Trends, tips, and best practices

At the World’s Watercooler: Time to Design the New World of Work

February was the month in which conversation at the world’s watercooler moved decisively forward, embracing the challenge of designing a post-pandemic working world.

After several months in which audiences mostly focused on local concerns, we again saw ahandful of highly influential posts resonating across different regions. Content focusing on innovative leaders, new technologies and new approaches to management has been capturing the attention of audiences wherever they are.

This forward momentum is reflected in the fact that the most shared posts in Europe, Latin America and Sub Saharan Africa were shared more often than the equivalent top tens for the past few months. Much of this content had a distinctly positive tone. Audiences embraced news of ‘work from anywhere’ policies, sustainability initiatives and the advance of influential women in Africa. Spotify’s decision to give employees the choice of where they work featured in two of our top tens, as did news that Coca-Cola is trialling sustainable bottles made from paper and advice from Harvard Business Review on the value of taking walks during your working day.

The most shared content of all reflected an enduring truth about influential content on LinkedIn: posts are passed on most readily whey they focus on innovative businesses and their leaders.

Microsoft’s announcement of its new Viva workplace connectivity platform resonated across regions by offering a solution that feels relevant to an era of remote and distributed working. However, even this content wasn’t shared as widely as the announcement by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos that he would be stepping aside from his role as CEO and taking on the title of Executive Chair. His inspiring sign-off could be a call to action for designing a new world of work: "Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It remains Day1."

The Watercooler for Europe:

  1. Pourquoi la visioconférence met-elle notre cerveau K.-O. (et comment riposter)?
    From franceinfo
  2. Spotify will let employees work from anywhere even after Covid-19 pandemic
    From Business Standard
  3. Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
    From Amazon
  4. Seth Godin: «Gli influencer sono il passato, caduti nella trappola dei social»
    From Il Sole 24 Ore
  5. Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Walk
    From Harvard Business Review6
  6. Spotify says it's letting employees work from anywhere, while still paying San Francisco and New York salaries
    From BusinessInsider
  7. Microsoft Viva: Empowering every employee for the new digital age
    From Microsoft
  8. Captain Sir Tom Moore: 'National inspiration' dies with Covid-19
    From The BBC
  9. Beyond Burned Out
    From Harvard Business Review
  10. How to Be Funny at Work
    From Harvard Business Review

Lessons from Europe’s Watercooler:

Europe is embracing a new professional reality –and wrestling with some of the emerging challengesand management decisions it will involve. At the same time though, it still has one eye back on the pandemic and the losses resulting from it. The BBC’s post announcing the death from COVID-19 of 100-year-old Captain Sir Tom Moore, who became famous in the UK for raising money for the National Health Service, stood out for its reminder of the human cost of the last 12 months –and the courage of those on the frontline.

Harvard Business Review contributed three of the ten most shared posts in the region bydoubling down on what readers are most interested in: how to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic to working practices. It tapped into the benefits of regular exercise for productivity and employee wellbeing, argued that the dangers of burnout asa result of the pandemic reflect deep-rooted problems in many corporate cultures, and explored the benefits of bringing humour into the workplace.

The same theme of adapting to a new world of work powered the influence of the region’s most shared post ofall: franceinfo’s in-depth look at the phenomenon of Zoom fatigue and how to design a remote working routine that can help overcome it.

The story that generated the most shares (though across two separate posts) was Spotify’s announcement of its ‘work from anywhere’ policy. It’s an approach that commentators described as far more than just a response to the pandemic. Spotify’s move is part of a trend towards proactively designing how businesses can function in a more productive and inclusive way –and that’s a theme that generates consistent enthusiasm on LinkedIn.

The Watercooler for Latin America

  1. Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
    From Amazon
  2. Google oferece 2 mil vagas em curso de TI para jovens que fizeram escola pública
    From CNN Brasil
  3. Idosa de 101 anos entrega currículo em empresa do interior de SP e caso viraliza na web: 'Para ajudar um pouco'
    From G1
  4. Spotify will let employees work from anywhere even after Covid-19 pandemic
    From Business Standard
  5. As 50 startups que mudam o Brasil
    From Exame
  6. Microsoft Viva: empoderar a cada empleado para la nueva era digital
    From Microsoft
  7. Com home office definitivo, Heineken já prepara seu "escritório do futuro"
    From Exame
  8. Coca-Cola will start selling drinks in paper bottles this summer
    From Slash Gear
  9. Luiza Trajano cria movimento para vacinar todos os brasileiros até setembro
    From Economia
  10. Michael Sandel: "El primer problema de la meritocracia es que las oportunidades en realidadno son iguales para todos"
    From The BBC

Lessons from Latin America’s Watercooler:

As in Europe, the focus of the most shared content in Latin America is on mapping out the way work will... work. Joining news of Spotify’s ‘work from anywhere’ approach is an innovative new model from Heineken, which re-imagines its headquarters as a space primarily for meetings, where even top leaders no longer have offices of their own. As a result, the company’s offices in São Paulo will be reduced from three floors to just one.

Philosopher Michael Sandel focuses in on another aspect of redesigning business culture –the need to challenge complacency about how meritocratic organisations truly are. His interview with the BBC spells out the biases and background advantages that make meritocracy a myth, and aligns with a common theme of much of the most shared content in this region: the need for greater diversity and equality.

In recent months, the diversity conversation in Brasil has often centred on the retail chain Magalu, which launched a leadership programme exclusively for black candidates early this year. Luiza Trajano, the driving force behind Magalu’s success, is among the most shared posts for a different reason this month. She’s leading a movement that aims to vaccinate all Brazilians against COVID-10 by September, accelerating the move towards a post-pandemic recovery.

Brasil’s status as a thriving tech hub is reflected in the stories of 50 start-ups changing the country, as is the growing focus of entrepreneurs on diversity and sustainability. Two particularly popular posts look at the question of career development from very different ends of the age spectrum. There’s news that Google is offering online IT courses for public-school pupils, balanced by the story of a 101-year-old putting herself forward for a position at a São Paulo business so that she can contribute more to her family’s grocery bills.

The Watercooler for The Middle East and North Africa:

  1. Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
    From Amazon
  2. Saudi Arabia says foreign companies must have regional HQs in Kingdom to access government contractsFrom Arab News
  3. Petrofac secures Petroleum Development Oman contracts
    FromPetrofac
  4. Cisco Appointed to Manage and Maintain Expo 2020 Dubai’s IT Network
    From Cisco
  5. Qatar Petroleum signs deal to develop world’s largest LNG project
    From The Peninsula
  6. Microsoft Viva: Empowering every employee for the new digital age
    From Microsoft
  7. United Arab Emirates becomes the first Arab country to reach Mars
    From CNBC
  8. The UAE'sHope Probe has successfully entered orbit around Mars
    From CNN
  9. SABIC named world’s 2nd most valuable brand in the chemicals industry
    From Arab News
  10. Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin, plans to accept it as payment
    From CNBC

Lessons from The Middle East and North Africa’s Watercooler:

No single story dominated the conversation in The Middle East and North Africa in February to quite the degree that the ending of the blockade of Qatar had the month before. However, the arrival of the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe in orbit around Mars came close. Shares for the two posts celebrating the success of the mission exceeded those for any other story. The Hope mission is one of several from different countries on its way to Mars and there was a strong theme of international collaboration around the coverage, as well as national pride.

For the most part, the rest of the region’s most influential posts focused on corporate news –often coming directly from the corporations themselves. Besides the announcements from Amazon and Microsoft, audiences responded to a new development contract for Petrofac in Oman, Cisco’s appointment to oversee IT for Expo 2020 Dubai, SABIC overtaking Dow to become the world’s second most valuable chemicals brand and the implications of Tesla announcing that it would accept payments in Bitcoin.

The Watercooler for Sub-Saharan Africa:

  1. History is made: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala chosen as Director-General
    From World Trade Organisation
  2. Six reasons why Africa's new free trade area is a global game changer
    From World Economic Forum
  3. Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
    From Amazon
  4. Kenya Is Becoming a Global Hub of FinTech Innovation
    From Harvard Business Review
  5. A Black woman will be the world's top trade official for the first time
    From CNN Business
  6. The South African origins of Andy Jassy’s profitable Amazon division
    From Quartz Africa
  7. Microsoft Viva: Empowering every employee for the new digital age
    From Microsoft
  8. Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Walk
    From Harvard Business Review
  9. Coca-Cola will start selling drinks in paper bottles this summer
    From Slash Gear
  10. The case of SA's first black female bank CEO and my male privilege
    From fin24

Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa’s Watercooler:

Influential posts in Sub-Saharan Africa often focus on stories of local entrepreneurs and innovators making a difference, or of Africans rising to leadership positions at global companies and institutions. February gave the region’s appetite for optimism more to feed on than usual. As a result, the ten most shared posts strike a particularly positive, forward-looking tone.

The most shared story of all is the appointment ofDr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria as Director General of the World Trade Organisation. She is both the first woman and the first African to fill the role, representing a stride forward for gender equality as well as international recognition for Africa’s economic potential.

Such recognition came from other sources as well. The World Economic Forum listed six reasons why the recently announced free trade area for Africa, the largest in the world by number of countries participating, is a game-changer that can help re-establish international co-operation more widely. Despite implementation challenges ahead, the Forum predicted that the agreement can have a major impact on alleviating poverty, promoting womens’ rights and cushioning the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, The Harvard Business Reviewfocused in on the potential of Kenya as an innovation centre for FinTech, praising the country’s long-term record for mobilising inexpensive and accessible technologies. There were reflections on the region’s past role in innovation as well, with a reminder that the cloud technology powering Amazon Web Services (the division previously headed by new CEO Andy Jassy) was first developed in Cape Town.

The one exception to the good cheer came in a challenging post from fin24 columnist Ron Derby on the forcing out of African Bank CEO Basani Maluleke. Derby argued forcefully that this shows the progress that still needs to be made on gender equality in the boardroom.