This story features in Unearthed: The power of connection.
Covid-19 has forced us to innovate in the way we work and especially how we work from home. But if we get it right, this necessity, as the old saying goes, could be the mother of a new age of invention. We are in the midst of a ‘megatrend’, says Shaun Maloney, CEO of Seequent, and the secret to mastering it will lie in preserving company culture while creating new shared, digital spaces.
Industrialisation. Globalisation. And now, digitalisation.
Social shifts become a “megatrend” when they create permanent change societally, economically, and technically – and not always for the better.
The big evolutionary changes society has made over the last 200 years have either been caused by or cemented in place through megatrends – and we’re in the midst of one now.
Going digital has passed, we’ve be thrown into a completely digital era.
Humans work best as a collective, collaborative, and cohesive group. We solve problems and we innovate. The result is we evolve our thinking and actions.
Connection at a distance
We’re now able and in many places required to carry out our “day jobs” from a personal space or our home, rather than a company office location.
If we considered this to be solely a technical challenge to overcome, then the megatrend has done its job. It offers lots of benefits under the right conditions, from increased productivity to major cost savings.
Yet, we are all quickly discovering the truth that humans are social creatures, evolved to communicate, collaborate, and innovate through person-to-person contact.
Digital now must become more human. “Humans work best as a collective, collaborative, and cohesive group. We solve problems and we innovate. The result is we evolve our thinking and actions.”
Creating shared digital spaces
Our cities have town squares, schools, and town halls. Our communities have meeting places and park benches. We even have dedicated social spaces in our homes: dining rooms, sitting areas, patios.
Humans have evolved through interaction within our communities. Our best ideas come from discussions and debates with one another.
A company culture is not dissimilar. If people feel isolated or disconnected digitally, it’s because they might not be able to access part of the collective thinking and decision-making they’d have in an office.
We are already seeing the consequences play out in our communities and workplaces where remote working has been in place for months. Seequent understands that remote working for our own team and our user community is here to stay.
Next gen socialisation
So, how can we address those social needs outside of the functional ones? How can companies create ways for teams to collaborate more – at a distance? Our latest products include ways to comment, share files, iterate, and plan from one single Cloud-based location.
New releases focus on connecting with open APIs and different products so that teams can learn from one another, and expertise can spread. We even hosted our annual conference, Lyceum, virtually so that people from across industries and around the world could learn from one another.
We will continue to use our technology to create, build, and support a culture of collaborative problem solving that meets our social human needs – and empowers us all to contribute to addressing the biggest challenges around earth, water, and energy.
Chief Executive Officer
Shaun Maloney