Most work-from-home presentations try to tell the audience what the presenter thinks they should do. In this presentation, we will discuss what companies actually did. What worked? What did not work? What improvements could be made? And, importantly, what will the future bring? Survey results from 150 companies worldwide indicate that working from home is, well, working. Still, there is room for improvement and there are several lessons we can draw from the experience. Some items are technical, several are managerial, and others are simply humorous.
Dr. Steven B. Goldman is an internationally recognized expert and consultant in Business Continuity, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery, and Crisis Communications. He has over 30 years experience in the various aspects of these disciplines, including program management, plan development, training, exercises, and response strategies. His background is unique in that he has been a professional engineer, corporate spokesperson, business continuity planner, situation responder, consultant, and a Fortune 500 Company’s Global Business Continuity Program Manager.
Dr. Goldman has written or improved many corporations’ Crisis Management, Business Resilience, and Crisis Communications plans and procedures; he has trained all levels of response staff, from CEO’s on down. Steve has developed, conducted, and evaluated drills and exercises ranging from two-hour table-tops to massive three-day full-scale exercises involving hundreds of responders, multiple corporations, and all levels of government.
Dr. Goldman has published many articles and conducts several seminars annually on the various aspects of Crisis Management, Business Resilience, and Crisis Communications. His most recent industry accomplishment is the development, coordination, and conduct of the “Crisis Management & Business Continuity” and “Advanced Business Resiliency” Professional Education courses offered by MIT. Dr. Goldman lectures on Risk Communication for the Harvard School of Public Health’s “Management Skills for Emerging Leaders in Environmental Health and Safety.” He also lectures on crisis communications and conducts the class exercise for the Harvard School of Public Health’s “Radiological Emergency Planning: Terrorism, Security, and Communication.” He instructs two Scenario Development Workshops for the Disaster Recovery Journal Annual Conferences. Steve developed and conducted the first set of “Crisis Management Planning” Professional Development Courses for the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS).
Dr. Goldman earned his Doctorate in Education (Ed. D.) from the University of Massachusetts. His doctoral dissertation undertook research on leadership and the status of crisis planning in several Massachusetts school systems. He obtained his Master's Degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Currently he provides expert hands-on consulting services to corporations, universities, non-profits, and government agencies.
Sandra Galletti is the Head of Operations at Tidona Comunicazione in Milan, Italy. She is responsible for Continuing Legal Education Programs for banks and financial institutions operating in Italy. Since 2009 she has been responsible for the “Banking Law Forum” held annually at the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan, attended by Italy’s top banking executives and CEOs.
She is also a consultant for medium/large companies and has recently coordinated several live virtual events in the banking and financial industry as well as in Crisis Management and Business Continuity, including:
MIT’s “Crisis Management & Business Resilience” Professional Course - Online (July 2020)
Other Online Live Courses/Conferences: Contractual Issues during the Covid-19 Crisis (May 2020); Recent changes in Banking and Financial regulations (May 2020); Critical aspects in Bank’s Operations during a pandemic (June 2020); Anti-Money Laundering Legislation and Compliance (July 2020); Do’s and don'ts during a Crisis (July 2020)
Before joining Tidona Comunicazione, Ms. Galletti was a Manager at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles reporting directly to the President of International Distribution.
Prior to Warner Bros., she was a legal consultant for American start-up companies expanding operations in Brazil.
Ms. Galletti holds a JD Degree (Juris Doctor) from Mackenzie University (São Paulo, Brazil) and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles).
She is fluent in English, Italian, and Portuguese.
It is extremely important for companies and organizations responding to and eventually moving beyond the pandemic to understand what worked, what did not work, and what lessons can be learned from the Work-From-Home / Work From Anywhere (WFH/WFA) experience. WFH/WFA is here to stay; employees and employers support the concept as a viable in- and post-pandemic work solution. Business leaders must successfully adapt this concept. This article provides such guidance.
Authors Sandra Galletti and Steve Goldman surveyed over 150 varied companies/organizations worldwide. They received detailed and thoughtful replies. The results in this presentation are based upon their analyses, reporting majority or key trends. For example, the category “What did not work well” had over three hundred individual answers. However, the results analysis kept returning to the same seven issues. After a while, more surveys did not turn up any new trends – they just confirmed the ones already found.
The WFH/WFA experience has been implemented prior to the COVID-19 pandemic of course, but not to such a large degree. This presentation identifies and discusses key elements - successful and unsuccessful - involved in WFH/WFA on many fronts. It provides lessons learned for implementation by forward-thinking organizations.