My name is Nagai, and I work at the Suo-Oshima Satellite (temporary office currently in preparation).
I'm writing this article while waiting at Haneda Airport on my way back from a business trip to Tokyo. Unlike Tokyo, where there were many cold days due to abnormal weather, the scorching hot summer of Suo-Oshima has ended, and the background music of Suo-Oshima has changed from the sounds of cicadas to the sounds of many autumn insects, including bell crickets.
During the summer, when preparing for a business trip to Tokyo, it was enough to wear short sleeves for the number of days I would be there, but in this season when it is impossible to predict whether it will be cold or hot, I am now traveling with nearly twice as much luggage as in summer, wearing short sleeves for the number of days + long sleeves for the number of days. In this season, I would like to report on how I am dealing with "the work that has changed since I left Tokyo" and "the work that remains the same even when I am far away."
Work that can continue unchanged even after moving to Suo-Oshima
I work from the Suo-Oshima satellite office for most of the month, and have several regular meetings per week with Yoyogi and other locations.
- Yoyogi: Design department, creative department, BtoB corporate site business meetings, etc.
- Thailand: Meeting with the local manager of our subsidiary Monosus Thailand
- Kamiyama: Meeting with the local person in charge of the educational project in Kamiyama Town
Regarding work in each department, we mainly check each other's status, share issues, consider ways to improve, and check progress. In addition, when a problem occurs, we may consult or discuss how to solve it.
Our daily work is carried out mainly through text information, such as email, chat tools, and the occasional phone call, but at Monosus we still have many face-to-face meetings. In these cases, an online video conferencing system is useful.
In meetings that focus on reporting, communicating, and consulting on specific matters, even if you are talking over a screen from a distance, you can achieve the same effect as if you were sitting around the same table. Since you can nod and confirm by facial expression that you understand, you can convey more than just text information or voice, and I think that by exchanging opinions with each other, you can often reach a solution or conclusion on the spot.
I really feel the convenience of now having the technology to access video conferencing for just the cost of the computer and internet charges I normally use for work.
The joint meeting between Yoyogi (foreground) and Suo-Oshima (back screen) proceeds as if they are sitting around the same table.
Also, part of my job as an executive is to check the accounting situation, make monthly bank transfers, and check the financial situation. Some of the practical work is shared with members of Yoyogi and the accounting firm, but I also handle the final transfer approval work and consider cash flow and budgets based on the collected data.
I feel that this is also a location-independent way of working that has been made possible thanks to the technological environment of online banking, which allows employees to use almost the same functions as at a bank counter without having to go to the bank, and web applications that allow employees to check sales information across Tokyo and Osaka in real time.
This is a job that can only be done by going to Tokyo.
On the other hand, I still travel to Tokyo on business trips once or twice a month for a total of about five to seven days.
There, we hold meetings with executives and department heads to talk about the kind of organization we want to become in a few months to six months, or sometimes even a year or several years from now.We also hold meetings to explore ways in which we can make the organization better than it is now, even if these issues are not yet so obvious as to be considered problems.
Sometimes these meetings produce concrete results, and other times they don't produce any particular conclusions. However, we see these meetings as necessary to ensure that we make new discoveries and confirm each other's thoughts through casual conversations like, "Oh, by the way, the other day..." and to eliminate any inconsistencies in our daily work and judgments.
I think that the aforementioned reporting, communication, and problem-solving meetings can be held over a screen without any problems, but for some reason, I feel that at the moment it is difficult to hold meetings where everyone can synchronize their thoughts and align their visions by sharing the same space through video conferencing.
Perhaps in the future, if we go one step further than videoconferencing and use holography, like in Star Wars, to increase the sense of realism in meetings, will this sensation gradually change again?
As a side note, one of the things I secretly look forward to whenever I go to Tokyo is Monosus' " Buddy Lunch " system, a new initiative that started this year in which two randomly selected people go to lunch together.
Although it's called a buddy "lunch," depending on the timing and the person, it can turn into an evening lunch (?!). With one-on-one time, you can talk about various things with someone you've never met before, which helps you to deepen your understanding of each other.
With 70 members, there are some departments that we don't have direct contact with at work, and some people that we've never spoken to more than a greeting. Even if we talk about everyday things at work, we may see a different side of each other, such as talking about private matters or things we like. By having a thorough conversation like this, we can close the gap and it becomes easier to talk at work, and even if we have different opinions at work, we feel like we can trust each other more.
Buddy lunches like this one, where the purpose is communication itself, are difficult when you're far away. Once, half jokingly, we talked about having a joint drinking party with Yoyogi and Suo-Oshima (I was the only one there!) at a company social gathering, where we had people spread out their laptops at a restaurant... but just imagining it sounded boring, so we gave up (laughs).
What you can do only if you come to Suo-Oshima
It has been about six months since I left Tokyo and came to Suo-Oshima.
Here too, my daily work has settled down to a point where it has become quite routine. If the first step is to be able to do the things I was able to do in Tokyo without any inconvenience, then I would like to add to that the things I can do because I am far away.
The view from Mt. Shiraki, the fourth highest point on Suo-Oshima (probably). With a nearly 360-degree view, you can see not only the many islands of the Seto Inland Sea and Honshu, but also as far as Shikoku.
The first step is to think again and consciously about things that are so commonplace in Tokyo that people don't really think much about them.
For example, working overtime late into the night or staying up all night seems even more unnatural in this environment than it does in Tokyo. We need to think seriously about how we can further reduce these things across the company.
In addition, I have fewer opportunities to talk with customers and partner companies in the same web industry, and in Suo-Oshima I have more opportunities to talk with people from different industries, generations, and backgrounds, which has completely changed the type of information I receive. In order to grow in the future society and become a person and organization that is needed, what path do I actually choose and what do I need to learn?
We are not yet at the point where we can say that we have achieved results that are only possible because we are on Suo-Oshima, but we would like to continue to take these steps steadily and firmly.