Future Cities

The Power of Purpose

By: Julie Whelan, SVP, Global Head of Occupier Research

August 9, 2023 3 Minute Read

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The future of the office is a journey, not just a destination.

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I often tell my children, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” This can be difficult-to-understand advice—particularly during a challenging hike in Acadia National Park, where we recently went on vacation.

As I see it, destinations are a point in space and time; they’re transactional. Journeys, on the other hand, are more than a means of getting from here to there—especially for those who take time to invest in them. The unexpected lessons gathered along the way can be more impactful than the destination itself.

In my work, I’m increasingly thinking about the future of the office as a journey. How will our evolving work experience change organizations and, as importantly, the people shaping those organizations?

Today, this question seems more consequential than ever, as most organizations are adopting hybrid work styles. In my view, these flexible working structures are one of the few silver linings the pandemic era left us with.

The thing about flexible structures, however, is that they can easily lose their shape.

There’s a growing understanding among executives that something’s being lost in their organizations. Many say that flexibility is coming at the expense of mentorship, innovation, relationship-building and culture—the stuff of interpersonal connections. As a result, leaders are leaning into return-to-office mandates and reshaping their workplaces—in large part because it’s the most familiar way to recreate and sustain those connections.

But why is being physically present together the solution?

In part, it's because technology has enabled a decentralized work model. However, our ability to effectively connect remotely—I mean truly connect beyond the task at hand—has not kept pace. But this won’t be the reality forever. As innovation in tech continues to accelerate and new digitally native generations of employees join the ranks, the effectiveness of how we connect, regardless of location, will evolve. And the need to be physically together will continue to be brought into question.

While leaders move towards changing the office to support greater attendance “right now,” I’m challenging them to focus on something even more essential: the power of purpose. I’m challenging them to help employees understand why the office is still necessary today and, more importantly, to continue defining the office’s purpose as the ways we work and communicate continue to change.

To achieve this, leaders should look beyond the objective metric of utilization rates—a key driver of many organizations’ return-to-office policies.

Instead, I encourage them to find subjective examples of how in-person work tangibly improves business outcomes and employee experience—including the real damage caused by neglecting time together—and to rationalize this to managers, who can help their teams understand those benefits.

This requires real change management, of course. We’ve measured this approach and found that it successfully improves attendance and employee sentiment around a true hybrid experience.

The retail sector can also be instructive: Although retailers were disrupted by e-commerce, they learned to adapt, with many retailers successfully evolving their physical stores into hubs for experiences and engagement.

Similarly, offices need to adapt into places of experience and engagement that employees seek out for deeper connections with each other and their organizations—while the transactional nature of jobs can be done remotely. The happiest employees have strong connectivity both inside and outside the office.

If we just return to the past with mandates and wishful thinking, the opportunity for our organizations to achieve this balance will collapse.

Strength comes from a shared purpose among employers and employees—developed together, over time. There’s no better way to coalesce as an organization than to not just know where you’re going but, more importantly, to embrace change from what you learn along the way. Let’s invest in this journey. It’ll be worth it.

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