention to the way of working as an organization or team. In such cases, we conduct training and workshops to consider the way of working as a team, and work to adjust the balance between individual freedom and team cooperation to ensure the functioning of the team.

Maggie：Yes, it's the same in China. When we embrace flexible working styles, we need to raise awareness about individual self-management and teamwork.

Maggie：One of the projects I worked on was with a German manufacturer. Although the company is relatively small in scale, they have clear goals and aspirations as a leader in the industry, and their attitude towards implementing them has allowed the project to proceed smoothly workers to enjoy hybrid work.

This company had multiple lines across two businesses, each with its own established functions, and introduced ABW to improve productivity and employee satisfaction. The challenge at the time was that while ABW was being introduced company-wide, communication between departments was limited and siloed. Some in each department welcomed the change in work style, while others strongly resisted it. My job was to create horizontal connections between them and stimulate the organization to see the change in a positive way through effective collaboration and coordination.

In such cases, it is important to think of ABW not as something that will bring about change, but as an "enabler" or "helper" that helps to achieve specific changes or goals. For example, if they want to learn management techniques in a hybrid work environment or build a culture of trust within their team, we can provide appropriate opportunities for change to achieve that. However, if people resist change for reasons such as "we don't need trust" or "we don't have the capacity for it right now," there is only so much that ABW can do.

Through my coaching skills, I was conscious of helping my clients first realize the need for change within themselves. As a result, as I mentioned earlier, this organization was able to clarify their goals, awareness of challenges, and the attitude to overcome them, and successfully introduce ABW.

Maggie：As pointed out, if people do not have an accurate understanding of ABW and are not provided with education or information, resistance to change can occur. It is not surprising that people have doubts about the introduction of ABW. It is not fair for people to not be informed at all in the first place.

There are many variations and approaches to ABW, and their meanings and effects differ between organizations and individuals. This can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. We need to provide clear information about ABW and explain its specific content and individual Advantage to workers to encourage a full understanding. In another project, we tried to spread awareness by calling ABW smart work, but in the end, it remained unclear what it meant and what it meant for individual workers, and there was no change in the attitude to accept new ways of working or the willingness to change.

In some cases, it may be important to provide education and training tailored to each individual. In building the foundation for introducing ABW, it is essential to deepen workers' understanding of ABW, reduce their resistance, and prepare them together to accept the change.

Maggie： The project mentioned earlier was carried out in a top-down manner. In my experience, a top-down approach is more likely to be successful in unifying work styles across the entire organization. However, in the end, the key is whether the purpose and intent of introducing ABW are clear. If it is simply considered a space, which is often misunderstood, or simply a new way of working in recent years, the project will remain unclear until the end.

Interviewer： In Japan, the office and working style are still often discussed as separate areas, and one of the major challenges is that it is difficult to get the HR department involved in workplace-centered projects. Also, in many Japanese organizations, even top-down companies have a lot of opposition from rank-and-file employees. It is difficult to involve all levels in a project, including management. Maggie's coaching skills help you get all levels and departments involved and gain their trust while moving the project forward.

Maggie： That's a good question. As I mentioned earlier, it's important to be conscious of balancing the ideal organization with the expectations and demands of each workers. I've also gained a deeper understanding of this through my own experience and through practice in actual projects.

One is to discuss and decide within the team when and how to hold regular meetings. You can hold them face-to-face to maintain team connections. If online participation is possible, it is a good idea to organize your environment at home or in work remotely area, including checking progress that needs to be confirmed in advance before the meeting.

Another thing is to consciously plan the remaining time you work as an individual other than meetings and develop new habits. In the past, you could go to the office and complete the tasks you needed to do without having to think about how you worked as an individual. However, in a work style that is not bound by time or place, you need to organize your time and energy in a logical or individual way.

Regarding this point, I always try to ask various questions in coaching situations. How do you work when you are most productive? Conversely, when do you lose energy and can't concentrate on your work? When I ask these questions, workers often respond with, "Why are you asking me this?" or "I've never thought about it before," but these are very important questions for having an effective day. By knowing the work style and how you use your energy that are easy for you to plan, you can incorporate not only work but also how you spend your time at home and in your private life into your daily plan, allowing you to use your time better.

The toolkit V+C provides includes tools for this way of working.

Maggie：When  we at V+C support work style transformation, whether we call it ABW or smart work, the first thing that is most important is collaboration with senior leaders. In ABW projects, collaboration with staff from multiple departments, such as HR and IT, in addition to facility staff, is also important, and it is essential that senior leaders recognize ABW as not just a workplace issue but also a work style issue, and that they are the driving force throughout the entire organization.

I have heard that data and success stories are important in Japan, but you need to be careful about this. For example, even if you find a beautiful piece of clothing on the street, it doesn't necessarily suit you. Similarly, each organization and workers has their own unique way of working and style. It is best to understand that our ABW projects are always customized based on the needs of the customer. We plan projects after considering whether ABW is the right solution based on the way your organization thinks and leads, not the way other companies work.

Finally, whether ABW is the right solution depends on the culture and readiness of each company. We want to support you when your organization has clear goals and desires and is ready to make positive changes.