Evolving the Future of Work agenda

The last three years have been referenced in many different ways. ‘Unprecedented’ is what we hear more often (and have used ourselves); ‘as a time machine’ to the future, seems the most apt.

This accelerated change has forced us all to redefine our working environment, many times over, but what is clear is that we need to evolve our thinking. We can no longer put so much emphasis on creating the optimal hybrid-working environment.

This evolution phase that leaders now find themselves in is certainly a hot topic of conversation, and one that we gladly discussed at our latest Women in BioPharma Leadership event with Links Life Sciences and our formidable guest speaker, Charlie Galvin, General Manager at Amicus Therapeutics.

Charlie, Chair of the BIA Rare Disease Industry Group and a passionate supporter of diversity and gender equality, skillfully took the conversation beyond hybrid working and empowered us all to think about how we might want to, not only reimagine our business strategies, but also make sure that they are human in approach.

Every organization will face its own challenges and opportunities, but what’s important is that we design for diversity and flexibility, not just efficiency.

Our solutions need to be “linked back not only to the business strategy, but to our people strategies too. We need to be asking the right questions and humanizing our plans. Where do we want to be? What can we do differently to get there? How can we set our people up for success?”

Over the course of the evening, delegates passionately discussed the topic and brainstormed solutions, whilst Charlie eloquently shared her 3 top tips for evolving and humanizing the future of work agenda:

Listen to your people, all of your people

Diversity of thought will get the right result. Listen to all of your people’s voices and don’t try to solve this solely at the EC level – encourage true diversity in your decision making by truly hearing what your people need. This will enable you to attract and maintain talent who are aligned and highly motivated by your ambitions.

Learn quickly

Operating within such a dynamic environment means that we cannot possibly control the fast-paced changes we find ourselves faced with. What we need to do is empower our teams to experiment and learn quickly. We won’t come up with the perfect solution first time, but if we create plans and teams that have the capabilities, resilience and flexibility to evolve at pace, we won’t just survive; we’ll thrive.

Be bold, be brave

It can be quite easy to fall into the trap of over-engineering solutions in response to change. Instead, let’s use the disruption to ask bigger, bolder questions and create more ambitious goals. What’s right, not only for your organization, but for your people too? And what do you need to get there?

The silver lining, if ever there was one, is that this disruption has provided an opportunity to redesign and reimagine our business strategies, with our people firmly at the heart.

The Women in Biopharma Leadership network was founded in 2018, with the specific purpose of bringing together the voices of like-minded senior women in the Pharma and BioTech industries.

To find out about our future events or connect with the WBL network, please head to our LinkedIn group.