COVID-19 Work Compliance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I suddenly changed my stance for my team to work in the office, from being in office most of the time

After reading the start of L. David Marquet’s book: Leadership is Language and looking back at how the team acted when I gave them an order to work from home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realize as a leader, I failed them and myself.

Why?

I realize that the team members were so good at complying with previous orders (of working in the office), that when there was new information to work from home such as: a direct order or looming evidence of a pandemic, they did not change their behavior.

The team I built is compliant.

This is great if I want a team to just execute and for me to do all the thinking - where we worked in the Industrial Age. I would do all the thinking and they would just execute.

This type of team would be fine if we were in the Industrial Age or even doing work from that era.

Alas, we were neither and that is where I believe I failed. I want my team to think.