New doesn't always beat old

I read an article a while ago about how James Dyson thinks letting people work from home is “staggeringly self-defeating”. I remembered it following a recent conversation.

I have a friend who holds a leadership position in his business. He was telling me how his HR manager thinks he’s “old” because, among other things, he believes that relationships are best forged in person, that home working doesn’t deliver and that people should be held to firm targets and objectives. She disagrees – that’s not how things are done in the modern age.

There are many ways in which living and working today is better than it was before – there’s software that automates mundane tasks, machinery that can produce hundreds of items an hour, even robots that can clean our houses. Of course we should take advantage of these opportunities and technologies when it’s appropriate to do so.

But it won’t be in every case.

In many instances, the old established ways of doing things were just that because they worked. Maybe they required more time and effort and maybe it took experience to be good at them but the results spoke for themselves – you got out what you put in.

My friend decided to trust his HR manager and to adopt her “new” approaches in respect to recruitment, incentivisation and structure. A couple of years in and productivity, retention and attendance have all suffered and, while there are arguably other factors at play as well, the reasons behind this can at least in part be traced back to these changes.

New can be great but we shouldn’t dismiss the old ways – they can be great too.

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