Marissa Mayer, the much talked about new CEO of Yahoo!, is in the press again. This time it is not about going back to work within two weeks of having given birth to her son in October 2012 (working mothers went to town on Marissa’s decision on receiving this news!). It’s all about removing a policy that has become synonymous with working in the technology field which is working from home. Last month she sent an internal memo to staff stating that employees who regularly work from home must now come into the office or quit. Well, now everyone went to town on Marissa’s decision including Richard Branson who wrote a post titled “Give People The Freedom of Where To Work”. In his view, Marissa’s decision was a “backward step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever.”

This is a rather surprising statement coming from someone as successful as Branson. He of all people would know the difficulty of instituting a culture change in an organization that is assailed by the twin misfortunes of dwindling sales and diminishing innovation. One cannot rally one’s troops to a cause via text message, email or Skype (unless of course one is in Kamiti Prison regularly planning kidnappings, extortion and all manner of vices that have gone electronic!)

In July last year, I wrote about the exciting appointment of Marissa to the CEO of Yahoo role. Marissa was a vice president and the first female engineer at Google credited with leading the development of Gmail, Google Maps and the Google search engine. Business Insider reported that the Yahoo board hired her for three reasons: Her product focus and focus on the user experience, secondly: her mentoring talent – Marissa created a program at Google to train product managers on executive leadership which saw a number of those employees leave to head up other internet companies and, thirdly: the board believed that she would be able to recruit very well and re-stock Yahoo with talent. All this because Yahoo was dancing on the precipice of irrelevance in a very dynamic technology industry.

First off, it is incredibly difficult to create a culture change virtually. Institutional culture is formed from behaviours that arise from the human being’s social nature. How those humans socialize in an organization – be it formally, informally, dysfunctionally or marvelously – will form the basis of the organization’s culture. A good example would be Organization X where the managers would never interact with subordinates other than in their offices where subordinates would regularly be “summoned” for a royal dressing down. When a new senior manager tried to introduce a common area for staff to have morning coffee and lunch, the policy was met with stiff resistance from the managers who felt that fraternizing with the subordinates would demystify their demi-god status and equalize them in a manner that was quite distasteful. Assuming that the same managers and subordinates were allowed to work from home, the whole issue of “hallowed offices” would never arise, dressing down sessions would occur in the privacy of a Skype conference call and there would simply be no physical corridors of power within which managers would swagger. That is the positive part of a bad culture being dissipated through remote working. The flip side of this example is that if a new culture of innovation was being introduced, the opportunities for bumping into each other on a corridor or shooting the breeze over lunch in the office canteen while randomly exchanging ideas would not exist. And this is primarily why Marissa’s memo said: “Being in Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.”
Listen, I’m all about giving staff the opportunity to find a flexible way to work that is convenient to both the employer and the employee. Remote working reduces the physical amount of space that an organization has to provide in order to get its mandate done while increasing staff productivity for those who find that they are at their best outside of the 8 a.m. -5 p.m. constrictive time slots.

As Branson says, if you provide the right technology to keep in touch, maintain regular communication and get the right balance between remote and office working, people will be motivated to work responsibly, quickly and with high quality. But Branson is not the CEO of a company in deep trouble. He’s not the commanding officer of an army unit that is in six different locations and needs to go to battle tomorrow across the river in front of him.

Marissa is not trying to take away work privileges. She is trying to rally the troops together, get the talent in one room singing off the same hymn sheet and building much needed momentum on a train with wagons on different tracks. Proponents against remote working will rub their hands in glee at the precedent that is being set here, “You see, Yahoo tried it and failed, so why should we?”

It would be useful to remember the context within which Yahoo is making this extremely painful decision which is very likely to cost them good employees. They must bring the best brains together under one roof largely to jump start the innovation that is required to rescue the company. This will be a critical leadership test for Marissa, as the board that hired her for her ability to attract and retain talent will not take the exit of talented employees lightly. This will also be a critical test of confidence for the board. Will they stand behind her decision that, on the face of it, will cause significant upheaval in a struggling company? Only time will tell and in the technology field, a year is a lifetime.

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka