Editor’s note from Maya: I met Dr. Helena Pleinert through the Future of Work Alliance earlier this month, and her practitioner-researcher background made an impression. Her firm, Pleinert & Partner, has been operating as a fully remote consultancy since 2006, almost two decades ahead of when the rest of the working world had to figure it out under lockdown conditions. She holds a PhD from ETH Zurich and is currently launching a research project that I think is unusually well-aimed: not “does remote work work?” (that question is settled), but the more useful one underneath, namely, which factors actually strengthen collaboration, innovation, trust, and connection when presence is no longer tied to location. If you run, or sit on the leadership team of, a remote-first organisation, you are exactly the kind of contributor she is looking for, and the time commitment is small. Helena’s words follow below. The contact details at the end are hers; do reach out to her directly. – M.

Call for Industry Partners for a Research Project

Are you a remote organization wishing to

  • Build an even stronger, mature and vibrant remote culture further boosting engagement, high performance, talent attraction and talent retention?
  • Contribute to advancing our understanding of remote work and thereby support its role as a force for good for individuals, businesses, society and the environment?

We at Pleinert & Partner have been a remote organization since 2006. We help organizations push the envelope in organizational design innovation and build competitive advantage through boundaryless collaboration.

Building on our validated HyWork® model, this project explores a key question: Which factors strengthen collaboration, innovation, build trust, and create a strong sense of connection and thereby improve performance, when presence is no longer tied to location?

What Industry Partners contribute

The required time commitment is modest and can be adapted to your organization’s preferences:

  • Participation in interviews with selected decision makers and/or team members (minimum: one 45-minute interview)
  • Optionally, the opportunity for an embedded researcher to observe collaboration practices for two to three half-days

What Industry Partners receive

  • Free access to research findings and practical insights before publication
  • A voucher for up to five hours of customized analysis by Pleinert & Partner addressing specific questions related to optimizing remote work for competitive advantage
  • If desired, visibility as an industry partner through mentions in Pleinert & Partner LinkedIn communications and other marketing activities

If you are interested in participating or would like to learn more, we would be delighted to start a conversation.

Contact: Dr. Helena Pleinert, Managing Partner, [email protected]

About Dr. Helena Pleinert

Dr. Helena Pleinert is the founder and CEO of Pleinert & Partner, a New Work and Organization consultancy that has operated as a fully remote company since 2006. Her work bridges practitioner experience with research, focused on hybrid and remote work strategy, the psychology of distributed work, and leadership in non-pyramidal organisations. She holds a PhD from ETH Zurich and a Master’s in Physics Engineering from TU Vienna, and hosts the New Work and Organization Podcast.

Connect with Helena on LinkedIn or via her firm at pleinertpartner.com.

Why we’re sharing this

Genuine peer-reviewed research on what actually strengthens distributed working is rarer than it should be, and the gap between what the lifestyle-content end of the remote-work conversation says and what serious research is finding has been growing wider for years. Helena’s project is a chance to contribute to the latter side of that gap, with a time commitment small enough that any seriously-remote organisation can find it.

If this is you, write to her directly. She is straightforward to talk to and the conversation does not commit you to anything.