Satya Nadella: Companies Shouldn’t Be Dogmatic About In-Office vs Remote

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken again about the ongoing workplace transformation, saying companies should not be dogmatic.

In an interview with Harvard Business Review, Nadella said there are two factors at work in the 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.

Nadella also talked about how 70% of people want flexibility, while 70% also want a human connection. Similarly, 50% of people want to be able to continue working from home, saying they can better focus while doing so, while 50% want to work in the office because they can better focus there.

As a result, Nadella emphasizes the importance of companies being flexible and letting the transformation continue to shake out.

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.

These norms have to settle so that then we can have real causal relations that settle. And then we can understand what are even the broad contours of productivity flexibility.

The full interview in the Harvard Business Review is well worth a read, and has insights from one of the most important business leaders in the world.