03 As it was Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. 42 + algorithm version 4 We believe the solution centers around clarity of purpose, which informs clarity of policies. CEOs should be crystal clear about the company’s ambitions and how their employees can play a role in getting them there, and they must be so firm in their convictions that they’re prepared to lose employees for whom the plan doesn’t work. Putting it into practice will require an attitude that bears the hallmarks of a life-centric approach, to ensure it stops short of the directive (even dictatorial) approach we’ve rejected above. To make this work, the role of leadership and managers should evolve to include a degree of event management. Leaders must create reasons for people to want to come into the office, beyond free coffee—they must earn people’s commute. Earning people’s commute demands proper investment in designing intangibles into a hybrid working model. This means starting from a blank sheet of paper and taking no suggestions off the table before fully investigating their value. It’s essentially the zero-based approach—albeit in a very different, non-financial context. Designing intangibles into a hybrid working setup will require imagination to create solutions and plenty of drive to embed them. The idea of planning for spontaneity sounds absurd but it’s doable with creativity—think weekly 30-minute coffee chats unrelated to work, with randomized small groups of people. Time should be strictly ringfenced for celebrating successes and sharing ideas, for building relationships and having inconsequential conversations. People will only be willing to come to the office for the promise of community, relationships, and factors that enrich their careers, and the responsibility to deliver these things lies with leadership.