Meet Elise Belanger!

 

Transcript

Hello, my name is Elise Belanger, and I’m a member of Cohort 10 in the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute.

As we’re all aware, the future of work will look different than it does today, and those changes were accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic. To learn more about how the pandemic has changed the way we work and the way we view work, I’ve read two papers. The first one titled “the effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers," published in Nature Human Behavior was a study completed using data from over 60,000 Microsoft employees in the United States. The researchers found that although the number of collaborators for individual employees did not change, the number of distinct business groups employees interacted with decreased. This means that employees spend more time within their groups strengthening existing bonds while each group becomes more distant from each other. Generally, individual collaboration networks become more static, churning bonds decreased and added connections decreased meaning that employees are not accessing as much new information about other parts of the organization compared to in person work.

This study also looked into the methods of communication and found that the difference between remote and in person collaboration is in how we collaborate, not how much we collaborate. The number of scheduled meetings decreased and the number of unscheduled calles increased, meaning that synchronous collaboration as a whole decreased. This resulted in a high volume of emails and instant messages. Since methods like emails are less rich than audio or video calls, researchers are concerned about communicating complex information in less rich formats. While the paper had some limitations, the overall recommendation for businesses was not to make any permanent plans without long term data.

The second paper I read was conducted through Poly, which is a global communications company focusing on audio and video tools for collaboration. They conducted a study in Europe and the Middle East about the evolution of the workplace. They stress that in order to recruit and retain young talent, employers need to give greater autonomy to their employees. 69% of respondents said they believe the traditional 9-5 job is dead, although Poly warns not to confuse the new “anytime” working with “all the time” working. They also found that proximity bias is a serious concern for employees with the majority feeling that remote workers will miss out on learning opportunities from leaders, be overlooked for career development, and face general discrimination. Although this report focused on what companies should do to attract and maintain employees, they stress the need for compromise between both groups. This leads to the question: What can I do to prepare myself for this future of work? I’m working on changing my mindset. I like to plan ahead and get frustrated when things don’t go to plan, so I’m working to embrace change. I’m working on accepting uncertainty and thinking on my feet to make sure that I’ll be able to change directions and make decisions quickly. Hopefully, as I get more practice, this will stop being reactive and become a habit.

Bio

I’m a Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics student from Mason, Ohio. In elementary school, I dressed up as Neil Armstrong for a project about influential Ohioans because I loved space. As a kid, I admired his accomplishments in space exploration, but I have since grown to respect his humility and passion for teaching. Engineering and physics are both relevant to understanding the universe beyond Earth, and the combination provides answers to why phenomena occur and how to apply them in a useful manner. While I still love learning about space, I have also developed an interest in engineering design research and engineering education.

I was interested in the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute because of its highly personal and nontraditional approach to teaching leadership. So far, I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to improve and grow as both a leader and a person. The Institute has provided resources and opportunities to apply and practice the skills that we discussed in class. I want to continue collaborating and learning from other members and cultivating skills needed for success in the workplace.

Outside of the Institute, I’m a member of Engineers Without Borders, Society of Women Engineers, and Theta Tau. I am currently a part of EWB’s Rwanda Sanitation project, which focuses on improving the general waste system and latrines at a school. It has been incredibly rewarding to make progress towards solving global issues using my engineering skills. I am also a tutor at Rinella Learning Center, and it has been fulfilling to help students set and achieve their learning goals and feel successful.