SYRACUSE, N.Y.–The future of successful credit unions may very well lie in becoming “elastic octopi.”
That’s according to one expert on the nature of work and how it has changed, a reality that is becoming clear to many credit unions during the ongoing pandemic and still-shuttered workplaces.
Dr. Ingrid Erickson of Syracuse University told attendees of the Filene Research Institute event “The Art + Science of Organization” that larger organizations are changing in ways already taking place—or need to if they wish to prosper.
Erickson said larger companies such as credit unions need to be asking themselves how they can become “elastic octopi” and how they can “incorporate irregularity as a standard” when it comes to how employees do their work.
Erickson’s remarks were part of the emerging study of how work from home/work from anywhere arrangements are changing the workplace landscape and what it means to be an “organization.”
Shifting View
“Recognize that you are not only a place or a brand identity, but you are a set of distributed networked practices,” Erickson said. “When we shift the view of an organization, it’s really around the patterns that structure creates, rather than the matrix of the organization chart.”
Erickson further urged planning for “typically atypical days.”
“This idea of the standard practice is very hard to make it the norm any longer,” Erickson said. “It enables all parts of our organization to shapeshift with increasing ease. It may sound chaotic, but I think with an understanding of what makes those ties work, it can be incredibly empowering.”
Erickson, who once as part of her research followed an architect named Melissa around New York City as she created various workplaces for herself, shared the observation from Janet Vertasi of Princeton University below:
In all of that the world is moving toward a seamless work environment where Erickson said “there are some opportunities in the things we have not previously had to look at.”
What is taking place, Erickson added, is the concept of “flexible employee” is evolving away from the concept of flexibility around time to a worker who has the flexibility to “accommodate all the weirdness thrown at them.”